Photo Restrictions in the Parks

03Oct19

Any time you go on a tour of a historical house at a National Park Service site, there’s a good chance you will be able to take photos inside the home.

And there’s just as good of a chance you won’t be able to snap even a quick selfie on your phone.

I ran across this dilemma several times on my recent trip back East where I visited historical home after historical home.

No, for photos inside Glenmont, the estate of Thomas Edison at the Edison National Historical Park.

Yes, you can take photos of the interior of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home. Ditto at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historical Site.

But you couldn’t even carry a camera into the house of Eleanor’s uncle Teddy at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

And the list goes on and on. Bill Clinton, yes. Harry Truman, no. Lyndon Johnson birthplace, yes. Lyndon Johnson ranch, no. George Washington’s birthplace, no.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why sometimes and other times no. At the Edison National Historical Park while I couldn’t take photos you could bring in camera bags and backpacks. At Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, the park ranger was adamant that only small purses were allowed inside and if he saw you taking a selfie or a quick shot on your camera, then you would be escorted out of the house.

When I asked the park ranger at the Edison park about the policy, she got a little defensive. The fact that I was writing down her response in a reporter’s notebook may have been the case – fake news you know. But I assured her I was only blogging about this and no one reads the blog anyway so what did it matter if I quoted her?

So I’m paraphrasing here when she said the artifacts in the Edison house were priceless so they didn’t want people snapping selfies of themselves inside. There is a second unit at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park where you can take photos of the multitude of artifacts on display, so I really don’t think that’s the reason.

I got pretty much the same response at Sagamore Hill where the ranger there added people snapping away was delaying the timed tours of Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island home. Plus the hallways were really narrow and such photography was a risk to the artifacts.

Still it’s disappointing for me not to take photos inside these homes, if nothing else so I can remember what these fascinating rooms look like. I would love to have a shot of Theodore Roosevelt’s “man cave” or some of the really cool artifacts in the Edison home or even the distinctively ‘50s kitchen of the Truman Home.

I guess I’ll just have to make due with the homes of Franklin and Eleanor, Bill Clinton’s childhood home and Lyndon Johnson’s birthplace.

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