--- title: Google Doodle Pays Homage to NPS on Fourth of July description: The July 4 Google Doodle celebrates America's 241st birthday with an sketch inspired by the first director of the National Parks Service canonical: https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/ author: Rachel Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-04T14:09:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:29.457Z og:title: Google's July 4th Doodle Inspired by First Director of National Parks Service og:description: The Doodle celebrates America's 241st birthday og:url: https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5688b479f694bc96/6988d45f22fb854ed9e21d67/july-4-google-doodle.png?branch=production&width=1045&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1045 og:image:height: 588 og:image:alt: july-4-google-doodle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google's July 4th Doodle Inspired by First Director of National Parks Service twitter:description: The Doodle celebrates America's 241st birthday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5688b479f694bc96/6988d45f22fb854ed9e21d67/july-4-google-doodle.png?branch=production&width=1045&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fourth of July Google Doodle Inspired by First Director of National Parks Service ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Jul 4, 2017 2:09 PM UTC  Google by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Jul 4, 2017 2:09 PM UTC Tuesday’s [Google Doodle](http://time.com/4843436/google-doodle-wimbledon-championship-tennis/) celebrates America’s 241st birthday with a sketch inspired by the first director of the National Parks Service. The drawing features wild American animals: a bear, moose, boar and others and uses the blue background and white stars of the American flag as a backdrop for the night sky. Google said that the Doodle pays homage to conservationist [Stephen Mather](http://time.com/4445571/national-parks-portfolio/), whose birthday also happens to be today. Mather became the first director of the NPS after it was created by President [Woodrow Wilson](http://time.com/4725001/woodrow-wilson-donald-trump/) in 1916\. The 84 million acres are often hailed as “America’s Best Idea” and more than 275 million people visit every year. “Whether you know it as the Fourth of July, Independence Day, or simply America’s birthday, today’s Doodle commemorates an important day in U.S. history. 241 years ago, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, a document proclaiming freedom from Great Britain,” Google said. “However you spend this Fourth of July, we hope you’ll join us in wishing America a very happy birthday!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/"},"headline":"Fourth of July Google Doodle Inspired by First Director of National Parks Service","datePublished":"2017-07-04T14:09:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:29.457Z","description":"The drawing celebrate's America's wildest animals","url":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Google Doodle","independence day","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5688b479f694bc96/6988d45f22fb854ed9e21d67/july-4-google-doodle.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5688b479f694bc96/6988d45f22fb854ed9e21d67/july-4-google-doodle.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"july-4-google-doodle","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/","name":"Fourth of July Google Doodle Inspired by First Director of National Parks Service"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4844439/fourth-of-july-google-doodle/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```