Author: Charles J. Herr

Charles J. Herr collaborated with principal author Orville O. Hiestand on See America First, an early twentieth-century travel book encouraging Americans to explore landscapes within the United States. Its chapters move through mountains, parks, cities, and scenic routes, treating travel as an education in national geography. The title echoes the organized See America First movement, which promoted domestic touring before federal park publicity was fully established. Hiestand receives the principal author credit, while Herr is named as collaborator; the dedication also thanks Mr. and Mrs. Herr for their enthusiasm for American scenery. Herr therefore helped shape the volume alongside Hiestand but did not hold sole authorship. The book belongs to a period when rail travel, illustrated lectures, civic promotion, and conservation were making western scenery a widely shared subject. Its mixture of itinerary, description, and advocacy presents national travel as both recreation and civic discovery.