National Park Service History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services

The National Park Service (NPS) is more than the sum of its parks. It's an idea and an ideal, a mission and a model for the world. The NPS History Collection encompass the breadth and depth of the Park Service, preserving and sharing the history of the bureau's policies, resource management practices, programs, challenges, successes, and milestones.

Former NPS Director George B. Hartzog Jr. established the NPS History Collection at Harpers Ferry Center as the bureau history collection to help NPS staff and the public understand our administrative history. He believed that we must understand the past to make good decisions for park resources today and in the future. Use the resources below to explore some of the 3.5 million documents and objects in NPS History Collection, get to know the people who managed and protected the National Park System, and learn more about a century of service for America's national parks.