Harpers Ferry Center

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Harpers Ferry Center
National Park Service Interpretive Design Center, NPS Harpers Ferry Center 2.jpg
The Interpretive Design Center building on Camp Hill in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Agency overview
FormedMarch 1970 [1] [2]
Jurisdiction Federal government of the United States
Headquarters Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, U.S. [3]
Parent agency National Park Service
Website www.nps.gov/subjects/hfc/

Harpers Ferry Center (HFC) is a National Park Service (NPS) service center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that provides interpretive media and related services to units of the National Park System. [3] Its work includes producing and supporting exhibits, publications (including park brochures), films and audiovisual programs, mobile and digital products, interpretive plans, signs, and wayside exhibits, and providing museum conservation services and technical assistance for media projects. [3] [1] HFC is also home to the NPS History Collection and the HFC Commissioned Art Collection. [3]

Contents

History

In the 1960s the NPS reorganized interpretive functions—including publications, audiovisual programs, and museums—within a consolidated program of interpretation and visitor services, a change associated with Director George B. Hartzog Jr. and interpretation chief William C. Everhart. [4] Planning for a centralized interpretive media center at Harpers Ferry led to the construction of the Interpretive Design Center (IDC) on Camp Hill in Harpers Ferry; the facility was designed by architect Ulrich Franzen and built in 1969, with operations beginning in March 1970. [2] [1]

The center's location is within the boundaries of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, on the former campus area of Storer College. The NPS acquired and reused multiple Storer College buildings for administrative and program purposes following the school's closure; surviving structures on the campus include buildings documented in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) as NPS properties associated with the Harpers Ferry Center. [5]

Functions

HFC provides interpretive media services to parks across the NPS, including project consultation, planning, design and production support, and technical standards for media and visitor information systems. [3] [1]

Interpretive planning and project support

HFC supports interpretive planning as a strategic process for defining interpretation and education goals, visitor experience recommendations, and accessibility considerations for parks, and it provides project management and technical assistance for media development. [3] [1]

Media products

HFC's work includes, among other products and services:

Museum conservation

HFC provides conservation services for NPS museum collections, including treatments, assessments, exhibit guidance, emergency response, and training, and it describes its conservation program as the largest within the NPS. [1]

Collections

NPS History Collection

The NPS History Collection at HFC includes archival materials documenting the agency's history, management, and culture, including millions of documents and objects, photographic images, and oral-history interviews; the collection is available for research by appointment. [1]

HFC Commissioned Art Collection

The HFC Commissioned Art Collection contains more than 11,000 pieces of artwork produced or acquired for interpretive media projects; it is maintained as both a physical and digital collection and is available for research by appointment. [1]

Facilities and architecture

The center's principal facility is the Interpretive Design Center building on Camp Hill in Harpers Ferry. The building was designed by architect Ulrich Franzen, with design completed in 1967 and construction beginning in 1968; the facility was completed in late 1969 and occupied for NPS interpretive media functions in March 1970. [2] Renovation and preservation work on the building has been discussed in the context of mid-century NPS facilities associated with Mission 66. [2]

Images

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services (brochure)" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dessauer, Peter (19 April 2018). "Renovation of Harpers Ferry Interpretive Design Center". Docomomo US. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "What We Do". National Park Service. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  4. ↑ Everhart, William C. "The Origins of the Interpretive Design Center, With Comments on the Progress of Interpretation, 1964–1970" (PDF). NPS History (National Park Service). Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  5. ↑ "Cook Hall (HABS No. WV-187-A)". Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  6. ↑ "File:Double V Campaign Exhibit.jpg". Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  7. ↑ "File:Visitors listening to a NPS ranger at wayside exhibit in Arches National Monument..." Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
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