Last updated: December 1, 2025
Article
Guide to the George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers
This finding aid describes the George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.
Collection Overview
Collection Number: HFCA 1645 (Series I.A.7)Creator: Hartzog, George B., Jr. (1920-2008)
Title: George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers
Dates: 1945-1989
Extent: 3.25 LF
Language of Materials: English
Digitized Copies: This collection has not been digitized.
Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open to research use.
Conditions Governing Use and Reproduction: See the NPS general copyright & restrictions information.
Provenance: One box of budget-related material was donated by George B. Hartzog, Jr. in 1973. The remaining material was assembled by former NPS History Collection staff from a variety of NPS sources.
Processing Note: This material was processed by Emily L. Richardson in 2017. Some materials were previously processed by History Associates, Incorporated. The finding aid was updated for the internet by Eleanore Kohorn in November 2025.
Rights Statements for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1645)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
Related Materials:
- George B. and Helen C. Hartzog Papers (HFCA 2442), NPS History Collection
- Assembled Historic Records of the National Park Service (HFCA 1645), NPS History Collection
- National Park Service Oral History Collection (HFCA 1817), NPS History Collection
- Records of NPS Directors, National Archives and Records Administration (RG 79.3.2)
- George B. Hartzog, Jr. Papers, Clemson University Libraries Special Collections (Mss.0074)
- George B. Hartzog, Jr.’s uniform, uniform accessories, and other objects are in the NPS History Collection.
Biographical Note
George B. Hartzog, Jr. was born in Smoaks, Colleton County, South Carolina, on March 17, 1920. At the age of 17, he became the youngest Methodist preacher appointed by the church at that time. After one semester of college, he left school to help support his family but read law and was admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1942. In 1945, Hartzog became an attorney for the General Land Office (now the Bureau of Land Management) in the Department of the Interior, and six months later transferred to the National Park Service (NPS). While in Washington, DC, Hartzog took night courses at American University, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1953.
Named superintendent of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1959, he left the NPS in 1962 to become executive director of Downtown St. Louis, Inc. In 1963, Hartzog returned to the NPS as associate director and became the seventh director of the NPS in 1964, succeeding the retiring Conrad Wirth. During his tenure, Hartzog accomplished much toward three major goals as director: to expand the system to save important areas before they were lost, to make the system relevant to an urban society, and to open positions to people who had not previously had much access to them (especially minorities and women).
Under his directorship, 69 areas were added to the NPS. In 1968 he appointed Grant Wright to head the US Park Police, the first black man to head a major police force in the United States. He also selected several women to be park superintendents, including Lorraine Mintzmyer at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. The first major urban recreation areas, Gateway (New York) and Golden Gate (San Francisco) national recreation areas, were acquired in 1972. The "Summer in the Parks" urban program was started at Richmond National Battlefield Park and in Washington, DC, and environmental education and living history interpretation was advanced.
Hartzog operated in the style of first NPS Director Stephen Mather in gaining the cooperation of members of Congress. He was instrumental in getting congressional approval for the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, allowing 80 million acres of Alaska wildlands to be withdrawn for new national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness. Former Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall said that Hartzog, "was a consummate negotiator, he enjoyed entering political thickets; he had the self-confidence and savvy to be his own lobbyist and to win most of his arguments with members of Congress, governors and presidents." In 1972 Hartzog was forced out of office after the NPS revoked a special use permit allowing President Richard M. Nixon's friend, Bebe Rebozo, to dock his houseboat at Biscayne National Monument (now Biscayne National Park) in Florida.
Upon leaving the NPS, Hartzog served as director of the White House Historical Association from 1973-1998. In 1988, Clemson University awarded Hartzog an honorary doctorate of humanities degree. Hartzog also practiced law in Washington, DC until his death in Northern Virginia in 2008, at the age of 88. He and his wife, Helen, had three children: twins George and Nancy, and Edward. Hartzog was awarded the Department of Interior's Distinguished Service Award in 1962. He was profiled by John McPhee in The New Yorker magazine in 1971 and wrote an autobiography, Battling for The National Parks, in 1988.
Sources:
Cahn, Robert. (1990). “George B. Hartzog, Jr., 1920-Present.” The National Park Service: The First 75 Years. Eastern National Parks and Monuments Association.
Scope and Content Note
Biographical information, newspaper clippings, press releases, office policies, manuals, correspondence and memos, reports, and ephemera from Director George B. Hartzog Jr’s career in the NPS (1959-1972). Reel-to-reel and audiocassette recordings of speeches given by Hartzog and other NPS staff are also present.
Arrangement
Organized into two series, as follows:
Series I: Working Files, 1945-1989
Series II: Audiovisual Materials, 1963-1968, undated
Series I: Working Files, 1945-1989
Extent of series: 2.25 LF
Scope and Content Note
Biographical information, newspaper clippings, press releases, office policies, manuals, correspondence and memos, reports, and ephemera. Also included are workbooks and briefing books related to administrative policies and budget projections.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Container List
BOX 01
Folder 01: Awards and Diplomas, 1945
Folder 02: Biographical Records: Appointments – Jobs, 1955-1969
Folder 03: Biographical Records: Biographical Data, 1949-1975
Folder 04: Biographical Records: Clippings, 1964-1988
Folder 05: Biographical Records: Resignation, 1969-1979
Folder 06: Correspondence, 1964
Folder 07: Office and Working Files: Manuals: “Administrative Policies for Historical Areas of the NPS”, Draft, 1968
Folder 08: Office and Working Files: Manuals: “Administrative Policies for Historical Areas of the NPS”, Final, 1968
Folder 09: Office and Working Files: Manuals: “Operations Manual: Design & Construction,” 1968
Folder 10: Office and Working Files: Reports: “Economic Impact Study of Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks,” 1970
Folder 11: Office and Working Files: Reports: “Natural Resources and Environmental Needs, Objectives and Goals,” 1970
BOX 02
Folder 01: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: “Administrative Policies of the Historical Areas of the NPS,” 1968
Folder 02: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: “Administrative Policies for the National Recreation Areas…of the NPS,” 1968
Folder 03: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: “United States Department of the Interior Budget Justifications, F.Y. 1969,” 1967-1969 [1 of 2]
Folder 04: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: “United States Department of the Interior Budget Justifications, F.Y. 1969,” 1967-1969 [2 of 2]
Folder 05: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Development Programs, 1968-1970
Folder 06: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Land Acquisition Program, 1967
BOX 03
Folder 01: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Land Acquisition Program Budget Data Estimates, 1968 [1 of 2]
Folder 02: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Land Acquisition Program Budget Data Estimates, 1968 [2 of 2]
Folder 03: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Program Records, 1967-1968 [1 of 3]
Folder 04: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Program Records, 1967-1968 [2 of 3]
Folder 05: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Program Records, 1967-1968 [3 of 3]
Folder 06: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Proposed National Garden, 1966-1967
Folder 07: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Proposed Parkscape Project, 1965-1969
Folder 08: Office and Working Files: Workbooks and Briefing Books: Proposed Program Budget, FY 1970, 1968
BOX 04
Folder 01: Speeches, 1963-1964
Folder 02: Speeches, 1965-1966
Folder 03: Speeches, 1967
Folder 04: Speeches, 1968-1969
BOX 05
Folder 01: Speeches, 1970-1989
Folder 02: The Man and His Legacy Scrapbook, 1964-1973
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Series II: Audiovisuals Materials, 1963-1968, undated
Extent of the series: 1.0 LF
Scope and Content Note
Reel-to-reel and audiocassette recordings of speeches given by Hartzog and other NPS staff. Other notable people or events included on the dedication of Wirth Hall (Wirth, Beasley, McPherson); Wolf Trap Farm groundbreaking ceremony (Ladybird Johnson, Secretary Stewart Udall); and Ronald F. Lee’s talk to the Northeast Region superintendent’s conference. Topics of particular note include NPS Parkscape, Future Park Concepts, and interpretation.
Arrangement
Unarranged.
Container List
MEDIA BOX 01
George Hartzog Speech at SERO Superintendents’ Conference on Parkscape and Organization, undated
Hartzog HF Talk to Group, undated
Hartzog December 19, Couplets, undated
Hartzog and Hanelin, December 18, undated
Hartzog Interview at Yosemite Symposium on Future Park Concepts, undated
Speech by Director Hartzog at Superintendents’ Conference, October 18, 1963
Dedication of Wirth Hall, April 17, 1964
Speech by Director Hartzog at National Conference on State Parks, September 22, 1964
Hartzog Safety Copy, September 23, 1964
Talk to the Superintendents’ Conference NE Region (Via Phone), March 5, 1965 [two tapes]
Speech by Director Hartzog at Superintendents’ Conference, March 16, 1965
Director’s Speech at Yellowstone, July 22, 1965
MEDIA BOX 02
Superintendent’s Luncheon (Hartzog), September 14, 1965
Taped Comments Delivered at Great Smoky Mountains NPS Management Conference, September 14, 1965 [three tapes]
Hartzog Remarks Regarding Interpretation, October 5, 1965
Remarks by George Hartzog at 50th Anniversary Dinner of the NPS, August 25, 1966
Director George Hartzog Speaking to NPS in San Francisco, September 6, 1966
Director Hartzog Western Regional Superintendents’ Conference, 1967
Director Hartzog Press Conference, March 1, 1967
Hartzog Comments at Superintendents’ Conference, March 9, 1967 [two tapes]
Wolf Trap Farm Groundbreaking Ceremony, May 22, 1968
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