Inspiring Visitors through Interpretive Media

At the Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services, we are committed to enhancing visitor experiences through the use of relevant, compelling media. By offering products and services that reach across disciplines, we help parks shape visitors’ experiences from the moment they choose to visit.  

For more than 50 years, we have delivered high-quality media that:  

  • Is designed by leading experts  
  • Features innovative solutions  
  • Aligns with the NPS brand and vision  
  • Integrates accessibility from the very beginning  
  • Offers scalable solutions  

 

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Duration:
1 minute, 33 seconds

It has been 50 years since the National Park Service made the profound and visionary decision to place all media-related functions and personnel together under one roof. Since 1970, the Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services (HFC) has helped create a deeper meaning and connection to our nation’s treasured stories and lands. The vision, then and now, is to produce excellence.

A woman in a white lab coat cleans a museum object
COVID 19 Exhibitry Cleaning Guidance

COVID-19 GUIDANCE on cleaning, disinfecting, and re-opening exhibit spaces to the public

Accessibility
Accessibility

Our products and guidance ensure an accessible park experience.

Audiovisual Programs and Equipment
Audiovisual Programs and Equipment

Voices from the past can speak, inaccessible peaks can be climbed, and complex processes can be revealed through this powerful medium.

Cartography
Cartography

Standard map formats help to establish a uniform identity for National Park Service brochures.

Digital Media
Digital Media

Websites, Apps, Social Media. We embrace today’s technologies to give our visitors, info they want, where, when, and how they want it.

parlor with exhibits
Exhibits

Exhibits offer multi-media experiences that use diverse techniques to interpret park resources, teach concepts, and stimulate interest.

HFC Commissioned Art Collection
HFC Commissioned Art Collection

The collection contains more than 11,000 pieces of art bought by HFC for park brochures, exhibits, films, posters, and publications.

Cannons in a line pointing at a tree line
Interpretive Planning

Interpretive planning includes visitor experiences in parks, like interpretation, orientation, education, safety, and resource protection.

Museum Conservation
Museum Conservation

HFC’s conservators provide professional conservation services for NPS museum collections from parks across the U.S. and its territories.

NPS History Collection
NPS History Collection

The collection preserves and shares the overarching Service-wide stories of the history, culture, and management of the NPS.

Publications
Publications

The most traditional and low-tech of the various media, publications remain a core element in a park’s interpretive program.

Signs
Signs

As a frequently used means of communication, signs welcome visitors, identify landmarks, provide direction, and warn of potential dangers.

Wayside sign in front of blue lake and crater ridge line
Waysides

Wayside exhibits as captioning the scenery and provide site specific interpretation of historic, cultural, and natural landscapes.

NPS Arrowhead
NPS Graphic Identity and Style Guides

Learn how Harpers Ferry Center is guided by the principles of clarity, simplicity, and nonbiased language.

Cover at HFC Brochure
Download the HFC Guide

Download the 27-page guide to HFC. Learn about our mission, history, services, how to work with HFC, and even tips for project success.

Last updated: December 8, 2023