NPS History Collection
Tour Description The museum storage area is a 2,100 square
foot (54 x 38 feet) climate-controlled storage space that includes documents, photographs,
works of art, oral histories, the NPS uniform collection, and other historical objects related
to the history of the National Park Service. The room is rectilinear and windowless, with
gray concrete floors, blank white walls, a 10-foot ceiling, and fluorescent lighting.
It s a room clearly meant for storage and preservation of objects not for display like
a museum. The room is ringed with metal storage cabinets of different sizes. In the center
of the room are rows of shelving containing labeled boxes and four cabinets with pull-out
drawers with glass tops. Most everything is stored inside cabinets and boxes to keep it
secure and protect it from light, pests, and rapid changes in temperature or relative humidity.
The exceptions are dressed mannequins and a few other visible items. Uniforms, hats,
and shoes can be seen through some of the cabinets glass doors. The tour interface allows
users to click on many hotspots that allow users to virtually open drawers or see what's
inside cabinets. The hotspots expand to reveal a photo and information about each
object. Photo description and text for those items are in the tour transcript available
below this video link.
Entrance Upon entering two large steel doors, a 9-foot
long display shelf immediately to the right displays five mannequins dressed in different
women s ranger uniforms. Three are variations of the traditional green and gray uniforms.
The fourth is a tan dress with a tan cardigan jacket. The last one is a dark green polyester
dress. Above and below the mannequins are several round cardboard Stetson hat boxes.
Behind this is another 9-foot-long shelving unit housing larger objects including a map
maker's drafting tool and old film projectors. A park police horse pad and two saddles rest
on a tall saddle tree. Other large objects are covered with sheets.
To your left are several large square metal cabinets that include silk-screen posters,
uniform accessories, and other smaller objects.
Walking past the women's uniforms on the right is a 20-foot-long perpendicular rack with
dozens of unforms in garment bags hanging in two rows. Three additional 20-foot-long
x 7-foot-tall shelves and four-foot aisles house hundreds of storage boxes of all shapes
and sizes. These contain thousands of NPS records and photographs. Capping the ends
of the clothes rack and shelves facing you are mannequin torsos with the standard green
and gray uniforms beginning in 1932. A yellow firefighter's uniform is on the last shelving unit.
Opposite these shelves on your left is a blue cabinet open to show shelves of over 30 hats.
A full mannequin wearing a complete swift water rescue dive suit stands just beyond
this cabinet. Still on the left, just passed the mannequin, is a tall gun safe storing
pistols and rifles dating back to the 1920s.
As you continue to the end of the room on the left, there is a 15-foot-long shelf containing
deep long flat storage boxes. On the right, past the rows of shelves are additional tall
metal cabinets including 24 flat file drawers that pull open to reveal uniforms worn by
men and women, directors' uniforms, US Park Police uniforms, and special uniforms such
as those worn by lifeguards and the National Park of American Samoa. A smaller cabinet
with pull-out drawers contains the badge collection.
In total, the collection contains over 3.7 million archival documents, but they are not
all stored in this room. About 10,000 objects including uniforms, accessories and other
significant historical items are housed here.
End tour