What We Do

The National Park Service preserves and protects historic places across the United States and tells the stories of the people who helped shape our country. Within the National Park Service, many people work in historic preservation: archeologists, architects, curators, historians, landscape architects, and other cultural resource professionals.

The National Park Service carries out historic preservation both inside and outside the National Park System:

• Designation of historic sites including those on the National Register of Historic Places
• Written, photographic, and technical documentation as well as oral histories
• Physical preservation such as stabilization, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction
• Preservation of thousands of objects in museum collections across the country