The Administrative History Program works with national parks and programs to provide guidance for and reviews of new administrative histories or updates to existing administrative histories.
What are Administrative Histories?
National Park Service (NPS) Administrative Histories document the administrative and legislative history of individual parks, programs, service-wide events, and functions of the NPS. The histories explain how they originated, evolved, and have been managed.
Park Units
Park administrative histories are one of several broad baseline research reports that the NPS recommends for each park. The reports explain how a park was conceived and established and how it’s been administered up to the date when the history was written. Administrative histories focus on the history of a park as a park, to include the history of park programs and activities. Emphasis is placed on a park's legislative history as well as important issues in planning, land acquisition, public relations, and other topics of ongoing management concern.
National Park Service
Administrative histories of the NPS document and analyze important aspects of its history as a federal agency. They look at the establishment and administration of service-wide programs, functions, and policies. They can also explore service-wide events or developments and changes within the NPS over the course of its history.
Other History Studies
For studies that contain historical overviews of parks or regions combined with cultural resource inventories see: Historic Resource Studies. For studies that focus solely on the specific history of a topic, theme, or resource see: Special History Studies.
Why write Administrative Histories?
The histories are an important document for current NPS managers and staff. They provides information about why and how certain management decisions were made and how specific programs, practices, and policies evolved over time. By learning more about issues their predecessors faced, management and staff are better able to deal with current issues and to make informed policy and program decisions.
Administrative histories are also an important source of background information for park programs such as planning, preservation, facility maintenance, resource management, and compliance. In addition, they're a rich source of information for park interpretive, educational, and museum staff as they prepare their programs and exhibits.
Guide
The Park History Program has a guide for anyone interested in writing an administrative history for their park or park program. The guide focuses on the National Park Service, but it's also a good general source of information for how to research and write any park's administrative history.
To see Administrative Histories that are available online, click on one of the bars below.
- To read an administrative history, click on its Title. This will take you to the NPS IRMA Data Repository where you can read the document's citation and open its digital file.
Source: Data Store Collection 9156. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.
Source: Data Store Collection 9157. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.
Last updated: April 12, 2024