Collections Storage

Millions of artifacts, specimens, and documentary materials contribute to the museum collections that the National Park Service preserves and protects. However, only a small percentage of these diverse resources can be displayed at any one time onsite at a park. For museum collections currently not on exhibit, the Museum Resource Center provides safe, secure, and environmentally stable storage for parks across the Region 1- National Capital Area in Washington, D.C., and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Categories and disciplines of museum collections stored the Museum Resource Center include:

Cultural Collections

• Archeology
• Ethnology
• History

Natural History Collections

• Biology
• Geology
• Paleontology

Archival Collections

The Museum Resource Center is not open to the public. Access to collections and services is available by appointment only.
Browse museum collections via the National Park Service Web Catalog or learn more about specific museum collection items by contacting a park curator through the Park & Site Collections page. Submit general questions for the Museum Resource Center through the Contact Us page.

Copyright & Restrictions

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The various state privacy acts govern the use of materials that document private individuals, groups, and corporations. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group, or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include:

• non-commercial and non-profit study, scholarship, or research, or teaching
• criticism, commentary, or news reporting
• as a NPS preservation or security copy
• as a research copy for deposit in another institution

If a user later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the user may be personally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement. This institution's permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital, or other copy of a document doesn't indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute, or prepare derivative works from this document without first obtaining permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group, or corporation shown or otherwise recorded.

Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell, or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained by the user separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups, or corporations whose name, image, recorded words, or private information (e.g., employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright isn't necessarily the National Park Service. The National Park Service is not legally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use."

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy or publicity law.