Interpretive media has been our passion for 50 years! Learn all about HFC in our new HFC Guide and check out our storymap.
We'll celebrate all year with online events and memories from the past. Subscribe to our social media feeds and check out our official HFC50th page to get all the details.
The Center for Interpretive Media
- 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.

National Park Posters by Charley Harper
Explore these iconic posters of life and landscapes in national parks and the artist who created them.

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

Accessibility
Our products and guidance ensure an accessible park experience.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

NPS Graphic Identity and Style Guides
Learn how Harpers Ferry Center is guided by the principles of clarity, simplicity, and nonbiased language.

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.