Digital Resources
Explore our historic resources using our digitized research materials. We will add research materials as they become available. For information about non-digital research, please see our Collections page.
Historic Newspapers
Explore the history of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park by searching newspaper abstracts! Browse this document to read newspaper abstracts collected by park historians. Full versions of some newspapers are now available through the West Virginia Geoexplorer Project website. Newspapers in the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park microfilm collection were digitized thanks to a grant from the Harpers Ferry Historical Association.
You may also want to look at our Historic Newspaper Abstracts document (PDF - 2171 pages, 11.2MB).
How to use the newspaper abstract document: This information is in a text-searchable pdf file. The data was extracted from an old research database, and abstracts are arranged chronologically. The document contains some notes from park historians who collected the data. Alternate spellings of common terms are listed first. Each abstract begins with the source information in this format: |pub: Name of newspaper |date: Year.month day |locator: P= page in newspaper and C= column on page.
History Reports
Explore text-searchable historic studies to learn about Harpers Ferry history.
- Lower Town, Harpers Ferry Cultural Landscape Report (PDF - 358 pages, 58.6MB) This detailed study includes a landscape history of the historic commercial district of Harpers Ferry. Maps included in the report show how the Lower Town developed from 1750 to 1993.
- National Park Service History e-Library - The National Park Service's History e-Library contains thousands of electronic publications covering the history of the National Park Service and the units comprising the National Park System. We invite you to learn more about history and how the National Park Service works to preserve it. Use this site to search for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park studies and images.
Historic Photographs
Our previous, online database of historic images has become obsolete. We are working toward creating a set of images that will be accessible on this website.
Copyright information: The data in our research files was collected by the National Park Service, and is intended to be used for research purposes only. Use of any part of these documents will be noncommercial and will be limited to non-infringing or fair use under copyright law.
Please email the Museum Management Program with questions related to these resources.