In partnership with the National Park Service and notable journalists, scholars, and historians, HFPA has published several titles relating to Harpers Ferry and its history.
Among The Mountains: The Lovetts And Their Hill Top House
Lynn Pechuekonis
In 1890, African Americans Tom and Lavinia Lovett, opened a summer resort hotel in historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Despite operating in an era of rampant racism and social segregation, the Lovetts operated for 35 years, filling their hotel with a middle- and upper-income White clientele, mainly from the Baltimore-Washington DC metro area. The resort was renowned for its generous hospitality, first-rate restaurant, and breathtaking views of the Potomac River.
For the first time ever, read the full story of the remarkable Lovett family and their lifelong perseverance through strife, tragedy, and racial injustice. Paperback, 288 pages.
Between These Rivers
Kathleen Ernst
Two young women with drastically different life experiences struggle to navigate the Jim Crow era's turbulent waters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, 1895. Bordered by mountains and the mighty Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, the area's scenic beauty is legendary. A dark current is rippling through the town, however, and threatening to tear lives apart.
Ida Mae Parker will soon graduate from high school. Although her parents want her to become a teacher, she yearns to become a professional singer. A descendant of enslaved people, Ida Mae wants to focus on her studies and to stay away from trouble caused by the Jim Crow laws designed to keep Black people from thriving. As racial ugliness targets her own family, though, she struggles to find her place in the world.
Circumstances force Hazel Whitaker to leave her poor white family and support herself. Finding only wretched jobs, her survival becomes difficult. She longs to create a better future for herself, but her dearest dream of becoming a photographer seems impossible to achieve.
Hazel and Ida Mae have nothing in common. When fate throws them together, however, an unlikely friendship emerges. After tragedies strike, will supporting each other provide the inner strength that Ida Mae and Hazel need to stand tall for themselves? Paperback, 177 pages.
Burton Drawings at Harpers Ferry
David T. Gilbert
James Henry Burton spent ten eventful years at the Harpers Ferry Armory. During this tenure, he perfected an elongated bullet for the regulation .58-caliber rifle-musket — commonly called the Minié bullet — and helped test and perfect new lock mechanisms, barrel rifling, and machinery.
Burton’s drawings range from simple sketches used to flesh out components of operating mechanisms to dimensioned, hand-tinted drawings of firearm components and complex machinery. According to John Symington, Supt. of the Harpers Ferry Armory, Burton’s “management was so satisfactory, and his ingenuity in devising, draughting and perfecting tools and machines so marked, as to cause me at once to select him as a fit person to fill the position of Master Armorer…”
The Burton Drawings at Harpers Ferry focuses on the remarkable achievements of James H. Burton during his 10-year tenure at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Burton’s notes, sketches, and detailed drawings teach us a great deal about the emergence of 19th century drafting practice and the evolution of firearm technology during the decade preceding the civil war. Paperback, 64 pages.
Charles Washington's Town
Doug Perks
In his “Charles Town boy” voice, Jefferson County Historian Doug Perks takes you on a tour of his beloved hometown, visiting the people, places, and stories that made this place a unique station in American history.
Charles Washington’s Town (HFPA, 2025) begins with the town’s founding in 1786 by Charles Washington (yes, that George’s brother). Watch the streets be laid, and the buildings rise brick by brick. Witness those same buildings fall, move, or rise again as the town survives Civil War battles, fires, and ever-changing advancements in American technology. From the telegraph to the telephone. Horse and wagon to horseless carriage. Rural free delivery to drive-thru banking.
With over 100 historic photos, images, and maps, Charles Washington’s Town presents a well-balanced mix of history and nostalgia that celebrates Mainstreet, USA, and proves that small towns have the biggest hearts.
Paperback, 259 pages.
Civil War Years in Jefferson County, Virginia
Doug Perks
No time period in history had more impact on Jefferson County citizens than the Civil War years. Those four years saw families uprooted, homes, farms and livelihoods destroyed, and the end of six decades of arms production at Harpers Ferry. For some, the war crashed through their walls and defeaning terror. For others, it led to freedom and education. And whether by choice or not, Jefferson Countians entered the war as Virginians and left as West Virginians.
In his first book, historian P. Douglas Perks--"Mr. Jefferson County"--uses his decades of research and writing on the topic, along with rare first person accounts of four citizens who endured these tenuous years. Perks also brings new focus to the statewide issue of secession. No state in the Union was more divided over this issue, and perhaps no other county. Who would cast their lot with the destiny of Virginia and who would remain "firmly attached to the Union of these States"?
Paperback and Hardback, 158 pages.
Color Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry Park Association
Color a visit to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park with these 25 scenes hand drawn by one of the park's very own volunteer artists. Discover historic places, wildlife, amazing views, and fun facts about this national park. Purchase includes a 24-pack of crayons. Paperback, 31 pages.
Confluence Harpers Ferry As Destiny
Dennis Frye, Catherine Magi Oliver
One place. Countless stories. Harpers Ferry has long been a gathering point of the American story. From explorers and innovators to warriors and reformers, passionate souls with wildly diverse causes have flowed again and again into this tiny village, shaping the town--and, in many cases, the country.
Focusing on personal, human experiences recorded in journals, letters, and other documents, Confluence: Harpers Ferry as Destiny offers a view of Harpers Ferry history that is both sweeping and intimate. Come: Discover the national dramas that have converged at Harpers Ferry. Slavery and the quest for freedom. War, expansion, and revolution. Natural disaster upon natural disaster, and the enduring human spirit that has refused to relinquish hope.
Published in honor of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park’s 75th anniversary, Confluence also includes perspective on the rebirth of this war- and flood-ravaged town as a national park. Under the stewardship of NPS, Harpers Ferry has continued to evolve, continued to reveal new stories. Paperback, 225 pages.
Freedom And The Freedmen's Bureau In West Virginia
John Edmund Stealey III
Reacting to Virginia’s secession, western Virginians created a new state, the only one the Civil War fostered. The bitter conflict and governmental realignment aroused issues of loyalty, survival, and freedom and inflicted civil and military turmoil into the lives of all white and African American residents.
At war’s end, the Lincoln Administration established the Freedmen’s Bureau to alleviate the formerly enslaved peoples’ plight. Bureau agents faced geographical challenges, white opposition, and a serious refugee problem at Harpers Ferry. They installed Northern teachers in Jefferson and Berkeley counties before working statewide to build schools in Black communities.
With fresh research and analysis, this book presents the original—sometimes chilling—Bureau agents' dispatches to revisit a tumultuous time in American history. Paperback and Hardback, 194 pages.
The Harpers Ferry Anthology: Civil War-era Stories by Park Rangers and Volunteers
Published by the Harpers Ferry Park Association in memory of David L. Larsen, Interpreter
The diaries, letters and memoirs of the civilians and soldiers who experienced the war in Harpers Ferry have provided park interpreters an invaluable tool for transporting park visitors to the past. Here are 24 stories written by 17 interpreters, volunteers, rangers and interns that recreate six harrowing years of a town under attack. Paperback, 118 pages.
Harpers Ferry Bill of Fare
Various Contributions
A collection of recipes influenced by the confluence! Take a journey back into time with your tastebuds from the late 18th century to present day! Enjoy images of Harpers Ferry past, colorful quotes, and amusing anecdotes. Filled with both historical and modern recipes, Harpers Ferry Bill of Fare will satisfy any appetite for food or nostalgia. Spiral bound, paperback 92 pages.
A Harpers Ferry Cat Tale
Tara Bell
Follow Victoria on her adventurous day around Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. What will happen when the mischievous little kitty makes this national park her playground? Hardcover, 32 pages.
(The printing of this book was made possible by a grant from the Nora Roberts Foundation.)
Harpers Ferry Under Fire: A Border Town in the American Civil War
Dennis E. Frye
Harpers Ferry experienced the Civil War like no other place and was a case study of repeated invasions, military operations, martial law, and endless danger. Journey into the Civil War with stories from those who lived, worked, fought, and died in a border town. This narrative is complemented by full color and black-and-white illustrations, photographs, and maps. Paperback, 200 pages.
Author Dennis E. Frye is the retired Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. He is a writer, lecturer, guide, preservationist, and prominent Civil War historian. A well-know author, Dennis has written 77 articles and six books.
John Brown's Raid Handbook
National Park Service
Revised in 2017, this handbook contains the day-by-day narration of Brown’s insurrection, those who were involved, details of the trial, and what happened to John Brown and his men after the raid. Published on the 150th anniversary of the raid, more than a hundred photographs, maps and historic images chronicle the account. Includes suggested reading. Paperback, 111 pages.
Man of Sterling Worth: Professor William A. Saunders of Storer College
Lynn Pechuekonis
A Storer alumnus, Professor Saunders was the longest serving black teacher at the school. A resident of Harpers Ferry for 54 years, he was a trusted spiritual leader and well-known figure throughout the thriving African American community then living beyond Storer’s campus. Paperback, 143 pages.
Millwrights And Entrepeneurs: 240 Years Of Water Power At Harpers Ferry, 1751-1991
David T. Gilbert
Did you know: Robert Harper obtained his 125-acre patent from Lord Fairfax in 1751, but was not the first person to obtain a warrant for the land, and his name was not on the original plat or certificate of survey. George Washington, over the objections of his own War Dept., insisted that the “situation in the fork at the junction of the Potowmac and Shenandoah rivers is the most eligible” for the establishment of a federal armory. James Stubblefield, who oversaw the installation of Thomas Blanchard’s lathe for cutting gun stocks, was so impressed with the new machine that he sent a sample gunstock to President James Madison. John H. Hall, hampered in his quest to mechanize arms production by a lack of water power, wrote of the “strange mistake of those who in the first instance, constructed the works at Harpers Ferry for the National Armory.” These and other stories of innovators and 19th-century technology are explored in this new book by author David T. Gilbert. Paperback, 217 pages.
"To Emancipate the Mind and Soul" Storer College 1867 - 1955
Various Authors
When John Brown came to Harpers Ferry in 1859, organizing a school for enslaved African Americans was illegal. Eight years later, after a bloody Civil War, Storer College did just that—and more. To honor the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding, Harpers Ferry Park Association, in partnership with Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, invited park rangers, professors, journalists, and scholars to tell the stories of the teachers, students, and reformers who strove to manifest a new world on the “hill of hope.” This collection reveals tales of courage and conviction, success and defeat, controversy and, above all, hope. Paperback, 176 pages.
Towpath Guide to the C&O Canal
Thomas F. Hahn
The classic, must-have guidebook to the C&O Canal is back! With new photos and research, updated maps, and a 21st century makeover, Thomas Hahn’s labor of love remains the most comprehensive mile-by-mile guide to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. Journey 184.5 miles past former wharfs and foundries on the Georgetown waterfront, through quant Potomac River towns, to the mountainous region of western Maryland, while exploring all of the canal locks, lockhouses, aqueducts, and culverts along the way. Read how raging floodwaters and Civil War armies wreaked havoc on canal structures. Discover nature, geology, and 19th century engineering feats, as well as stories of the laborers, locktenders, and canallers who made the C&O a monument to human ingenuity and endurance. Deftly balancing engineering details with colorful anecdote and lore, Hahn’s guidebook is the go-to resource for all things C&O. Paperback, 276 pages.
Under Fire: An Experience in the Civil War
Published by the Harpers Ferry Park Association
Annie P. Marmion celebrated her ninth birthday just a month before the outbreak of the Civil War. The daughter of the town doctor in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), she kept a journal of her experiences during the war. Her words give a unique perspective of the hardships civilians endured in a town that changed hands at least eight times before the war’s end. A nephew, William Vincent Marmion, Jr., compiled and edited her writings and published them in 1959 in the booklet Under Fire: An Experience in the Civil War. This reprint by the Harpers Ferry Park Association includes annotations and vivid watercolor paintings commissioned by the National Park Services that enhance the narrative of a child living with war on her doorstep. Paperback, 29 pages.
The Upper Potomac in the Civil War
Garnet W. Jex
Derived from a 1965 Publication of the District of Columbia Civil War Centennial Commission.
Today, the Upper Potomac Valley boasts an idyllic landscape where an indomitable river winds through quaint historic towns, rolling farmlands, and mountain vistas. Between 1859 and 1865, this was a scene of war. Battles, skirmishes, daring raids, and dangerous escapes rattled the usually peaceful region. Great armies, blue and gray, crossed the Potomac River numerous times as war shifted back and forth over this natural boundary that separated the North and South.
One hundred years later, Washington, D.C. artist Garnet W. Jex combined his love of history and natural beauty to interpret these events in a stunning collection of fifty-one opaque watercolor paintings. The paintings are presented here in full color to commemorate the Civil War Sesquicentennial and to reveal in vivid detail the dramatic events that unfolded along the banks of the mighty river. Paperback, 56 pages.
Virginius Island
David T. Gilbert
Guide of Virginius Island with map, historic images, and descriptions of former mills, factories, and homes on the once-thriving industrial island. Ideal for a self-guided walking tour. Pamphlet, 16 pages.
A Voice from Harper's Ferry
Osborne P. Anderson
A Voice from Harper’s Ferry is the singular first-person account of John Brown’s raid by one of the surviving raiders, Osborne P. Anderson. Anderson, a free black man, joined Brown’s army in Canada and followed him to Harpers Ferry in the abolitionist’s attempt to bring an end to the institute of slavery in America. This reprint by the Harpers Ferry Park Association includes a foreword by Harpers Ferry National Historical Park rangers and an essay on Anderson by award-winning author and former Washington Post writer, Eugene L. Meyer. The book also includes a series of watercolors by two artists commissioned by the National Park Service. The artwork—some never before seen by the public—brings Anderson’s dramatic story to life. Paperback, 103 pages.
A Walker's Guide to Harpers Ferry West Virginia
David T. Gilbert
A comprehensive guidebook to the history of Harpers Ferry, including walking tours of Lower Town, Virginus Island, Maryland Heights, Loudoun Heights, and much more including detailed maps & index. Revised September 2022, the 9th edition includes new research, historic photos, illustrations and maps. Paperback, 224 pages.
Waterpower Mills, Factories, Machines and Floods at Harpers Ferry, WV 1762 - 1991
David T. Gilbert
Read about Hall’s Rifle Works, the U.S. Armory and the mills on Virginius Island. Learn about the machines and equipment in these factories and meet the men and entrepreneurs who ran them. Find out more about the devastation of flooding and unpredictable streamflow that plagued local industry. Many historic photographs and detailed line drawings of machines compliment the text. Paperback, 192 pages.
