I traveled to the center to meet everyone, become more familiar with Harper’s Ferry Center, and learn more about what I would be doing this summer. On my first day at the center, I went to see the restoration facility. They restore many different artifacts from metals, woods, textiles, organic materials, and more. When I was there, I got to see the finished restoration for the coat the conductor was wearing the night John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln, as well as Lincoln’s bowtie. We were also told that they once restored the Wright Brother’s original plane.

Then I was given more information about the main project that I would be working on during my time at Harper’s Ferry Center, called UniD or Unidescription. This project is the audio descriptions of National Park brochures. Harper’s Ferry Center is working with The University of Hawaii on this project. Currently descriptithon 9 is being planned. Descriptithons are hackathon style competitions where teams will be working together to audio describe a park brochure. I will also be working on describing one myself. Audio description is describing all the pictures and maps, any images in the brochure, verbally so that blind visitors can also enjoy the brochure.

Agency: National Park Service

Program: Harpers Ferry Center Program

Location: Harpers Ferry Center for Media Services