This Veterans Day, the Veterans History Project (VHP) is proud to debut a pair of research tools to help users discover and navigate our collections related to the Vietnam War. The newest installment of Serving: Our Voices pulls from VHP’s holdings of over 25,0000 narratives relating to Vietnam veterans. For this presentation, we have focused specifically on servicemembers who served “in country,” that is, on the ground in Vietnam. Khe Sanh airstrip, Northern I Corps. Operation Dewey Canyon II – Lam Son 719. Incoming UH-IH assault helicopters. Carol Scott Collection, Veterans History Project ..read more

The following is a guest blog by Travis Bickford, supervisory liaison specialist for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). Travis Bickford reading to students, Chicago, IL, 2013. Image courtesy of Travis Bickford. Ten years ago, I read Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried.” Not for any burning desire; I had assigned it to a group of teenagers I was teaching from the south and west sides of Chicago for educational purposes. Can you keep a secret? I don’t find war literature as a genre appealing. This is probably not something I should broadcast considering my job title, but ..read more

The following is a guest blog post by Andy Wolanski, a liaison specialist for the Veterans History Project (VHP). Women’s History Month “Go Box” materials on display at the VHP Information Center, March 2023. The Veterans History Project (VHP) proudly celebrates Women’s History Month by highlighting female veterans across a wide variety of backgrounds, conflicts, and military service branches. The current “Go Box” display that I curated for the VHP Info Center showcases a handful of female servicemembers whose stories of sacrifice and courage truly inspired me. As a veteran myself, listening t ..read more

The following is a guest blog post co-authored by veteran artists Cyrus Quadland and Jara Fatout Lang. This is the last in a four-part guest series featuring military veteran artists who are members of Uniting US, a veteran-focused nonprofit arts organization. In recognition of June as Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) Awareness month, Uniting US is collaborating with the Veterans History Project (VHP) for “From Conflict to Creativity: Veteran Artists Showcase,” June 28-30, 2022 at the Library of Congress and online. Watch it here.  Click on the following links to read previous articles in the ..read more

Sentinel guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. 1971. Larry Seaton Collection, Veterans History Project, Library of Congress, AFC2001/001/120609. From atop one of the most sacred places in our country, a soldier walks his 21 steps, halts, turns to face our nation’s capital and pauses for 21 seconds. As we close out this chapter of the year, I can’t help but reflect with gratitude on a recent event that the Veterans History Project (VHP) had the honor of being a part of: the Centennial Commemoration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.&n ..read more

The following is a guest blog post by Mitch Friesenborg, a summer intern in the office of U.S. Senator John Boozman (AR). He attends Harding University, and is a member of the Arkansas National Guard. In the year 2021, the United States is in relative peace. No teenager today is anxious at the chance they could be drafted to fight in a war overseas. Most have college or a career on their mind. That peace of mind we enjoy today is only made possible by the men and women who gave their lives in service (some even gave their lives) to our country’s values and freedoms—from the shores of France, t ..read more

Today the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit, part of our Experiencing War web feature series. Entitled “Legacies of Service: Celebrating Native Veterans,” the exhibit explores the lives and service experiences of 18 Native veterans who served in conflicts from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan. Given the treatment of their ancestors by the US government, you might be surprised—as I was—to learn that Native Americans have a long legacy of military service. But Native people have served in the armed forces for generations, and their willingness to enlist continues t ..read more

Researchers examine VHP collections in the AFC reading room. Photo taken by VHP staff, 2014. Hello to potential explorers of the Veterans History Project (VHP) archive! We’re so excited that you’re considering taking part in the American Folklife Center’s newest version of the Archive Challenge. VHP’s collections are nothing if not inspirational, and you are sure to find a wealth of material–everything from epic poems to wartime love letters and deeply moving diary entries–to interpret in your artistic creations. As the Archive Challenge kicks off, we wanted to provide a few signposts to poi ..read more

This is the fifth in a series exploring favorite Veterans History Project collections, chosen by the staff of the American Folklife Center (AFC) and the Veterans History Project (VHP) to be included in our new online exhibit celebrating 20 years of VHP. Each post in the series will offer “love letters” written by AFC and VHP staff about their favorite collection. Here are additional posts in the series: Part I, Part II,  Part III, and Part IV. Julius Becton at the time of his interview. Julius Becton Collection, Veterans History Project, AFC2001/001/75519. I found Julius Becton’s collec ..read more

This is the second in a series exploring favorite Veterans History Project collections, chosen by the staff of the American Folklife Center (AFC) and the Veterans History Project (VHP) to be included in our new online exhibit celebrating 20 years of VHP. Each post in the series will offer “love letters” written by AFC and VHP staff about their favorite collection. View the post introducing the series here. When was the last time you received a handwritten note? Hyperaware of my terrible penmanship, paired with the plague of perfectionism (wanting to recraft certain lines or words) meant I used ..read more