What is the Veterans History Project?
The Veterans History Project (VHP) collects and preserves the remembrances of American war veterans and civilian workers who supported them. These collections of first-hand accounts are archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for use by researchers and to serve as an inspiration for generations to come. The Project collects remembrances of veterans who served in World War I, World War II, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War (1990-1995), or Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present). U.S. citizen civilians who actively supported war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, defense contractors, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories. VHP relies on volunteers throughout the nation to collect veterans’ stories on behalf of the Library of Congress. These stories are made available to researchers and the general public, both at the Library in Washington, D.C., and via the VHP
The Veterans History Project was created by the United States Congress on October 27, 2000 to collect and preserve the personal narratives, correspondence, and visual memories accrued by veterans and U.S. civilians who supported wartime efforts. VHP volunteers are currently collecting first-hand accounts of participants of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the current Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
The Veterans History Project, a project of the Library of Congress, is a national volunteer effort focused on preserving veterans’ war stories. They rely on a national network of organizations andindividuals to record those interviews and submit them to the permanent collections of the Library of Congress. Stories can be told through personal narratives (audio or video-taped interviews, written memoirs), correspondence (letters, postcards), and visual materials (photos, drawings, scrapbook items, etc.) Their primary focus is on first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans. In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories. The Veterans History Project is made possible by the generous support of the United States Congress.
