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Posted by: Kerry Ward
What does it take to build a national archive from the ground up? In this installment of our 25th anniversary series, we hear from the Veterans History Project’s first director whose leadership helped turn a powerful idea into a lasting tribute to veterans' voices.
Posted in: Storytelling, Veterans History Project, VHP 25th
Posted by: Kerry Ward
The latest Veterans History Project blog highlights a special display celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps, on view December 9, 2025, through January 31, 2026, in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Drawing from collections across the Library of Congress, including oral histories, letters, photographs, posters and personal artifacts, the exhibit brings to life the stories, service and sacrifices of Marines across generations. Timed around the Project’s 25th anniversary, the display underscores the ongoing mission to preserve and share veterans’ voices, ensuring these stories remain accessible for future generations.
Posted in: Afghan War, Agile Cases, Iraq War, marines, Narratives, US Marines, Veterans History Project, VHP 25th, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II
Posted by: Kerry Ward
As the Veterans History Project celebrates its 25th anniversary, Director Monica Mohindra reflects on the Project’s mission to preserve and share the firsthand stories of U.S. veterans. This post introduces a 25-part blog series honoring veterans, past leaders and the collective effort that has built a national archive of more than 120,000 personal narratives.
Posted in: Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, VHP 25th
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Here at "Folklife Today," we've been following the history of Jack tales, from their emergence in the late Middle Ages to their adoption into modern literature and media. In our last installment, we traced Jack in both fantasy literature and more realistic fiction. In this post, we'll look at Jack tales in other arts, from drama and film to sculpture and comics. We embed the Library of Congress restoration of the 1902 film “Jack and the Beanstalk” from the Thomas Edison corporation, as well as links to orally told folktales, film adaptations, and other media.
Posted in: Jack Tale History, Jack Tales, Narratives, Storytelling, Uncategorized
Posted by: Kerry Ward
For several years, the U.S. Navy Memorial has hosted students from around the country through its Sea Service internship. As part of the program, interns conduct oral histories of Navy veterans and produce short films based on those interviews. The full interviews are then donated to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). For the first time, VHP and the U.S. Navy Memorial are inviting all students in grades 5-12 to create and submit short documentaries featuring the stories of U.S. veterans for the 2025 Sea Service Film Festival. This festival is the perfect opportunity for teachers and parents to get young people involved in documenting and preserving the history of our nation’s veterans. This blog contains the call for entries to the VHP/Navy Memorial Film Festival, including an overview of the festival, submission guidelines, and rules.
Posted in: Film, Navy, Storytelling, teachers, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephen Winick
We continue to explore the tradition of Jack tales, this time looking at the way they emerge into literature. In this post, we look at fantasy novels and short stories inspired by Jack, created by such authors as Leo Tolstoy, William Morris, George MacDonald, J.R.R. Tolkien, Rachel Pollack, Charles de Lint, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Michael Buckley, Chris Colfer, Bill Nye the Science Guy and Gregory Mone, and Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. We’ll also look at a few works of more realist fiction, including the Jack Aubrey novels by Patrick O’Brian and the Jack Reacher series created by Lee Child, uncovering the folktale underpinnings of a lot of classic and contemporary literature. We include links to orally told folktales, as well as author talks at the National Book Festival.
Posted in: Jack Tale History, Jack Tales, Narratives, Storytelling
Posted by: Kerry Ward
The following is a guest blog post by Candace Milburn, liaison specialist with the Veterans History Project. Have you ever wondered what a Warrant Officer does in the military? When I hear the word “warrant,” my mind immediately goes to think about an arrest warrant or police searches. But during a recent documentary screening at …
Posted in: AFC Events, African Americans, Film, Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
This post provides an overview of Hawaiian traditional music collections in the archives of the American Folklife Center.
Posted in: Collection Highlight, Cowboys, Cultural Heritage, ethnomusicologists, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Hawai'i, Hawaiian Americans, NEA National Heritage Fellowship, Pacific Islander History, Pacific Islands Americans, Storytelling
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
In 2023, the American Folklife Center awarded folklorist Selina Morales with an Archie Green Fellowship to interview traditional healers living and working in Puerto Rico. Morales, in collaboration with filmmaker Alexis Garcia, used the fellowship to create a new Occupational Folklife Project collection, titled “Healing Work in Puerto Rico.” In this post, Morales and Garcia discuss their collection with Dr. Nancy Groce (Senior Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center).
Posted in: Fieldwork, Folk Art, Narratives, Occupational Folklife Project, Puerto Rican Americans, Puerto Rico, Religion