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Category: Oral History

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The Power of Words, the Power of Belonging: What the Navajo Code Talkers Taught Me

Posted by: Megan Harris

The following is a guest post by Nathan Cross, VHP Archivist and primary author of VHP’s Navajo Code Talkers LibGuide. The Veterans History Project (VHP) is pleased to announce a new resource designed to introduce VHP’s holdings related to the veterans known as Navajo Code Talkers. These veterans, Native Americans who served in the Pacific …

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VHP’s New Research Guide: Exploring the Collections

Posted by: Megan Harris

Calling all researchers! The Veterans History Project (VHP) is excited to announce a new resource that will help you find what you’re looking for within our archive—which currently includes over 111,000 individual veterans’ materials. That’s a LOT of oral histories, letters, photos, diaries, and other primary source material, so we created this new guide to …

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VHP’s Newest Online Exhibit: Legacies of Service: Celebrating Native Veterans

Posted by: Megan Harris

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 …

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At Home Archive Challenge: Exploring VHP Collections

Posted by: Megan Harris

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 …

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VHP Collections We Love: Tracy Sugarman and Kathryn Doody

Posted by: Megan Harris

This is the sixth 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 …

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VHP Collections We Love: Marva Gray

Posted by: Megan Harris

This is the fourth 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 …

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VHP’S Newest Online Exhibit: End of WWII: 75th Anniversary

Posted by: Megan Harris

When the war ended, Gladyce “Pepper” Pederson Nypan cried, her tears dripping down into her dinner of mashed potatoes and gravy. Benjamin Cooper wrote a love letter to his wife. Alfred Newman watched his comrades fire off live ammunition, so intense was their celebrating. Jerome Yellin was still high in the sky over Japan, completing …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

VHP’s Newest Online Exhibit: Family Matters: Relatives at War

Posted by: Megan Harris

Today, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit to feature the stories of family members who served in the military—some at the same time, and others decades apart. As I was composing this blog post and considering the narratives that are included in the new feature, my eyes wandered to a small, …

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VHP’s Newest Online Exhibit: Breaking Ground and Boundaries: Veteran Changemakers

Posted by: Megan Harris

Earlier this week, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launched a new online exhibit to highlight the stories of veteran “changemakers.” You might be asking yourself, who or what is a changemaker, exactly, and why are we focusing on them? In early 2019, the Library of Congress launched a year-long initiative to explore the stories of …