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Category: World War I

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

Caught My Eye: John McGill’s WWI Photograph

Posted by: Megan Harris

The following is a guest post by Christopher Pohlhaus, IT (Multi-media) Specialist for the Digital Scan Center, Library of Congress. Of the more than 100,000 collections that are part of the Veterans History Project, approximately 20% are digitized and available online. For those collections that are presented on the Veterans History Project (VHP) website, the …

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

New VHP Acquisition: Irving Greenwald’s WWI Diary

Posted by: Megan Harris

One look at Irving Greenwald’s diary is all it takes to bring to mind the old adage “good things come in small packages.” This World War I diary, written by Private Irving Greenwald from December 1917 to January 1919, was donated to the Veterans History Project (VHP) in December 2015 by his family. Original World …

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

Faces of the Veterans History Project

Posted by: Megan Harris

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” “The eyes are the window to the soul.” Trite as these sayings may be, they offer possible explanations for why we find portraits—whether they are painted, drawn, or photographed—so compelling. Anyone who has visited the National Portrait Gallery (my personal favorite of the Smithsonian museums), or browsed through …

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

Happy 15th Birthday, VHP!

Posted by: Megan Harris

Happy 15th birthday to the Veterans History Project! On October 27, 2000, the 106th Congress signed Public Law 106-380, an act “to direct the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to establish a program to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of American war veterans, and for other purposes.” …

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

Songs and Music of Refugees of the First World War

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

War disrupts populations, and refugees fleeing the conflict may leave their country permanently to settle elsewhere. The first World War caused such disruptions throughout Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Crossing one border was no longer an escape for many of these people on the move. Refugees fled to countries distant from their …