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.
A vivid watercolor portraying a soldier writing a letter home. A graphite sketch of a comrade looking pensive. A detailed woodcut depicting a street scene in North Africa. Together, these works capture not only the sights of war, but also the humanity within it – through the eyes of Army medic and artist William K. …
This blog highlights a special display celebrating artwork held within Veterans History Project (VHP) collections, on view December 9, 2025, through January 31, 2026, in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Unique amongst VHP’s holdings are two-dimensional works of art, such as drawings, paintings, illustrations and photographs, documenting servicemembers’ experiences from WWI through Iraq and Afghanistan.
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.
This post recounts three stories of formal dresses that were made out of World War II silk parachutes. In two cases, they were wedding dresses, meaning that silk once intended for war had been transformed into a symbol of new beginnings. These stories are striking reminders that history isn’t just found in archives or interviews—it’s stitched into uniforms, tucked into footlockers and woven into parachute silk transformed into wedding gowns. These everyday artifacts speak volumes, capturing emotion, memory and meaning in ways words sometimes cannot. The stories come from the collections of the Veterans History Project.
Today, the Veterans History Project launches a new online exhibit focusing on the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most pivotal and infamous battles of World War II. On December 16, 1944, the German army attacked Allied forces—mostly American units—positioned in the Ardennes Forest, a densely forested area along the borders of Belgium and …
On June 13th, a new exhibition titled, “Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” opened to the public in the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery in the Thomas Jefferson Building. This post highlights items from the collections of the American Folklife Center and the Veterans History Project featured in the exhibition.
In the wee morning hours of June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy, France. Given the code name OVERLORD, the operation was the largest amphibious assault in history, and would go on to be known simply as “D-Day.” Today, eighty years later, the Veterans History Project has captured and preserved more …
Today, the Veterans History Project (VHP) launches a new online exhibit titled “In Memoriam: Honoring the Fallen,” featuring the stories of 15 servicemembers who died during their time in the military. For many, Memorial Day may feel like nothing more than a day off from work, a holiday that serves to mark the start of …
The following is a guest blog post by Veterans History Project (VHP) participant Paul LaRue, a retired social studies teacher in Washington Court House, Ohio. As an educator, you are always looking for projects that make a difference in the lives of your students, and, if you are lucky, in your community. I found that …
