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Collection Veterans History Project Collection

Creative Expressions of Service

The following curated presentations highlight collections from the Veterans History Project that illustrate the creative ways that veterans record, process, and share their experiences—whether through drawings, personal letters, photography, or the performing arts.

Our Research Guides, StoryMaps, and blog posts provide additional ways to explore the collections.

Art of War Much like writing in a journal or composing a letter home, the act of creating art provides a way to capture, articulate, and process what veterans experience during their military service. In all of the collections featured in this presentation, the artwork speaks volumes, proving that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Line by Line: Transcribed Correspondence The Veterans History Project (VHP) archive contains thousands of collections featuring original correspondence, letters written by servicemen and women to their families and friends at home. These letters are fascinating historical documents, rich with details about each veteran’s service experiences—but their handwritten contents can sometimes be hard to decipher, particularly for modern eyes.
Military Photographers: Framing the Shot Shooting with cameras rather than guns, photographers act as the eyes of the military. Whether taking motion pictures or still photographs, oftentimes serving in the thick of the action, military photographers have captured and produced scores of images for the purposes of strategy and intelligence, mapmaking, and simply to document historic moments.
Personal Snapshots: Picturing the Vietnam War Photography can play an important role in telling a service story. This presentation focuses a lens on collections of personal snapshots from the Vietnam War era that capture veterans' experiences, and offer a counterpoint to official military photographs. These images provide a vivid and intensely personal view of the war through the eyes of those who served.
"Please Write Often": Wartime Correspondence Correspondence collections in the VHP archive present vivid accounts of war. They capture small details of the military experience that might otherwise be lost from memory, or considered unimportant in future retellings. Quite often, these letters are intimate, personal documents; whether exchanged between family members, friends, or lovers, they stand as statements of love. Here, we present 18 collections featuring examples of wartime correspondence.
Veterans and the Arts: Showcase Companion Anyone who has poured their heart into a poem or belted out the lyrics to a ballad understands the catharsis that comes from artistic expression. For veterans, participating in creative pursuits can have particularly therapeutic benefits. Here, we focus on veterans who found personal solace and professional fulfillment in fields ranging from creative writing to theater, music, ceramics, and even the culinary arts.