Notable Events and Milestones in VHP History
Established in 2000 by Congressional legislation, the Veterans History Project (VHP) has its roots in a simple family gathering. While at a Father’s Day picnic, Representative Ron Kind (D-WI) overheard his father and uncle swapping stories from their service in World War II and the Korean War. Realizing the fleeting nature of these reminiscences, he grabbed a video camera to record his relatives’ accounts for posterity. This brief experience was the impetus for Congress to create a national, grassroots oral history initiative, which would allow participants to interview veterans in their lives and communities, with the resulting recordings archived as part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. VHP’s collecting scope quickly grew to include other types of original source materials, such as letters, diaries, and photographs; in 2016, new legislation expanded the scope to include oral histories from “family members of the Armed Forces who died as a result of their service during a period of war.”
For over 20 years, the Veterans History Project has collected, preserved and made accessible the firsthand narratives of U.S. military veterans. Below is a timeline highlighting a few events and milestones, ranging from VHP’s earliest program initiatives through the present.
Please note that in some cases we have provided links to legacy news releases in order to provide context for historical events. Many of these older sources contain outdated information.