While the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress does not do any actual interviewing, the Field Kit provides the tools you need to conduct an interview yourself or have a friend or family member assist you. The Veterans History Project also collects written memoirs. A special Memoir Kit is available with more information on creating a written record of your memories.

Central Connecticut State University is an archive partner with the Library of Congress and conducts and preserves veteran and civilian oral histories. Trained volunteers and history students conduct interviews in the CCSU Media Center’s studio on our New Britain campus or travel to veterans’ homes. 

If you would like to be interviewed please contact our office at 860-832-2976 or email hursteim@ccsu.edu to arrange an interview.

Copies of your interview, photographs, service records, maps, etc. will be collected and archived in the Special Collections at Central Connecticut State University’s Elihu Burritt Library and be made accessible to the public. All information gathered will also be digitized and made available on the internet.  Once all of your materials have been copied, all originals are returned to the owner.

Photographs and documents can presently be viewed at our web site, www.ccsu.edu/vhp.  In the near future all records, including the taped interview, will be available in a searchable electronic database at the Elihu Burritt Library web site.  Copies of your biographical data, photograph log, manuscript log and interview are also sent to the Library of Congress, where the information is archived, and you will be placed in their electronic data base.

If you prefer to donate your collection to the Library of Congress directly, please visit their web site at www.loc.gov/vets for mailing instructions. When the Library of Congress has received your materials, your collection will be added to the Veterans History Project's archives. Once it is processed and housed in a preservation environment, the veteran's service history information will be available online in our online database and the interview (or other materials) will be available to researchers who visit the Library of Congress. Prospective researchers will be able to review collections by registering for a Reader Registration Card and visiting the Folklife Center Reading Room at the Library.

For preservation quality purposes, the Library of Congress requests that you send original recordings, photographs, and other materials. Please make any copies you wish to retain for yourself before submitting your recording, photographs, or written materials to the Veterans History Project.

Some collections are also used by the Library of Congress or CCSU for special presentations and events presenting and promoting the Veterans History Project.

The LOC Project staff is always glad to work with researchers and those interested in reviewing the collections. You may conduct basic searches for lists of veterans and civilians by war, branch of service, and alphabetically using the online VHP database. You may also contact us at vohp@loc.gov or (202) 707-4916 before your visit so that we may go over your research topics and help you to identify collections of interest.

Please take a moment to review the important information for prospective researchers/visitors on our research information page.