The national Veterans History Project was created in 2000, when the U.S. Congress voted unanimously to preserve and archive the oral histories of men and women who have served in any of our country’s wars or any civilian who supported the war effort in a significant way. The project, housed at the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., collects and preserves the video interviews, photographs and documents of veterans from:
- World War I (1914-1920)
- World War II (1939-1946)
- Korean War (1950-1955)
- Vietnam War (1961-1975)
- Persian Gulf War (1990-1995)
- Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present)
As an archive partner with the Library of Congress, Central Connecticut State University participates in the Veterans History Project by collecting the oral histories of Connecticut’s residents. Videotaped interviews of Connecticut service members are archived along with digitized photographs, military documents, field maps, journals, letters, and other artifacts. The vast amount of historical data collected is made available to veterans, students, scholars, and researchers via the internet at our website. All information is also preserved in the Library of Congress.
The Central Veterans History Project is working on designing digital tools that will make its archive more useful and accessible for researchers, students, veterans, and families. We also work with professors and students to develop lesson plans and other resources for instructors utilizing our collection.
Collections Policy
At this time, we are focused on education and curriculum development and are only collecting the histories of those veterans who are members of the CCSU community (students/faculty/staff) or who identify as women, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ, as these demographics are underrepresented in our current collection
The Veterans History Project at CCSU will also digitize supplemental materials relevant to a veteran’s oral history. These documents include but are not limited to: letters, memoirs, flight books, and photographs.
The Veterans History Project at CCSU will NOT accept for digital archiving:
- Materials that do not supplement an oral history in our collection
- Materials deemed only tangentially relevant to the provided oral history
- Photographs about which little or no contextual information is known or provided
Further, given the real threat of identity theft in the digital age, veterans are urged NOT to provide to the Veterans History Project for digitization any forms, military or otherwise, that reveal a veteran’s date of birth, social security number, or other personally identifiable information (PII).
To confirm veteran status, the veteran may be asked to provide a DD-214 form; this will NOT be scanned or digitized as part of the veteran’s collection.
In the case of materials relevant to a veteran’s oral history which happen to contain PII (such as a certificate awarded to the veteran for his or her service), that information should be clearly marked by the veteran at time of submission, so that the PII may be redacted prior to digitization.
Services
In addition to collecting oral histories, the CCSU Veterans History Project is available to assist students, teachers, researchers, and members of the community who wish to utilize our collections.
Services that we provide include:
- Locating oral histories or other materials in our collections
- Teaching lessons on how to conduct oral history interviews
- Teaching lessons on how to find and utilize oral history interviews in historical research
- Developing handouts, activities, and other teaching tools utilizing our collections
- Consulting on projects such as exhibits, websites, or data visualizations utilizing our collections
- Answering general reference questions related to oral history research or the history of American wars
All of these services are available to all members of the public, including faculty and students at Central as well as other colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and anyone interested in learning more about the experiences of Connecticut veterans.
Due to limited resources, we are unable to provide the following services:
- Video editing
- Website hosting
- Equipment loans
- Event planning or event hosting
- Arranging for veterans to speak to a classroom or organization.
- Assisting veterans with issues related to accessing benefits or services (If you are a veteran matriculated at Central and in need of assistance, please contact the Office of Veterans Affairs. If you are a non-CCSU veteran please contact the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs.)
Additionally, we are unable to provide contact information for veterans in our collections.