The American Folklife Center's Veterans Oral History Project has really
only just begun, the result of an un-funded mom-and-apple-pie mandate
from the Hill (is there any other kind?).  However, I think it's a great
opportunity for those of us at the local level to enlist in a project we
should be doing anyway, with the not-to-be-underestimated benefit of
some PR mileage, and, one hopes, a chance to energize existing members
and volunteers, and to enlist new and younger ones.

While the project is aimed at gathering histories of veterans of foreign
wars (and I hear that WWI vets are currently being identified and
interviewed) I would like to expand the scope locally to include
families of soldiers, support personnel, war resisters, widows and
orphans, etc.

Though there's no direct funding, I understand that there may be some
funds available to hire folklorists and oral historians to give
workshops on community history-gathering.  My contact at the AFC is
currently on vacation, but I'll keep the list posted when I've gotten
the straight dope.

D.

Douglas Day, M.A., Ph.D.
Executive Director
Albemarle County Historical Society
The McIntire Building
200 Second Street, NE
Charlottesville, Va. 22902-5245
434.296.1492
fax 434.296-4576
<avenue.org/achs>

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