
11/27/2020
This holiday season, consider taking time to collect and save priceless intergenerational memories with StoryCorps or the Veterans History Project!
Since 2015, StoryCorps has encouraged people of all ages—especially young people—to record an interview with an elder, mentor, friend or someone they admire on the day after #Thanksgiving. The audio and a photo from each interview go into the StoryCorps archive at The Library of Congress's American Folklife Center. This year, with folks following health experts’ advice to avoid big get-togethers, StoryCorps has a new online platform to record interviews virtually. You can learn more about #TheGreatListen and find tools and tips for recording oral histories (which you can do any time of the year) at https://storycorps.org/participate/the-great-thanksgiving-listen.
This month also marks the 20th anniversary of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP), which collects and preserves the stories of America’s war veterans. Stories can be told through personal narratives, correspondence and audiovisual materials like photos and scrapbooks. The VHP has materials—in braille and audio as well as print—to help you get started at www.loc.gov/vets.
[Images: Army E-4 Huey Adams of the 525th Quartermaster Company eating his favorite food, pound cake in a can, Quang Tri, Vietnam, c. 1970–71. From the Huey Nelson Adams Collection (AFC/2001/001/104364), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.