Library of Congress and PBS Collect and Preserve Oral Histories of U.S. Wartime Veterans

WASHINGTON, April 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Library of Congress and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced today a joint community engagement initiative designed to gather the first-hand recollections of the diverse men and women who served our nation during wartime. The public outreach campaign begins this spring and will be continued beyond the broadcast of Ken Burns's new film, THE WAR, which airs on PBS beginning September 23, 2007.

The Veterans History Project (VHP), a major program of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, is an oral history program created by Congress in 2000. VHP depends on volunteer interviewers - family and friends of veterans, community members and a wide variety of organizations and institutes - to record one-of-a-kind interviews with wartime veterans and send them to VHP, where they are housed in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress. To date, VHP has collected more than 45,000 individual stories.

"The staff of the Library of Congress and I are excited to launch this comprehensive community awareness campaign with PBS and Ken Burns. We stand at the ready to continue our tradition of honoring America's war veterans by preserving their stories for future generations," offered Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "The Veterans History Project collects and archives the one-of-a-kind stories that represent the diversity of the veterans who served our country - veterans from all conflicts, all branches of the military, all ranks, all races and ethnicities."

THE WAR is a seven-part series, directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, that provides a partial snapshot of the World War II experience through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four geographically distributed American towns: Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of one of the greatest cataclysms in history - a worldwide catastrophe that touched the lives of people throughout the country - and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

"PBS is proud to partner with the Library of Congress on this extraordinary effort to capture the stories and contributions of the World War II generation and preserve them for generations to come," said Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO. "We hope the personal stories portrayed in PBS' broadcast of THE WAR inspire others to share their memories with their friends, families, communities and, ultimately, the Library of Congress, as part of a national discussion about this pivotal period in American history."

"There have been countless books and films about the Second World War," Ken Burns said. "In THE WAR, we try to allow a small group of individuals to tell their bottom-up story. This film is as much about story telling, about sharing unique experiences, as it is about World War II, and as such, we hope that it touches on the universal human experience of battle. Of course, the film only provides a small window into the much larger experience of the hundreds of thousands who have served during times of war. We hope that by providing the tools to people around the country, especially young people, we can work together to capture many more of these stories before the generation that fought in World War II has passed."

WETA Washington, DC, and the Veterans History Project have developed a field guide with a "how-to" conduct an oral history interview, which includes pointers from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on lighting and shooting the video. Additional information provides tips on how to send recorded interviews to the Veterans History Project.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has provided funding for this initiative, also is supporting an enormous community engagement campaign for THE WAR, involving more than 100 public television stations nationwide that will reach out to a broad range of veterans and their families to capture the stories that make up the rich mosaic of America. In total, public television stations will target thousands of individual stories to be shared locally on-air, online and through community events and activities. For more information, people may visit pbs.org/thewar.

THE WAR is a production of Florentine Films and WETA Washington, DC. Directors/producers: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Writer: Geoffrey C. Ward. Producer: Sarah Botstein. Co-producers: Peter Miller and David McMahon. Editors: Paul Barnes, Erik Ewers and Tricia Reidy. Cinematographer: Buddy Squires. Narrator: Keith David.

Corporate funding is provided by General Motors, Anheuser-Busch and Bank of America. Major funding is provided by Lilly Endowment, Inc.; National Endowment for the Humanities; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; Public Television Viewers; PBS; and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Longaberger Foundation and Park Foundation, Inc.

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the world's largest library and is recognized as the national library of the United States. It has more than 130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The Library was founded in 1800, and it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation. The Web site for the Library of Congress is http://www.loc.gov/.

American Folklife Center

The American Folklife Center was created by Congress in 1976 and placed at the Library of Congress to preserve and present American folklife through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, public programs and training. The archive at the Folklife Center was established in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of cultural heritage material from the United States and around the world. The Web site for the American Folklife Center is http://www.loc.gov/folklife/.

Veterans History Project

The United States Congress commissioned the Veterans History Project (VHP) in 2000 as part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Legislation for the Project was introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) in the U.S. House of Representatives and sponsored by Rep. Amo Houghton (R-NY) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). In the U.S. Senate, principal sponsors were Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE). The legislation passed unanimously and was signed into law by President Clinton on October 27, 2000. The Project unites diverse communities around a common purpose: collect and preserve the personal recollections of U.S. wartime veterans to honor their service and share their stories with current and future generations. VHP also collects stories from homefront civilians who worked in support of our armed forces. VHP fulfills its mission through a nationwide network of volunteer interviewers using guidelines provided by the project. Veterans' narratives, historic data, press resources and information about the Veterans History Project can be found at http://www.loc.gov/vets.

Public Broadcasting Service

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a private, non-profit media enterprise that serves the nation's 355 public non-commercial television stations, reaching nearly 90 million people each week through on-air and online content. Bringing diverse viewpoints to television and the Internet, PBS provides high-quality documentary and dramatic entertainment and consistently dominates the most prestigious award competitions. PBS is the leading provider of educational materials for K-12 teachers and offers a broad array of other educational services. PBS' premier kids' TV programming and Web site, PBS KIDS Online (pbskids.org), continue to be parents' and teachers' most trusted learning environments for children. More information about PBS is available at pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org Web sites on the Internet.

WETA

WETA Washington, DC, is the third-largest producing station in the public television system and the flagship public broadcaster in the nation's capital. WETA productions and co-productions include "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," "Washington Week With Gwen Ifill and National Journal," "America at a Crossroads," "American Valor," "Reporting America at War" and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including "The Civil War," and coming to PBS in September 2007, THE WAR. Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO. For more information about WETA and its programs, visit the Web site at http://www.weta.org/.