Navy corpsman gives drink to wounded marine on Guam / official U.S. Navy photo. July 1944. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

On April 17, 2007, the Library of Congress and the Veterans History Project held a joint press conference with PBS and Florentine Films to announce a partnership in connection with The War, Ken Burns’s World War II documentary television series. Read the official press release on this event.

View the Press Conference
To view this Webcast you need RealPlayer, a free application for playing video and audio files.

View and Print the Field Guide [PDF: 1.29MB / 28 pages]
Includes information, tips and techniques from Ken Burns,
and the Veterans History Project.

The War will air on PBS stations beginning September 23. All of the film’s onscreen participants are veterans of World War II, supporting civilian workers, or their relatives. Learn more about The War from the PBS Web site. Ken Burns and PBS see the film as sparking a national effort in which individual citizens will interview veterans for their first-hand accounts of wartime service. Ken Burns and PBS have asked the Veterans History Project, which has been collecting stories of wartime service since its creation in 2000, to be the repository for those accounts.

If you want to participate in this effort and need more information on VHP and how to submit a collection to us, please link to our "how to participate" page.

Throughout 2007, PBS stations all over the country will be initiating outreach programs designed to raise awareness of World War II and the need for its veterans and civilian workers to tell their stories for the record. VHP will participate in many public programs to encourage citizen participation in these efforts. As these events are scheduled, we will carry news of them.

In September 2007, VHP will launch in this space a Viewer’s Companion to "The War." Ken Burns and his colleagues filmed dozens of original interviews for their film. Our Viewer’s Companion will list the topics (for example: D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, POWs) covered in each interview in The War and provide you with access to hundreds of fully digitized collections on those subjects from our own archives. Our collection of veterans’ stories will enhance those you see in The War—and hopefully inspire you to join our joint effort with Ken Burns and PBS to collect more veterans’ stories.