Author: Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist
With the official start of the World War I centennial this spring, the Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina is seeking your help to preserve the history of North Carolina military service, as well as home front activities, from that period. During and immediately after the war, the State Archives collected original archival materials to document the effects of the war on its citizens and the state. One hundred years later, we are still working to collect and document the role of North Carolinians during WWI, but we need your help.
Official service records can only tell so much about military service—they do not always detail the contributions of an individual in a military unit, at a battle, along the front lines, or in a military camp. Original letters, photographs, military training manuals, maps, postcards, wartime diaries, and other similar materials are sometimes the only detailed evidence of military service, or the only means to document the personal experiences of an individual.
We are also seeking archival materials about life on the home front during WWI. The Military Collection is interested in acquiring materials covering such subjects as Red Cross records or photographs, local women’s groups, war loan drive records or posters, local activities to support the war effort, African American community activities during the war, county or local officials’ wartime activities, and North Carolina military camps operations.
The State Archives has preserved the WWI archival materials it collected around 100 years ago in its WWI Papers. If you would like to have your original North Carolina WWI archival materials preserved for your family and the public, we encourage you to consider donating them to the State Archives. To donate or to learn more about the Military Collection, call the Military Collection Archivist, Matthew Peek, at 919-807-7314, or e-mail him at matthew.peek@ncdcr.gov. You can also learn through the Military Collection's webpage more about the history, mission, and collecting scope of the collection at the State Archives.
