Do you or your family wonder what to do with original historic materials from veterans' military service? Are you looking for ways to preserve the legacy of North Carolina veterans? Are you a North Carolina veteran who has original materials from your military service, and might be interested in having them preserved?
The Military Collection at the State Archives of North Carolina works to document and preserve records detailing North Carolina's rich military history from colonial days in the 17th century to the present.
The Military Collection collects, arranges, describes, preserves and makes accessible to the public historical materials that document the history and development of North Carolina's military history for conflicts involving its citizens, residents and enlisted military personnel in North Carolina. The State Archives' Military Collection provides a professionally-curated research collection of military history; supports public and educational programming; scholarly and student research; and the public interest in relation to the mission of the State Archives of North Carolina.
"As we have come to the centennial of World War I, the 75th anniversary of World War II and the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, we would like to remind the public that the State Archives cares greatly about our servicemen and servicewomen's sacrifices and dedication to their country, comrades and families," says Matthew Peek, military collection archivist at the State Archives.
"We offer veterans and their families a location to preserve the materials of veterans' military service, that is freely accessible to the public and work to utilize our Military Collection to educate the public about military service and culture," he concludes.
Military records or materials extend beyond combat or training to include items that were created during wartime and document reactions to the conflict. Letters written between a service member and their family or friends, documents detailing a non-combatant veteran's daily work, training manuals, maps and architectural drawings, photographs, films, print-outs of social media posts from a service individual-these all constitute military materials to be preserved.
If you or your family is interested in donating your historic military materials, please call the military collection archivist at 919-807-7314, or email matthew.peek@ncdcr.gov.
You can also visit the Military Collection's webpage to learn more about the collection and how to donate your military materials: http://archives.ncdcr.gov/Public/Collections/Non-Government/Military-Collections.
The Military Collection of the State Archives is within the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.