Veterans History Project

This collection contains oral histories with Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County veterans collected by the Ypsilanti District Library, Ypsilanti Rotary, and the Eastern Michigan University Archives for the Veterans History Project. The VHP is part of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center which aims to document, preserve, and make accessible the stories of veterans from World War I on. Interviews with local veterans are housed at the Eastern Michigan University Archives in addition to the LOC. Oral histories continue to be processed by the American Folklife Center and the collection is updated regularly.

Oral histories collected by EMU Historic Preservation graduate students with the University Archives on December 9th, 2022, are currently being processed for publication.

The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs. Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.