National Home Front Project
The National Home Front Project is a major grassroots initiative under the leadership of historians at Washington College. Our innovative oral history program partners with individuals, communities, and organizations across the United States to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with civilian men and women who experienced World War II. By pulling together in the spirit of wartime Americans, we can ensure that future generations hear their voices, and that our country never forgets its past.
As the 75th anniversary of World War II unfolds, the veterans’ ranks are dwindling, their heroism honored, their stories cherished. But largely overshadowed have been the millions of other Americans who helped defeat fascism—and whose stories are perhaps in greater danger of being lost. By one measure, there have been more books published just on the battle of Iwo Jima than on the entire American home front experience of World War II.
In addition to audio recordings, our archive collects digital images of wartime letters,
photographs, and other artifacts that help tell our interviewees’ stories. A sampling
of stories, audio clips, and documents—selected from over 300 interviews from contributors
nationwide—is available on this website. Our archive keeps growing as our team continues
interviewing, digitizing, indexing, transcribing, teaching, and collaborating. With
your help, we can to collect and preserve these important stories of World War II
on the American home front before time runs out.
The National Home Front Project, an innovative oral history initiative at Washington
College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, is capturing the
memories of those civilians: men, women, and children whose lives were changed by
the greatest global conflict in human history. Our team of students is recording hundreds
of interviews with “The Greatest Generation” in which veterans’ tales of combat at
the front lines intertwine with far less familiar, but equally vivid, recollections
of the home front. We are also partnering with communities across the country to help
record and preserve their local stories of World War II. To learn more about how to
participate in the National Home Front Project, please visit our Submit an Interview or contact our program staff.