TPS Newsletter
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World War II
Spotlight on Central Illinois
There were nearly 987,000 men and women from the state of Illinois that served during World War II of these 22,000 died to preserve our freedom.
In the Veterans History Project a section of the American Folklife Center, you can hear audio, see pictures and sometimes video of those who served our country during the war. You can read letters from soldiers to their sweethearts, you can listen to POW's talk about their experiences as a prisoner of war. In this collection you can find soldiers who served from all over Illinois. Some from as close as Danville, Quincy, Springfield and Hillsboro.
World War II is the topic of the April 1995 edition of "Illinois History" a magazine for young people. In this issue you can read about the USO in Mattoon, women's baseball in Illinois during World War II and Camp Ellis, an Army base in Central Illinois that housed some 5,000 POW's.
WEIU-TV at Eastern Illinois University is presenting "The War-Stories from Central Illinois." Eight individuals from Central Illinois will share their personal experiences from World War II. They will share their stories from the soldier on the battlefield to the loved-ones waiting at home. "The War-Stories from Central Illinois" will air September 30 and October 11 at 8pm on WEIU.
"But there is one front and one battle where everyone in the United States-every man, woman, and child - is in action...That front is right here at home, in our daily lives" Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1942
Topic Connections
After the Day of Infamy Man on the Street Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
More than 200 individuals participated in over 12 hours of recordings of their thoughts and opinions in the days and weeks following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In January and February of 1942 other interviews were recorded. Both collections of recordings give the "man on the street's" opinion of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and of World War II.
Special Presentations
America from the Great Depression to WWII
The images in the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection are among the most famous documentary photographs ever produced. Created by a group of U.S. government photographers, the images show Americans in every part of the nation. In later years, the photographers turned their attention to the mobilization effort for World War II. The core of the collection consists of about 164,000 black-and-white photographs.
Special Presentations
- Documenting America: Photographers on Assignment
- Selected FSA Images: Popular Requests
- Selected FSA Images: Staff Selections
- Portrait Sampler of FSA Photographers
Map Collections
In the Map Collection there is a section called Military Battles/Campaigns where you can search for maps pertaining to World War II. In the collection World War II Military Situation Maps, there are maps showing troop positions from June 6, 1944 to July 26, 1945. These maps and reports were used by the commanders of the United States forces in their evaluation of the campaigns and for planning future strategies. There is a great section of maps from the Battle of the Bulge that shows military positions by date.
Special Presentations
- Places in the News
- Meeting the Frontiers: Collections from the Library of Congress: Maps
- Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Selected Cartographic Items
- Essay: Battle of the Bulge (interactive)
Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's best-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II. When he offered the collection to the Library in 1965, Adams wrote, "The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment. . . All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use."
Special Presentations
Words and Deeds in American History
There are only four entries pertaining to World War II in the Words and Deeds Collection, but they are very unique primary sources that could help peak your students interest in World War II. The items consist of a naval dispatch announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor, a memorandum in Russian from Joseph Stalin, General George S. Patton's diary entries and a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt about secret atomic research.
Special Presentations
Built in America
This collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies. Some of the buildings in this collection include World War II era type homes, naval air stations, ammunition plants and memorials.
Special Presentations
History of the American West
This collection pertains mainly to photographs from Colorado and the west. Hidden in this collection are photographs from World War II and the 10th Mountain Division ski troop that was stationed in Italy during the War.
Special Presentations
Freedom's Fortress
This collections tells the history of the Library of Congress during a particularly important period. From 1939 to 1953 the Library underwent a myriad of changes that established the institution as one of America's foremost citadels of intellectual freedom. In this collection you will find memos, letters and photographs some concerning the evacuation of the Library during World War II.
Special Presentations
American Life Histories; Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1940
These life histories were compiled and transcribed by the staff of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers' Project for the U.S. Works Progress. The work represents over 300 writers from 24 states. Some of the life histories are from people who were in Italy or had family in Italy during World War II.
Special Presentations
Frontline Diplomacy (Diplomacy and Foreign Service)
This collection presents a window into the lives of American diplomats. Transcripts of interviews with U.S. diplomatic personnel capture their experiences, motivations, critiques, personal analyses, and private thoughts. While some 1920s- 1930s-, and World-War-II-era diplomacy is covered, most of the interviews involve post-World-War-II diplomacy, from the late 1940s to the 1990s.
Special Presentations
Search Terms
| World War II | Pearl Harbor | World War 1939-1945 |
| World War II Posters | Women in War | George Patton |
| Winston Churchill | Franklin D. Roosevelt | USO |
| Adolf Hitler | D-Day | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| World War II Japan | World War II Germany | Mussolini |
Lesson Plans and Activities
Activities
Learning Page
- Timeline: Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945
- On the Home Front
- Women Pioneers (On the Job)
Lesson Plans
- Nothing to Fear (Grades 5-8)
- Grandparent/Elder Project (Grades 7-12)
- Exploring Community through Local History: Oral Stories, Landmarks and Traditions (Grades 9-12)
Lyrical Legacy
America's Story
- Jump Back in Time: Depression and WWII
- Meet Amazing People: George S. Patton
- Meet Amazing People: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Journeys and Crossings
Exhibits
- American Treasures of the Library of Congress World War II
- John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations (From Enemy to Ally)
- Bob Hope and American Variety
- Women Coming to the Front: Journalist, Photographers and Broadcasters During WWII
- Churchill and the Great Republic
Webcasts
Wise Guide
Today in History
Primary Source Set
What's New at LOC.GOV
2007 National Book Festival
The 2007 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Libary of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush will be held on Saturday, September 29, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public. Ken Burns, co-producer and co-director of "The War" will be a speaker and have a book signing at the festival.
The Great War
This section of the Veterans History Project is a tribute to those who served during World War I. This war is the least documented war covered by the Veterans History Project and because we have lost so many who served in this war it is unlikely that this collection will grow, at least through oral histories. The last three World War I veterans are profiled in this collection giving their stories, letters, and photographs from the times that they served their country.
User Tips
RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that allows organizations to deliver news to a desktop computer or other Internet device. By subscribing to RSS feeds, users can easily stay up-to-date with areas of the Library's site that are of interest. The Library of Congress offers several RSS feeds for use in an RSS reader or RSS-enabled Web browser.
Library feeds consist of headline, brief summary, and a link that leads back to the Library's Web site for more information.Subscribing to an RSS feed offers a streamlined method of receiving content of interest. Feed readers allow the user to aggregate multiple feeds, making the process of gathering website content more efficient. Instead of visiting websites individually for new content, feed readers monitor the sites for you and provide updates from one location.
There are many different types of feed reader applications to choose from: desktop, Web, mail-client, browser plug-in, etc. Some browsers have feed readers built-in. If yours does not, try performing a search with the term "feed reader" or find an application to download at http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/WWW/Feed_Readers/
