The Gilder Lehrman Institute invites you to explore a wide variety of resources that commemorate the lives and experiences of America’s veterans, including our extensive work with the Veterans Legacy Program. Part of the National Cemetery Administration (NCA), a division of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Legacy Program commemorates our nation’s veterans through the discovery and sharing of their stories.
Online Exhibitions
Spotlights on Primary Sources
- Recruiting posters for African American soldiers, 1918
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Speech delivered on Memorial Day in Gettysburg, PA, 1934 (Copy of the speech)
- World War II: Commemorating Pearl Harbor, 1941
- A soldier’s reasons for enlisting, 1942
- Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943
- D-Day correspondence between a soldier and his wife, 1944
Essays
- “From These Honored Dead: Memorial Day and Veterans Day in American History” by Kenneth Jackson, History Now 4: American National Holidays (Summer 2005)
Veterans Legacy Program
Since 2021, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has partnered with the Veterans Legacy Program (VLP) to provide free resources that commemorate our nation’s veterans by examining their stories—both on site at America’s national cemeteries and via free professional development and online resources. This includes the following:
- Lesson Plans: These units focusing on the service and sacrifice of military personnel help students learn and practice the skills to analyze visual and textual source materials.
- Online Exhibition: Their Full Measure introduces viewers to nineteen men and women who served during six conflicts in American history.
- Professional Development: A mix of online and in-person PD sessions exploring American Veterans' and Service Members' lives on and off the battlefield.
- Student Contest: The World War II: Portraits of Service Awards allowed students to submit an original essay, report, eulogy, poem, song, mini-podcast, or mini-documentary profiling the sacrifices, strengths, and legacies of a World War II veteran who was honorably laid to rest in an NCA national, state, territorial, or tribal veterans cemetery.
Inside the Vault