On the 71st anniversary of the end of World
War II, exclusive StoryQuest project gives access to oral histories of
the home front
CHESTERTOWN, Md. & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
As a young child in 1945, the daughter of a Maryland farmer, Virginia
Mulligan lived a life far removed from the battlefields of World War II.
But then one day, four men arrived: German prisoners of war assigned to
work on the farm. Suddenly, the war was literally in the Mulligans’ back
yard in Worton, MD, as the POWs helped the family bale hay, shuck corn,
and chop wood, while Virginia’s mother gave them meals. Virginia’s older
brother, who was serving in the military as a bombardier, returned from
the war to discover his relatives on the home front living amicably
alongside the “enemy.”
This is just one of the dozens of stories captured through the
StoryQuest Project at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. An oral
history program led by undergraduate students at the college’s C.V.
Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the project’s
mission is to document and present stories from the home front through
hundreds of recorded interviews. StoryQuest preserves the often
overlooked memories of the millions of men, women and children who —
although they may not have served in uniform — were profoundly impacted
by World War II. The stories are being made available online through a
partnership between Washington College and Iron Mountain Incorporated®
(NYSE: IRM), the global leader in storage and information management
services.
With 2016 marking the 75th anniversary of the United States’s entry into
World War II, the StoryQuest Project is bringing to life the experiences
of wartime civilians whose stories may not be as well-known as those of
veterans. From an electrician working to transform a Navy gunboat into
Harry Truman's presidential yacht, a college physics major joining the
Manhattan Project, or a young woman recruiting migrant workers from the
South for a local munitions plant, the Storyquest Project will introduce
future generations to a completely different side of the struggle
against fascism — one that took place alongside the heroic deeds of
soldiers half a world away.
“The StoryQuest interviewers are all Washington College undergraduates,
which has been a key to its success,” said historian Adam Goodheart, the
Starr Center’s director. “Some of the people we interview have grown
accustomed to thinking that their homefront memories, unlike veterans'
combat experiences, aren't really ‘history,’ But there's something
special that happens when a 19-year-old sits down with a 90-year-old:
the older person feels that they're passing their life stories to a new
generation, and they're talking to someone who's around the same age
that they were in the 1940s. We’re very grateful for Iron Mountain’s
generous support — which is not only preserving essential history, but
also training the next generation of oral historians and digital
archivists."
In addition to capturing those first-hand accounts of experiences from
the home front, the students have collected digital images of hundreds
of wartime letters, photographs, and other artifacts that help tell the
interviewees' stories. They hold "Scan-a-Thon" days where members of the
public can share both documents and family stories. For instance, a
woman walked in with an iron box overflowing with wartime letters from
her uncle — ending with a government telegram informing the family that
he had been killed in combat in North Africa.
Through a combination of financial support and in-kind services, Iron
Mountain is helping Washington College digitally preserve these stories
of everyday Americans during the greatest global conflict in human
history. “Iron Mountain’s philanthropic mission is focused on preserving
all manner of cultural and historical experiences in order to document
and celebrate our shared human history for future generations,” says Ty
Ondatje, senior vice president for Corporate Responsibility and chief
diversity officer, Iron Mountain. “Our Living Legacy Initiative gives us
the opportunity to extend that focus to organizations that share that
mission, like Washington College’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of
the American Experience and the StoryQuest Project. We’re thrilled to
partner with Washington College to lend our expertise and help preserve
these narratives so that future generations can experience these
stories.”
These stories, in the form of audio clips, transcripts, images, and
other materials are available on the Washington College StoryQuest
website at http://www.storyquestproject.com
About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM)
is the global leader for storage and information management services.
Trusted by more than 220,000 organizations around the world, Iron
Mountain’s real estate network comprises more than 85 million square
feet across more than 1,400 facilities in 45 countries dedicated to
protecting and preserving what matters most for its customers. Iron
Mountain’s solutions portfolio includes records
management, data
management, document
management, data
centers, art
storage and logistics, and secure
shredding, helping organizations to lower storage costs, comply with
regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information.
Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of
information assets, including critical business documents, electronic
information, medical data and cultural and historical artifacts. Visit
www.ironmountain.com for
more information.
About Washington College
Founded in 1782, Washington College
in Chestertown, Md., was the first institution of higher learning
established in the new republic. George Washington was a principal donor
to the college and a member of its original board of trustees. He
received an honorary degree from the college in June 1789. The College’s
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which
administers the George Washington Prize, is an innovative center for the
study of history, culture, and politics, and fosters excellence in the
art of written history through fellowships, prizes, and student
programs. www.washcoll.edu.
The
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is
dedicated to fostering innovative approaches to the American past and
present. Through educational programs, scholarship and public outreach,
and a special focus on written history, the Starr Center seeks to bridge
the divide between the academic world and the public at large.
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Source: Iron Mountain