Many of us are familiar with the material remains of war, whether we have direct experience with the battlefield or not. Some of these objects are personal, a way for veterans to preserve their experiences. Often, objects collected by relatives who have participated in the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries linger on as memorials that help families tell the stories of how their beloved fathers, grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, cousins, and siblings contributed to the larger history of war. The “Bringing War Home” project aims to enable our diverse community, military and civilian alike, to share their wartime objects and the stories that surround them. Working with community partners, we are preparing to host roadshows across Utah, where we invite the community to share family stories and to bring wartime objects for us to photograph and preserve in a digital archive (an online website where others can view and learn about these objects and their stories). One of our main goals is to create opportunities to engage veterans, military families, students, and communities in ongoing conversations on how objects can help us understand modern war.
For more information, please visit: https://www.usu.edu/mountainwest/bringing-war-home.