The Delaware Public Archives in Dover, will host a new and informative sight and sound exhibit including many Delaware servicemen’s letters and photographs featured in Vietnam Mailbag, Voices From the War: 1968-1972, a newly released book to be launched Veterans Day, Nov. 11, at the archives building.
The 460-page, full-color book is the work of Delaware author-journalist Nancy E. Lynch. Lynch was a young reporter for The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal who wrote Nancy’s Vietnam Mailbag column 40 years ago at the height of the war. She has now transformed the correspondence column into a book incorporating at its core her extensive compilation of personal letters, photos and memorabilia of Delaware veterans. The book is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who served in Vietnam. For Lynch and the Delaware Public Archives, it represents an enduring social history preserved for succeeding generations.
Opening with a reception at 1:30 p.m. on November 1, the exhibit, sponsored by the Archives, encompasses a gallery with a slide show and panels telling servicemen’s stories through their letters and personal collections of artifacts from the war. Music from the 1960s will recreate the era as background for the exhibit.
Archives Director C. Russell McCabe will host a program starting at 1:45 p.m. and accept a ceremonial turnover of book documents to the Archives as gifts to the people of Delaware. The full collection of letters and photographs will be turned over officially to the Archives later this year.
Presentations by U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy, author Lynch, and William W. Hutchison, Jr., a U.S. Army veteran, will also be included in the program. Lynch will sign copies of the book after the reception.
Commenting on Lynch’s donation to the Archives, McCabe says, “We have very few archival documents from the Vietnam era, so these documents represent quite a valuable contribution. They are so vivid and personal.” The goal of the exhibition, says McCabe, is to highlight these rich materials and relate the many personal stories of Delaware veterans. “We are absolutely thrilled to present these documents to the people of the State of Delaware.”
The exhibition continues through Memorial Day, 2009. Admission is free and open to the public. Veterans and other people interested in the Vietnam War era are encouraged to attend this special event, according to McCabe. The Archives are located at 121 Duke of York Street in Dover, north of Legislative Hall on the Capitol Green. The Delaware Public Archives is one of the oldest public archives programs in the country. Its wide range of historical records includes documents dated from the 17th century to the present.
DOVER, DEL. —
