There are approximately 127,000 veterans living in Maine today and their histories are as diverse as their backgrounds. The Maine Historical Society’s new exhibition, “Veterans’ Voices,” features veterans’ first-person stories spanning World War II to the Afghanistan Wars — all ordinary people who have done extraordinary things in trying times — and their histories are as diverse as their backgrounds.
Veterans’ Voices is the inaugural exhibition drawn from My Maine Stories, Maine Historical Society’s new online storytelling portal that, for the first time, opens Maine Memory Network to individual contributors to tell and archive their own personal histories. These veteran stories and other general contributions about Maine can be found at mainememory.net/mymainestories.
Veterans’ Voices was produced with assistance from the Bureau of Veterans Affairs, Portland Vet Center, Southern Maine Agency on Aging’s Vet to Vet Project, University of Southern Maine Veterans Services, Maine Healthcare System, Veterans for Peace, and Westport Island History Committee. In addition, the exhibition is supported with funding from the Simmons Foundation.
Veterans' Voices opened to the public Jan. 12, and some of the veterans featured will attend the exhibition’s grand opening Friday, Feb. 3, which coincides with the World War I and the Maine Experience exhibit opening. The exhibit will run through April 29.
Maine Historical Society is a growing museum, incomparable library and statewide educational resource located in the heart of Portland’s downtown cultural district. Founded in 1822, it is the third-oldest state historical society in the United States. The society strives to serve the entire state through its education and outreach programs and through the digital museum and Maine Memory Network. The museum consists of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Garden, the museum store, the Brown Research Library and Maine Memory Network. For more information, please visit mainehistory.org.
Joy Asuncion is retired from the U.S. Navy. She is an Honor Flight Maine board member and a Maine Troop Greeter. To contact Joy, email her at joyasuncion@roadrunner.com or call 930-5640.
