Making History Project – Veteran Oral History Preserving Veterans’ Stories
2023 was a busy and successful year for the Making History Project. Our project highlights include:
Veteran Interviews
Over the past year, the Making History Project continued its mission by gathering and preserving additional oral history interviews. These interviews occurred in Miami, Pensacola, Washington DC, and Normandy, France.
Conferences and Trips
The Making History Project returned to Normandy, France, for the 79th Anniversary of D-Day and attended the ceremony at Omaha Beach on June 6, 2023. Not only were these events documented, but we were able to make wonderful connections with additional Veterans and the wonderful organization Honoring Veteran Legacies to coordinate additional interviews in the future.
In August, we attended the 77th Annual Convention for the 82nd Airborne in Washington, DC. We saw old friends and met new ones during the convention while conducting oral history interviews onsite. This also gave us an opportunity to visit and meet with the friendly staff of the Veterans History Project for the U.S. Library of Congress.
Finally, in November, the Making History Project was in Pensacola, Florida, for the Blue Angels Homecoming. Once again, our partners, Veterans Flight, and the Innisfree Jet Center, helped to facilitate and host us for gathering many more oral history interviews of Navy pilots and Marines.
Intern Team
Our partnership with Governors State University remains strong as our intern program with their graduate film students continues. For the third year in a row, we have a dedicated team of college interns working on editing and chronicling our completed oral history interviews. This tremendous effort is helping us prepare all of our interviews for archival purposes and, ultimately, for delivery to the U.S. Library of Congress.
Outreach
We are working to establish an ongoing relationship with the University of Miami and explore what it can do to assist the Veterans Resource Center. Patrick Russell, the founder of the Making History Project, is an alumnus of the University of Miami School of Law, so this collaboration is a natural fit. In November, two local World War II Veterans who were previously interviewed by the Making History Project were honored on the field during a University of Miami football game.
Making History Project YouTube Channel
Finally, this year, the Making History Project has been regularly uploading completed Veteran oral history interviews to the project’s YouTube channel. As a result of these efforts, the Making History Project YouTube Channel gathered a significant number of new subscribers. The project’s YouTube channel has been monetized and will now provide additional funding for the continued mission of our non-profit.
Making History Project Goals for 2024
Our priority is our core mission to obtain and preserve veteran oral history interviews. To that end, we are in the planning stages for additional trips to Beaufort, South Carolina, and Huntsville, Alabama, to gather multiple interviews at the same time. Likewise, it is expected that the Making History Project will be returning to Normandy, France, this year for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and a return trip to Pensacola.
A priority for the Making History Project is to have all of its existing interviews available online on the project’s YouTube channel. Likewise, we hope to have all the existing interviews sent and archived with the U.S. Library of Congress.
To assist in these endeavors, we will emphasize increasing the number of student interns to assist in processing existing interviews. Likewise, we hope to develop additional partnerships and educational opportunities with other organizations, including the University of Miami, 508 PIR of the 82nd Airborne, and Honoring Veteran Legacies.
If this project interests you or if you would like to help in any way, please be sure to reach out to us.
Patrick Russell – Founder
Tel. (305) 608-2977
Email: patrick@making-history-project.com
