War Comes Home: The Legacy

Description

I’m coming home! I’m looking forward to seeing you again…but I’m in no hurry to see the expressions on your faces when you see me.

Private Al Puntasecca, letter to his family, 1953

For veterans, returning home from war can be both an exhilarating and challenging experience. Through private correspondence from almost every major conflict in U.S. history, War Comes Home offers insight into the thoughts and emotions of veterans and their families upon their homecoming. These intimate perspectives – from the Civil War era through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – reveal how war can shape a life, a family, and a community. This exhibition is a partnership with California Humanities and is a part of its War Comes Home initiative, which aims to raise awareness of and promote greater understanding of our veterans and explore the impact of war on our communities.

Within each section, the exhibition pairs an historic letter with a contemporary letter or email to demonstrate the range of experiences military members face as they transition from deployment to home. Showcasing veterans and their families adjusting to civilian life together – or facing the long-term costs of war – these powerful letters explore feelings of grief, joy, doubt, and love, bringing the real experiences of war home to all of us.

The exhibition is based on the collection the Center for American War Letters (CAWL) and curated by Andrew Carroll, the Director of CAWL, and John Benitz, Professor, Chapman University. The freestanding panels provide a flexible layout, easy installation and designed to fit a variety of venue – libraries, museums, community centers, lobbies and government buildings. Three copies of the exhibition will begin touring in January 2015 and will tour for at least 3 years.

This exhibit is also available as an online exhibit! Book the online exhibit as a stand-alone experience, or pair it with the physical exhibit when you host. Visit our online exhibits page to learn more.

War Comes Home: The Legacy is a partnership between California Humanities, the California State Library and Exhibit Envoy. It is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the BayTree Fund, The Whitman Fund, and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.