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Our mission is to preserve the legacy of our nation's World War II veterans by collecting their personal stories.
We want to encourage and assist others to join with us in this undertaking. We also want to make this legacy of
World War II available to teachers and students of World War II history through the Internet and by direct interaction
where possible.
These stories are to be shared with friends, family and the community, and will be archived and made available
on this website. People around the world -- and future generations -- can experience and learn from the memories
of these brave men and women. Furthermore, through our partnership with the Library of Congress's Veterans History
Project, the interviews that we gather will be placed in the Library of Congress, where they become a part of our
nation's permanent historical record.
History
The World War II Lecture Institute is a National Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to building
stronger communities. It began as the World War II Lecture Series in November of 1997 at the Abington Public Library
in Abington, Pennsylvania. It was the prototype that led to the creation of the World War II Lecture Institute.
Since that time at our locations in Abington, Pennsylvania and Doylestown, Pennsylvania, our volunteer staff has
worked with numerous veterans to help capture and preserve their memories.
In 2003, we became a national partner of the Veterans History Project, a project of the American Folklife Center
of the Library of Congress, dedicated to collecting the memories, accounts and documents of our nation's wartime
veterans. We hope to bring the World War II Lecture Institute to communities across the country, by partnering
with the Veterans History Project, a nationwide network of other local and national organizations. We seek to teach
Americans of all ages and backgrounds to help preserve these precious pieces of our national heritage, before they
are lost to us forever.
Goals
In general the primary goals of the foundation are (1) to help other organizations to create a lecture series like
ours at the Abington Public Library, and (2) to provide stories of war veterans and other information that will
assist teachers and students to more easily and enjoyably learn the important facts about World War II.
Mr. Donald E. Lee, Founder
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