Letters Home from Afghanistan

Kristina Engstrom and Peace Corps friends in front of the library 2011

The Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America has invited the Peace Corps women who worked on the smallpox vaccination program in Afghanistan to place their letters, journals, diaries,  photos, and other documents in the library’s archives.  The librarians and curators at the Schlesinger, part of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in Cambridge MA, are convinced that the vaccinators’ materials are important, not just to the vaccinators themselves, their families and friends but to historians, social scientists, other scholars, and to members of the public who are studying, for example, American women of their generation, foreign women in Afghanistan, public health workers, people touched by the lives of Afghans and places in Afghanistan, family relationships,  work history, education…

The Schlesinger, established in the 1940s, is currently focusing on “women acting globally after World War II” although the library has numerous collections dating from the founding of the United States. The Peace Corps vaccinators will be joining Amelia Earhart, Julia Child, Betty Freidan, the women’s auxiliary of the First Methodist Church of Greenville Mississippi,  American nurses reporting from France during World War I, and many others.

Individual vaccinators will of course make their own decisions about whether to archive their materials and, if so, where.  If they do decide to place their materials in the Schlesinger archives, they may do so at any time, even making provisions in their wills. They may also set any restrictions they want to place on the use of the materials through a formal agreement with the library.

This is a wonderful opportunity to ensure the safety of these unique materials and ensure their accessibility to future scholars.

Written by Kristina Engstrom, Training Consultant, International Programs (Director of Training for Peace Corps Vaccinators, Afghanistan)