Other Repositories with Peace Corps Collections
American University Library – Archives of the Friends of Colombia, the Friends of Nigeria, and the NPCA Archives.
The Archives of the Friends of Colombia and the Friends of Nigeria contain materials related to individual Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. The NPCA archives includes institutional material related to the Peace Corps.
Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan – Peace Corps Collections
The Bentley Library has multiple collections relating to the Peace Corps.
Brown University – Peace Corps Files, 1965-1967
This collection comprises publications by the Peace Corps, training materials, and a variety of office files, such as correspondence and staff personnel records from 1965-1967.
Colorado State University – Peace Corps Collection, 1959-1994
The collection contains materials from the period during and following the Peace Corps’ founding, from the 25th Anniversary National Seminar on Future Directions for the Peace Corps, and material on the activities of the Center for Research and Education (CRE).
Radcliffe Institute, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University– Collection on Women Peace Corps Volunteers in Afghanistan’s Smallpox Eradication Program, 1968-1971
The collection includes training documents, photographs, slides and letters home from several female Peace Corps volunteers who served as part of the World Health Organization’s smallpox vaccination program.
Indiana University Liberian Collections– http://www.onliberia.org/
These collections, part of Indiana University’s Archives of Traditional Music, contain materials related to Liberian dance, music, and culture. Materials include government documents, newspapers, video, audio, film, books, and journals. Relevant to the Peace Corps in particular, the Norman R. Peters Collection, 1965-1981, contains handwritten and typed stories of his experiences in Liberia, notably the 1980 coup.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
The Kennedy Library contains 17 collections related to the Peace Corps during the Kennedy era. Two major collections are the U.S. Peace Corps Records and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection.
Live Lingua – Peace Corps Language Course Archive
The Peace Corps Language Course Archive is a collection of language learning materials issued by the Peace Corps to Volunteers. This collection contains digital books and audio learning materials for nearly 100 languages, and is open for free use.
Marquette University – Henry S. Reuss Peace Corps Records
Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and publications documenting Reuss’s proposal for a Point Four Youth Corps and public reaction to the plan, the founding of the Peace Corps (for which he drafted the authorizing legislation), the establishment of a binational Peace Corps project with West Germany, and the establishment of Peace Corps volunteer training programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Marquette University.
Museum of the Peace Corps Experience – Museum of the Peace Corps Experience
The purpose of the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience is to extend the reach of Peace Corps beyond international host communities and individual volunteers. By exhibiting artifacts and telling Peace Corps stories to far-reaching audiences the Committee hopes to inspire deeper cultural understanding and a commitment to service. The Museum has also compiled the Peace Corps Authors: A Bibliography, a catalog of over 3,300 books written by Peace Corps Volunteers.
National Archives and Records Administration – Records of the Peace Corps, 1961-2000 (Record Group 490)
This large collection of Peace Corps materials spans nearly 40 years and contains multiple formats, including varying types of media.
Peace Corps – Peace Corps Media Library
This digital library maintains some historical documents and a collection of current stories from serving Volunteers and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
The Peace Gallery – PeaceGallery.org
This digital collection features images from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who established the site to fulfill the Third Goal of the Peace Corps: “help promote a better understanding of other people and cultures around the world.”
Smithsonian Institution – Papers of Peace Corps Volunteers, 1920-1984
Collection of papers from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers in the National Anthropological Archive, including the collection’s online finding aid.
Stanford University – Peace Corps papers
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Peace Corps-related collections at Stanford University Library.
University of California, Los Angeles – International Studies and Overseas Programs, Peace Corps
University of California, Los Angeles serves as a training center for the Peace Corps since August 1961. This collection encompasses final reports of the programs in Chile, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Latin America, Nigeria, and Peru, from the years 1962-1966.
University of Hawaii – UH Hilo Library and in the Hawaiian and Pacific Collection; UH Manoa Archives and Manuscript Department of Hamilton Library
The Peace Corps Training Center Collection contains materials developed and used over a 10-year period to train Americans in knowledge and skills needed to successfully engage with host country nationals as Peace Corps Volunteers in Asia and the Pacific.
Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History (University of Kentucky) – Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (Kentucky) Oral History Project; Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Oral History Project; The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
There are three distinct collections of Peace Corps oral histories at the Louis B. Nunn Center- interviews conducted with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from Kentucky; interviews conducted with Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers; and interviews conducted with the wider RPCV community. The RPCV Oral History Project is a continuation of the RPCV Oral History project formerly housed at the JFK Library. The Nunn Center was selected as the new repository for the project in 2020, but legacy interviews remain at the JFK Library. The interviews cover their experiences before, during, and after Peace Corps including their motivations for joining, the application process, training, living situations, difficulties, the job, relationships, coming home, and their impact on the host country and on their own lives.
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research – Peace Corps Collection, 1950-1967
This collection of materials relates to the Peace Corps Latin American Training Center 1950-1967.
University of Southern California – Peace Corps Korea Digital Archive
This digital collection contains photographs, documents, publications, diaries, correspondence, and audio-visual material from Peace Corps Korea Volunteers and Friends of Korea.
Peace Corps Related Websites
Bring the World Home
Bring the World Home was a weekly program on Community Access TV on Oahu, Hawaii featuring interviews with former Peace Corps volunteers that ran from 2002 through 2010.
Friends of Nigeria
Website of the Friends of Nigeria, a non-profit group of former Peace Corps volunteers and others serving to promote education and knowledge about Nigeria through the Peace Corps experiences of Returned Nigerian Peace Corps Volunteers. The website contains accounts of volunteers, photographs, newsletters, and documents.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress houses a collection of books of both fiction and non-fiction work primarily by returned volunteers. The works are related to either “the Peace Corps experience” or the developing of the contemporary world. The list contains detailed annotations for each book and are available in the Library of Congress collections.
National Peace Corps Association
The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for and creating a community with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. NPCA offers travel, education, and other resources for RPCVs.
Peace Corps Family Album
Ernie Zaremba and his wife, Helene, are collecting RPCV stories through either direct interview or through online video chats. As of Summer 2012, they had interviewed over 1300 RPCVs.
Peace Corps Online
This website acts as a news forum for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. In addition, the site hosts a collection of primary source documents and RPCV histories on their History of the Peace Corps page.
Peace Corps Worldwide
The Peace Corps Worldwide website celebrates the experience of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) and current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) through their shared narratives. The site is an offshoot of the print newsletter Peace Corps Writers that was first published in 1989 by John Coyne and Marian Haley Beil (both Ethiopia 1962–64) to promote RPCV and PCV writers. Today, Peace Corps Worldwide is supported by an all volunteer staff.
First Response Action
The First Response Action website is dedicated to raising awareness about Peace Corps Volunteers suffering from criminal activity while serving. Their mission is to lobby for better protection for Peace Corps Volunteers, as well as policy changes and more effective response between the program and individual Peace Corps Volunteers.