The Peace Corps Community Archives (PCCA) began at American University in the spring of 2013, and by September already had 12 collections. Four years and a move later that number has grown to 69 collections, both from groups and individuals. With these collections come some interesting statistics that you can discover below about how the archive has grown over the years. (Note: Numbers refer to number of individual collections.)

People
*while most volunteers entered as single adults, a few of them served with their spouse

2013: 17 Men, 10 Women

2017: 37 Men, 31 Women, including 5 couples

Most Common Types of Work

2013: Education – Health & Sanitation – Community Development

2017: Education – Community Development – Environment & Health

Decades of Service
The Peace Corps was founded in 1961 and volunteers have been serving ever since, and continue to serve to this day. Every decade since 1961 is represented in our collections.

2013:  21, 1960s – 4, 1970s – 0, 1980s – 0, 1990s – 2, 2000s – 1, 2010s

2017:  42, 1960s – 6, 1970s – 6, 1980s – 1, 1990s – 6, 2000s – 2, 2010s

Where Served
Peace Corps volunteers serve all around the world in 60 different countries. Below is where the volunteers from our collections have served through the years.

Central America
2013: 2     2017: 10
Belize – Dominican Republic – Eastern Caribbean – Haiti – Honduras – Jamaica – Mexico – Panama

 

South America
2013: 13     2017: 20
Bolivia – Chile – Colombia – Paraguay – Peru – Suriname

 

Africa
2013: 5     2017: 19
Ghana – Kenya – Mali – Morocco – Nigeria – Senegal – Sierra Leone – Uganda

 

Eastern Europe/Middle East
2013: 2     2017: 4
Afghanistan – Turkey – Ukraine

 

Asia/Pacific Islands
2013: 6     2017: 8
Fiji – India – Malaysia – Philippines – Thailand

 

The archive has grown quite a bit since 2013, and we are excited about the diversity of the collections that are now available to the public. But we would love to keep growing! We are always looking to add to the PCCA, so if you can fill in the gaps or are interested in finding a home for your collection of Peace Corps materials please contact us.
Email: archives@american.edu     Phone: (202) 885-3256