Dates in Service: 1970s
Keywords: Business, Community Development, Education, Environment, Health
Accession Date: May 7, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size/Finding Aid: 1 item (“Peace Corps Program and Training Journal”) (located in small collections)
Document Types
Country of Service: Gabon & India
Dates in Service: 1967-1969
Keywords: Community Development
Accession Date: May 7, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size: .01 linear feet (located in small collections)
Document Types
Finding Aid
Country of Service: Micronesia, East Caroline Islands, & Truk
Service Type: School Teacher
Dates in Service: served two years in the early 1970s
Keywords: Community Development, Education, Health, Libraries, Literacy, Youth
Accession Date: May 7, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size: .25 linear feet (located in small collections)
Document Types
Finding Aid
Country of Service: Philippines
Service Type: Elementary School English Teacher
Dates in Service: 1961-1963
Keywords: Community Development, Education, Literacy, Youth, Judaism
Accession Date: May 7, 2021; May 31, 2022
Access: no restriction
Collection Size: .26 linear feet (located in small collections)
Document Types
Digital Surrogates
Finding Aid
Country of Service: Colombia
Service Project: Educational Television Utilization Volunteer
Dates in Service: 1963-1965
Keywords: Architecture, Business, Community Development, Education, Environment, Health, Information Technology, Libraries, Literacy, Urban Planning, Youth
Accession Date: April 16, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size: 1 linear foot (located in Friends of Colombia Boxes 62 & 63)
Document Types
Finding Aid
Box 62
Box 63
Country of Service: Malaysia
Place of Service: Sandakan
Service Type: High School Teacher; Founding Member of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of New Jersey
Dates in Service: 1973-1976
Keywords: Community Development, Education, Health, Library Literacy, Youth
Accession Date: April 16, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size: .01 linear feet (located in small collections)
Document Types
Finding Aid
Country of Service: Ecuador
Dates in Service: 1984-1986
Keywords: Agriculture, Architecture, Community Development, Environment, Urban Planning
Accession Date: April 16, 2021
Access: no restrictions
Collection Size: .25 linear feet (located in small collections)
Document Types
Finding Aid
What did you do last month? Associate archivist Leslie Nellis, American University library consultant Robert Newlen, and I took the archives on the road for the opening festival at the REACH building of the Kennedy Center. The event was a collaboration between the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, DC (RCPV/W), and the REACH.
Robert Newlen (left) and Leslie Nellis (right) speak with visitors about the Archives, September 22, 2019
In a room known the Peace Corps Place, PCCA launched “Answering the Call” –a temporary exhibit highlighting RCPVs experiences using their donated materials. Sixteen other exhibitors joined us, including booths by the Peace Corps Oral History Project and the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience.
We spent the day greeting visitors and describing our efforts to collect, preserve, and make available the materials donated by RPCVs. Close to 300 visitors—many of them RPCVs with their families—flipped through examples from the current collections, listened to Geer Wilcox’s recorded letters sent home, and shared their own memories of their time in the Peace Corps.
Packing lists from the ‘80s spurred conversations between old and new RCPVs about what has changed and what has not. One woman laughed and said “They told me to pack a meat-grinder.” Others snapped photos of President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 letter to volunteers or the poster that read “She taught me how to write my name, I taught her how to say it.”
RCPV woman (left) and Debby Prigal (right) pose with Prigal’s donation.
About halfway through the day, RPCV Debby Prigal discovered her own donated materials within the exhibit and reproduced on free postcards. “That’s me! That’s mine!” She exclaimed, pointing at her entry in the copy of a “Close of Service” Newsletter. For a moment, Debby achieved celebrity status as others asked for her to autograph their postcards.
The entire day was a perfect example of PCCA’s goals to enrich the Archives through partnerships with Peace Corps affiliates, exhibit materials that document the impact of individuals who volunteered, increase the awareness of the history of the Peace Corps, and of course, make some new friends!
If you or someone you know is interested in finding out more about donating to the collection, please visit the “Donate” tab or email us at archives@american.edu.
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
AU Archives and Special Collections will be moving to a new location in 2017. We closed on December 9 to prepare for our move. We will not be accepting donations until we reopen in our new location. We will continue to respond to phone calls and email messages as time allows. Feel free to contact us with questions.