VIRTUAL ARCHIVE OF STUDENT PROJECTS

Complete Collection of American Century Project Archive is now hosted at

- Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage

The following archive reflects the breadth of interviews that range from World War I combatants, and Immigrants in search of the “American Dream.” Project’s that appear in the virtual Archive are limited pending on restrictions established by the interviewee in the Project Release Form. Projects not available through the web due to interviewee restrictions might be obtained through the St. Andrew’s Episcopal School library archive. Click here to view a complete list of interviews.

 In 1948 historian John Lucaks declared the 20th century the “American Century.” Each year St. Andrew’s students in the AP U.S. History and America in the Twentieth Century classes are responsible for selecting an individual of no relation to interview about a particular period or event of the American Century. I continually marvel at some of the interviewees students have independently secured over the years--Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Shalikashvili, Civil Rights activists Amiri Baraka and Roger Wilkins, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and advisor to President Lyndon Johnson Jack Valenti. However, more often than not students conduct interviews with “non-elite” individuals whose stories would otherwise have been lost to historians. I am particularly impressed by Blanch Shafer’s perspective on women working in factories during World War II, Joey Thompson’s experiences with President FDR while both sought therapy for polio in Warm Spring, Georgia, and Bob Rast, a Vietnam veteran who for the first time spoke about his experiences in South East Asia. A failure to conduct these interviews would be a loss to our collective memory.