“Letters About Literature,” a project of The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and in cooperation the North Carolina Center for the Book, and other state centers, has selected its 2008 national winners chosen from this year’s 59,000 entries. Information on winners will be posted in mid-May here. 

(more…)

Donnie Taylor, site manager for the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site, takes viewers on a tour of the Harper House (ca. 1855), which was used during the battle as a hospital.  The house is furnished as a Civil War field hospital. 

The Battle of Bentonville, fought March 19-21, 1865, was the last full-scale action of the Civil War in which a Confederate army was able to mount a tactical offensive. This major battle, the largest ever fought in North Carolina, was the only significant attempt to defeat the large Union army of Gen. William T. Sherman during its march through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.

WILMINGTON–Living history interpreters will participate in demonstrations Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May 4, that show the life of the Battleship North Carolina crew during World War II. Visitors will be able to view living history demonstrations and activities Friday, May 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, May 3 from 1-5 p.m.; and Sunday, May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon. (more…)

But the request opened the floodgates.

More than 2,600 prints and slides poured in from veterans and family members within five months. Tucker, a photojournalist and teacher, felt something greater at hand. He envisioned an exhibit for — and by — Vietnam veterans. By November 2004, the exhibit became a reality, and A Thousand Words: Photographs by Vietnam Veterans began a national tour. On Thursday, May 1, the traveling exhibit will open at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. Admission is free, and the exhibit will run until Nov. 17, 2008.

“A Thousand Words is a very personal look at what the soldiers experienced and how they chose to document it,” explains Martin. Each of the 60 compelling images selected for the exhibit has a description from the veteran who took the photograph. Topics include camaraderie, jungle combat, the Vietnamese people, and a soldier’s private moments.

Martin says an important, unforeseen benefit emerged as the exhibit progressed. Through the photographs, the veterans found a way to express what they could not say. Silences about the war were broken between husbands and wives, family members and others.

“Photographs weren’t just dropped off at my office,” he states. “The men wanted to talk. Three decades later, their experiences remained fresh and often just below the surface.”

After selecting the images for A Thousand Words, Martin and his team of volunteers and students invited the veterans back to tape interviews about the photographs. Their gripping words range from the anguish of fighting near the Cambodian border to enjoying a 1966 Bob Hope Christmas show or finally taking a field “shower” in a rice paddy in 100-degree weather.

For example, army veteran Joe Idol recalled wartime anxiety when describing his photograph of a soldier in a Cambodian jungle. “We were never off duty. Being in a war zone, you got to understand, there are different ways to get killed during the different periods of the day.” Others soldiers described calmer scenes, such as a Vietnamese farmer riding on a water buffalo or people washing clothes in a river.

More than 206,000 men and women from North Carolina served in Vietnam. In the 1950s, the first American troops arrived in Vietnam as military advisers to the South Vietnam government. By 1965 American combat forces began arriving in large numbers, and the conflict became primarily an American war. By the time our troops withdrew in 1975, more than 58,000 Americans had died.

Don’t miss A Thousand Words, a profound tribute to the men and women from the Piedmont Triad who served our country. For creating and curating the exhibit, Tucker received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest civilian award from the Military Order of the Purple Heart Association. Tucker, a Vietnam-era veteran who served in the U.S. Navy, currently teaches photography at a private school and runs a photography studio in Winston-Salem.

FREE PROGRAM

Curator’s Tour: A Thousand Words: Photographs by Vietnam Veterans

Saturday, May 17

1:30 p.m.

Join Martin Tucker for a poignant perspective of the Vietnam War through the lenses of soldiers who experienced it.

For more information, call 919-807-7900 or visit ncmuseumofhistory.org.

# # #

The N.C. Museum of History’s hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. The museum is part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, an agency of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. The department’s Web site is www.ncculture.com.

Hundreds of North Carolina students will gather on Saturday, April 26, at the N.C. Museum of History in downtown Raleigh to celebrate History Day.  Archives and History Education Supervisor Joann Williford talks about the annual competition (:33).  Next, three North Carolinians share memories of cultural experiences (4:47).  April is Jazz Month, and Scott Freck of the North Carolina Symphony recently caught up with jazzman Branford Marsalis for a phone interview (8:13).  The New Orleans born Marsalis, who now lives in Durham, is a trustee of the Symphony board.  The podcast closes with “Revelation,” by Durham singer Lois DeLoatch, who is featured in the new edition of the Touring Artists Directory from the North Carolina Arts Council (14:11).  

Students perform for History Day

RALEIGH – More than 250 middle and high school students will bring alive lessons from the past during a statewide history competition on Saturday, April 26, at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. Competitors were identified in regional contests throughout the state. (more…)

DURHAM—Relive the April 26, 1865 Confederate surrender at Bennett Place in Durham – the largest of the Civil War – on Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27, at Bennett Place State Historic Site.  The program, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, will include a colorful reenactment of the how the Union and Confederate generals negotiated the surrender terms, a candlelight tour of the former Bennett family farm, the southern soldiers’ surrender to northern troops, a solemn wreath-laying ceremony, Union and Confederate soldier encampments and more.  The program is free and open to the public.

(more…)