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Originally known as Armistice Day, Veterans Day occurs on November 11 in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that marked the end of World War I. In 1954, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Online Exhibition
Veterans Legacy Program
Since 2021, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has partnered with the Veterans Legacy Program (VLP) to provide free resources that commemorate our nation’s veterans by examining their stories—both on site at America’s national cemeteries and via free professional development and online resources. This includes the following:
- Lesson Plans: These units focusing on the service and sacrifice of military personnel help students learn and practice the skills to analyze visual and textual source materials.
- Online Exhibition: Their Full Measure introduces viewers to nineteen men and women who served during six conflicts in American history.
Spotlight on a Primary Source
- Recruiting posters for African American soldiers, 1918
- World War II: Commemorating Pearl Harbor, 1941
- A soldier’s reasons for enlisting, 1942
- Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943
- D-Day correspondence between a soldier and his wife, 1944
Essay
- “From These Honored Dead: Memorial Day and Veterans Day in American History” by Kenneth Jackson, History Now 4: American National Holidays (Summer 2005)
History Now issues
- “World War II: Portraits of Service” (Issue 70, Spring 2024)
- “African American Soldiers” (Issue 46, Fall 2016)
- “Wartime Memoirs and Letters from the American Revolution to Vietnam” (Issue 43, Fall 2015)
- “Perspectives on America’s Wars” (Issue 31, Spring 2012)
- “World War II” (Issue 14, Winter 2007)
Inside the Vault
- “Honoring America’s First Woman Veteran: The Revolutionary War Service of Margaret Corbin”
- “Jewish American Soldiers and Jewish Refugees after World War II”
- “D-Day in Maps and Letters from Soldiers and Families”
- “World War II Soldiers: Lt. Robert L. Stone”
- “The Diary of World War I Nurse Ella Jane Osborn”
- “Pearl Harbor”