The Institute on World War II and the Human Experience will accept collections related to the World War II era, 1931-1949.  Our collections include material from all branches of the American armed forces, including, but not limited to, women’s military units, the Red Cross, USO, Merchant Marines, and home front defense workers and volunteers. We are always interested in collections that have a global or international perspective, especially related to the Holocaust, international humanitarian and refugee relief, and war crime’s investigations and trials.

If you are interested in donating memorabilia to the Institute, please contact the Institute Director, Dr. G. Kurt Piehler in advance before mailing a collection. Dr. Piehler can be contacted at kpiehler@fsu.edu or 850-644-9541.  You can also contact our archivist, Mike Kasper at ww2@fsu.edu for more information about donating your items.  

Please remember that we cannot accept a collection without a signed and dated Deed of Gift.  A copy of this Deed of Gift is available online and can also be mailed to you.

Types of items frequently donated:

• personal papers
• letters
• diaries
• scrapbooks
• memoirs and autobiographies (especially unpublished ones)
• photographs
• maps (World War II era)
• flight or ship logs
• military documents 
• unit histories
• art  (paintings, drawings, etc.)
• cartoons 
• poetry
• unit newsletters
• shipyard or defense plant newspapers
• business and labor union records pertaining to the war
• oral history interviews
• captured enemy records and artifacts