Johnson County Museum of History Director David Pfeiffer showcases the museum’s oral history on local veterans. The museum is seeking more veterans to interview.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
The Johnson County Museum of History is seeking veterans and volunteers for its oral history project.
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information using sound recordings of interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Museum Director David Pfeiffer said the museum has been collecting audio recordings since the 1990s.
“It’s been on and off depending on the staff availability, but it’s been going on since the late ‘90s,” he said. “We’ve been trying to push it more now, especially because with some of these veterans, we may have a limited time left with them. We want to make sure we capture these before it’s too late.”
Anyone veterans interested in contributing to the project, or anyone interested in volunteering to be an interviewer, can reach out to Pfeiffer at dpfeiffer@co.johnson.in.us. Interested veterans would be added to the “master interview list” that Pfeiffer has created.
The four most recent interviews took place within the last three years. All of those featured World War II veterans.
“We had one interesting one where we had one of the gentlemen, he served on a large battleship, the West Virginia,” Pfeiffer said. “Years after the war, he bumped into another veteran who had a West Virginia ball cap, and he asked, ‘We’re you on the West Virginia?’ and he said, ‘You rescued me. My ship sank and we were in life rafts, and the West Virginia came to pick us up.’ What are the odds that two guys from Franklin randomly meet up because one ship sank and the other one is here to rescue them? And then for them to bump into each other years later and recognize each other and that connection — that was a really fascinating story.”
The project has also captured history from a few Vietnam War veterans. Pfeiffer would like to feature Korean War veterans.
The collection is available in the Johnson County Museum’s genealogy lab. Some of these oral histories are on cassette tapes, so the museum has partnered with Franklin College to digitize them.
The collection is available to listen to at the museum.
“They’re on our computers here,” Pfeiffer said. “They’re free for anybody to listen to.”