It Took A War

It Took A War is an ongoing project aimed at archiving a collection of World War II letters, photographs and interviews. Since 2002, students enrolled in the Research and Technology class at the Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill and Clover Hill High School, in Midlothian, Virginia have transcribed, catalogued and preserved this growing collection. As of February 2014, the project is approaching 4,000 letter transcriptions. In addition to transcribing letters, we are now working to digitize the collection. We have also begun working with Virginia Commonwealth University to add 3-D artifacts to the project. In 2010, CBS 6 in Richmond presented a story about It Took A War and the story won an Edward R. Murrow Award for the reporter, Greg McQuade, and his photographer. The story may be viewed at CBS 6 Story About It Took A War. The letters have been purchased by, as well as donated to, the school. It is our hope that these primary source documents will educate students through personal accounts of the war, and also aid in teaching them how to properly preserve original documents for generations to come.

Most of the letters featured on this website were written by American soldiers involved in the war; however, various letters were written by friends and family members on the home front. A few of the letters were written by foreign soldiers who were allied with or against the United States. These letters help demonstrate the commonality of the soldier's experience. Remember, this is an ongoing project and it will take time to transfer hundreds of letters to this website. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the content of the letters featured on this website, or if you wish to report any technical errors, please contact the webmaster.