Query regarding visual artifacts on the Vietnam War stored in Vietnam National Archives

Lien-Hang Nguyen lienhangnguyen at gmail.com

Wed Jun 15 09:33:08 PDT 2016

Dear VSGers:

Alice Kamps, curator at the U.S. National Archives, is putting together a

Vietnam War exhibition and would like to know if scholars have run across

any visual artifacts (i.e. propaganda posters or leaflets, banners, flags,

or artwork of any kind) related to the Vietnam War/Anti-American Struggle

at the Vietnam National Archives (most likely housed in Centers 2 & 3)? If

so, please contact her directly at:

alice.kamps at nara.gov

Thanks in advance,

Hang

Lien-Hang T. Nguyen,

Dorothy Borg Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia

Columbia University

Margaret Suzanne Barnhill Bodemer mbodemer at calpoly.edu

Wed Jun 15 13:49:11 PDT 2016

I'd be very interested to hear the answer as well, if those with information don't mind replying to the list as well.

Cheers,

Margaret B. Bodemer, Ph.D.

David Marr david.marr at anu.edu.au

Wed Jun 15 17:11:05 PDT 2016

Maybe this is a good time to alert colleagues that I am gradually labelling and scanning about 300 posters, calendars, and art prints collected over the 1960s-1990s. Mostly originating in Vietnam, but also a few from France, the US, Japan and Australia. The ANU Archives is willing to take the originals, but I'd appreciate advice on the best way to make the scans available electronically.

David Marr

Emeritus professor

ANU

Lentz, Christian Cunningham cclentz at email.unc.edu

Wed Jun 15 17:40:51 PDT 2016

Dear Alice and VSGers,

Back in 2006-07, the National Archives of Vietnam, Center 3 (TTLT3) hosted an exhition called, "Nhung can bo di B," or, literally, "The cadres who went to B," where "B" served as code for the south. The exhibit featured files on soldiers, cadres, and other folk who died in the Second Indochina War as well as all kinds of other everyday stuff including memorabilia, keepsakes, equipment; photographs and personal effects; flags and unit insignias; sheet music, artwork, and so on. It even displayed Dang Thuy Tram's original diary.

For more information on available files and how to access them, please see the TTLT 3 website:

http://www.archives.gov.vn/Pages/Tin%20chi%20ti%E1%BA%BFt.aspx?itemid=232&listId=c2d480fb-e285-4961-b9cd-b018b58b22d0&ws=content

All best,

Christian C. Lentz

Dept of Geography

UNC-Chapel Hill

Margaret Suzanne Barnhill Bodemer mbodemer at calpoly.edu

Thu Jun 16 11:36:03 PDT 2016

David,

That is great to hear!

I don't know the technical details, but there are several formats that make highly useful visual material available to scholars, similar perhaps to what you envision. These come to mind because I've been using them for my Asia & SEA courses, and for student and my own research projects, and although none of them are Vietnam specific, they may serve as useful models for such a project as you mention, and may interest VSGers more broadly.

These range from selections from a larger archive that have been digitized and presented with basic archival data only, such as the USIS Propaganda Posters database hosted by the National archives: https://research.archives.gov/id/1767935

As well as those with more Curatorial commentary and sometimes longer essays, such as the Ling Long exhibit at Columbia Univ, which hosted digitization of the Shanghai magazine Ling Long from the 1930s: https://exhibitions.cul.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/linglong

Then there are those that are more elaborate, such as the Chinese Poster project at IISH collected by Stefan Landsberger, which began as a digital collection of posters and has grown to include useful essays on the visual images: http://chineseposters.net/

Another example, that is really an entire teaching curriculum, is the MIT Visualizing Cultures Asia project, headed by John Dower and company, which has not only valuable images, but also curriculum modules and many useful scholarly essays.

My sense is that many of these projects depend on the wishes of the donor and the abilities of the institution and how much funding they receive or can raise.

Hope that's useful!

Cheers,

Maggie

Margaret B. Bodemer, Ph.D.

mbodemer at calpoly.edu

Spring 2016 Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:30pm, T 11:30am-1:30pm, 1-3pm & by appointment.

http://socialsciences.calpoly.edu/faculty/maggie-bodemer

http://history.calpoly.edu/faculty/margaret-bodemer

https://calpoly.academia.edu/MargaretBarnhillBodemer

San Luis Obispo, CA

Nhung Walsh nhungwalsh at gmail.com

Fri Jun 17 11:30:33 PDT 2016