US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve Sgt. and Museum family member Bernice Williams turns 100 years old on March 1, 2021. She says that her 1943-1945 service as a Marine made her a “better person.”

After four years of cancelled celebrations, Mardi Gras returned in 1946. For the veteran flambeaux carriers—a dangerous and physically taxing job—the need for better wages resulted in a historic strike that caused “a post-war rude awakening.”

In the four years of war, Americans on the home front were asked to do their part and to go without certain items for the sake of the war effort. For residents of New Orleans, World War II also meant going without Mardi Gras.

This new series features master’s student papers from the University of New Orleans. The first submission delves into American memory of World War II.

Jackie Robinson is best known for breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Less well known, but just as pivotal, is his 1944 court-martial after refusing to move to the back of a military bus.

In what was described as a “homey little ceremony on the back porch of the White House,” Franklin Roosevelt entered into his fourth term as President with stoic optimism.

Most scholars date the beginning of the Space Race to the middle of the 1950s. However, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, both the US and USSR were already taking their first steps towards extra-planetary exploration.

By the winter of 1945, millions of American military personnel were on the move, but they were not alone. More than 60,000 women wed by American servicemen during World War II hoped to leave their old homes behind and rejoin their husbands for a new life in the United States. However, for these “War Brides” restrictive American immigration policies posed a major challenge.

Radio as sonic morale booster was particularly important during the holidays. In this article we revisit Christmas recordings of Command Performance, The Jack Benny Show, and other radio programs.

During World War II and in the decades following, Bob Hope visited American troops for the holidays. His performances for those serving around the world brought them a bit of home. And year after year, his televised Christmas specials brought the faces of those troops into American living rooms.

General George S. Patton, Jr., one of America’s greatest battlefield commanders, died on December 21, 1945 in an Army hospital in Heidelberg, Germany.

Sheet music of the popular song, purchased in 1943, is one little girl’s lifetime link to Technical Sergeant Neal K. Moore.