The Vickie L. Riggan Collection
One of the collections that relates to women in the military during World War II is the Vickie L. Riggan collection. Riggan is a researcher and collector of images of World War II women in uniform and has written several essays on the topic. There are nine major series in the collection.

The "Essays" series provides essays that Riggan wrote for her college history courses. One essay is entitled "American Women in the United States Military During World War II." The second essay is entitled "Dress Right Dress: The Impact of Public Opinion on the Development of Women's Uniforms in the United States Military."

The Reference series includes items related to women military branches, such as SPARS, WAACS and WAVES. Also, the series has information on insignia and decorations of the United States Armed Forces and handbooks for WAVES, SPARS, and the Women's Army Corps.

"Magazines and Product Ads" include covers of such magazines as Collier's, Life, Ladies Home Journal, Time, and Yank Magazine, that depict American women soldiers in uniform. The series also has product advertisements from the 1940s that show war propaganda and depict the various branches of the military in which women served.

The "Movie Posters" series provide examples of various war related movie posters made in the 1940s that show women soldiers.

The "Songbooks" files provide lyrics to popular movie theme songs and other tunes from the 1940s. The series also contains the songbooks of SPARS and the Women's Army Corps.

"Recruiting Posters" demonstrate the ways that American women were recruited to join the different branches of the military during World War II.

"Memorabilia" includes postcards from the 1940s, postage stamps depicting women soldiers, insignia items, and information on the WACs and WAVES.

The Audio/Visual series includes oral history interviews that provide insight into women veterans' experiences while serving in the military during the 1940s.

"Oversize Posters" include two posters of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the years 1941-1945 and a poster depicting the variety of people who served in the war.

The Riggan Collection also includes photographs collected by Riggan that depict unidentified women in uniform.  These are stored separately in the Photograph Collection of the Gore Research Center. 

The Middle Tennessee Oral History Project
The Middle Tennessee Oral History Project includes oral history interviews with veterans of World War II. The Albert Gore Research Center, in partnership with the Library of Congress, is currently seeking interviews with veterans in coordination with the center's Middle Tennessee Veteran's Oral History Project. The project is administered by the American Folk Life Center, which assists in preserving oral testimonies, documents, and memorabilia from the men and women who served in all branches of the military.  The project is not limited to World War II veterans, but encourages veterans from all 20th century wars to participate.

The World War II interviews include several with women from or now residing in middle Tennessee. The collection also includes photographs, letters and other memorabilia that were given by veterans. The photograph below is of Elinor Folk, a World War II veteran who served in the WAVES and participated in the Middle Tennessee Oral History Project.

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