World War II Home Front Stories

The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park and the city of Richmond are working with the Regional Oral History Office of the UC Berkeley Library and Bancroft Library to collect stories from people in the San Francisco Bay area who remember what life was like on the home front during World War II.  They are looking for personal accounts and memorabilia relating to civilians on the home front:  workers, volunteers, homemakers, children, etc.  Stories become part of the Rosie the Riveter park archives and are also available at the Richmond Central Library.  Several of the interviews are available on the Rosie the Riveter park Web site.

Some of the topics they are looking for stories about are the Civilian Defense Corps, rationing, unions, work in defense factories, V-mail, volunteering, and victory gardens.

For more information contact museum curator Veronica Rodriguez at (510) 234-1544 x6643 or veronica_rodriguez@nps.gov.

Reception to Celebrate New Emma Goldman Book

Emma Goldman c. 1911

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an important anarchist well known for her political activism and writing.  She was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Russia but became a committed atheist.  The Emma Goldman Papers Project at the University of California at Berkeley has collected, organized, and edited thousands of papers by and about Goldman since 1980.  This Sunday, November 18, the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life will host a reception to honor the project's publication of the third volume in the four-part series Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, 1890-1919 (Stanford University Press, November 2012).  There will be readings of Goldman's work.  The reception is open to the public.

The reception will be held from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, California.