War Comes Home: The Legacy September 15 - October 13 Open Tuesday – Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m
This traveling exhibition, rich with historic and contemporary letters from almost every major conflict in U.S. history, offers an intimate perspective into the thoughts and emotions of veterans & their families upon a soldier’s homecoming. On thirteen interpretive panels, War Comes Home explores the many joys and many hardships that returning soldiers and their loved ones face. As expressed through private letters and email exchanges spanning from the Civil War through to the wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, this powerful exhibit reveals how war changes lives, families & communities and also examines the shared themes of wartime separation, adjustment back to normal life, and the costs of war. As Staff Sergeant Parker Gyokeres writes, “Those of us coming back…are not looking for sympathy. We might be reluctant at first to talk about what we’ve been through…[but] your support has made this journey an incredible one…Thanks, above all, for listening.”
War Comes Home is part of Cal Humanities’ current War Comes Home initiative and is based on the work of the Center for American War Letters (CAWL). Andrew Carroll, the Director of CAWL and an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author, and John Benitz, Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Chapman University, co-curated the exhibition. Sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
