History of VA and its administrations
What is the history of the Department of Veteran Affairs? The origin story of the modern VA includes several previous entities and names dating as far back as the American colonies. To help understand that legacy, this site serves as the centralized digital location for VA’s history with the focus of educating about the special relationship between the nation and its Veterans, including how that has impacted society. Here there are various stories and exhibits that examine the individuals, institutions and innovations of the last 250 years. There have been multiple agencies that have provided the service and benefits to America’s Veterans, including the Bureau of Pensions, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, National Cemetery System, Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Veterans Bureau, and Veterans Administration, all of which are referenced on the preceding pages.
Eventually, VA’s story will be displayed to the public at the National VA History Center at the Dayton, Ohio VA campus. All information related to that effort will be found here as well.
This site is updated regularly, so check back often or sign up for our monthly newsletter in the sign up box below to have the latest stories in your inbox.
Latest VA History Posts
Featured Stories
Borne in Battle – VA Treatment for Addiction After Vietnam
In the post-Vietnam era, Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals introduced a variety of treatments for Veterans grappling with addiction issues— including specialized units, self-help programs, and various drug dependency interventions. The rise in recreational drug use in the 1960s coupled with the greater availability of drugs in Southeast Asia, a prime region for opium and heroin production, fueled an epidemic among military personnel in Vietnam. This signaled a new era in the VA’s approach to addressing addiction among Veterans.
Featured Stories
Early VA Outreach to Native American Veterans
Native Americans have a long tradition of service in the United States military. Although Native Veterans were, in 1919, among the first groups of Native Americans to be extended U.S. citizenship, many still faced challenges obtaining and using their Veteran benefits. This was in part due to changing Federal policies affecting tribal groups.
Featured Stories
An Overlooked Crisis: Morphinism and the National Homes, 1880-1916
Over the past 250 years, America’s Veterans have faced challenges that are persistent, yet unique to each generation. Substance abuse and addiction are examples of challenges that have long affected Veteran communities. America’s first opioid [...]
Featured Stories
World War I Veterans: Wounds, Opioids, and Addiction Treatment
Often regarded as the first modern war, World War I was the first conflict to use machine guns, tanks, planes, and chemical warfare on a mass scale. This, coupled with the international nature of the conflict, led to unprecedented casualties on the battlefield.
Featured Stories
Understanding the Early Mental Health Challenges of Veterans: From the Civil War to the Jim Crow Era
During the Civil War, the U.S. military was quickly overwhelmed by the need to care for hundreds of thousands of wounded and disabled soldiers. These wounds included mental illness, sometimes a result of war experiences or preexisting conditions complicated by injury or disability.
National VA History Center
The National VA History Center is the forthcoming museum and archival center for the historical collection and records pertaining to the Department of Veterans Affairs and its legacy agencies. It is located at the Dayton VA Medical Center campus, itself a designated National Historic Landmark. While the idea of the history center is not new, recent actions to make it a reality are. Ceremonies marking its official establishment – and the start of renovation work on two historic buildings to house the collection – were held in August 2020. The public opening of the facility isn’t expected for several years, but great work is ongoing behind the scenes. Look for monthly updates in the Curator Corner, illustrating the multi-faceted steps that go into establishing a museum and its collection as well as the archives with its growing amount of records from scratch. This will be the GO-TO home for the History Center.
Archives and Research
The National VA History Center has a growing Archives department that is spearheading the way to provide public access to historical documents related to the Department of Veterans Affairs and its predecessor organizations.
Researchers can access the Records Groups and Finding Aids pertaining to the Veterans Benefits Administration, Veterans Health Administration and the National Cemetery Administration on the NVAHC archives page.
History of VA in 100 Objects exhibit
The History of VA in 100 Objects spotlights the objects that illustrate how the nation has honored and cared for Veterans from 1776 to the present. Click on the link below to view all 100 entries or search by topic using the magnifying glass icon on this page. Take the journey through VA’s past, object by object.
History of VA in 100 Objects
Object 100: Burn Pits 360 Logo
A year after returning from Iraq with severe respiratory problems in 2008, Capt. Le Roy Torres and his wife founded Burn Pits 360 to raise awareness of the health hazards of burn pit emissions. Over a decade of persistent advocacy by Burn Pits 360s and other Veterans groups paid off with passage of the PACT Act in 2022, the largest expansion of Veterans benefits since the 1944 GI Bill.
History of VA in 100 Objects
Object 99: Bank Check from Manila Loyalty Room
After World War II, U.S. Army investigators in the Philippines turned over a huge collection of captured documents, intelligence reports, press clippings, and Japanese banks checks to the VA office in Manila. The Manila office stored the collection in the “Loyalty Room,” so named because VA used the checks and other records to evaluate the wartime allegiance of Filipino Veterans applying for benefits.
Featured Stories
Our Featured Stories section provides scholarly researched and written content on the people, places, events and innovations that illustrate VA’s remarkable evolution serving Veterans since the start of our nation. These are longer stories, with historical details on the rich lineage of VA and the significant moments in time.
Featured Stories
Borne in Battle – VA Treatment for Addiction After Vietnam
In the post-Vietnam era, Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals introduced a variety of treatments for Veterans grappling with addiction issues— including specialized units, self-help programs, and various drug dependency interventions. The rise in recreational drug use in the 1960s coupled with the greater availability of drugs in Southeast Asia, a prime region for opium and heroin production, fueled an epidemic among military personnel in Vietnam. This signaled a new era in the VA’s approach to addressing addiction among Veterans.
Featured Stories
Early VA Outreach to Native American Veterans
Native Americans have a long tradition of service in the United States military. Although Native Veterans were, in 1919, among the first groups of Native Americans to be extended U.S. citizenship, many still faced challenges obtaining and using their Veteran benefits. This was in part due to changing Federal policies affecting tribal groups.
Virtual Exhibits
A collection of virtual exhibits covering various historical aspects of VA, presented with focus on visual images that have been pulled from archives across the nation. Most use an exhibit-host to showcase specific topics with compelling pictures and research that go beyond stories and features.
Exhibits
To Bring Light to Where There is Darkness: VA Chaplains and Religious Artifacts from the National VA History Center
For more than 150 years, VA chaplains have served Veterans with care and compassion, proving that they are indelible to the fabric of Veterans' health. Objects in this exhibit, housed in the National VA History Center (NVAHC), help tell the story of chaplaincy’s enduring presence and its profound impact on Veteran care.
Exhibits
VA Research at 100: A Century of Medical Advancements
In 1925, 100 years ago, the Veterans Bureau initiated the first hospital-based medical research studies to address Veteran-specific issues like mental health, tuberculosis, cancer and toxic exposure. The program has since made significant medical breakthroughs and innovations, impacting the world.
Curator Corner
While the National VA History Center continues progressing, get a peek inside the growing artifact collection and records archive that will one day be featured in various displays or be accessible and centralized for research. As part of our effort, the Curator Kurt Senn and Senior Archivist Robyn Rodgers will provide insight into the efforts behind the scenes to establish the future museum and archive center that will help show VA’s story. Some of our series include ‘What’s in the box?‘ that will highlight unique items that are literally found in boxes as the team opens them and ‘From the collection,’ which traces the history of items that are stored on site.
