• Read Object 29: National Cemetery “General” Headstone

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 29: National Cemetery “General” Headstone

    More than 4.7 million Americans served in the U.S. armed forces in World War I and almost all became eligible after the war for burial in a national cemetery or to receive a government headstone in a private cemetery.

  • Read Object 26: Admission of First Female Veteran to National Home

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 26: Admission of First Female Veteran to National Home

    While women have served in nearly all of America’s wars, it wasn’t until after World War One that female Veterans achieved access to government health care.

  • Read War Girls: California’s Army nurses in World War I

    Exhibits

    War Girls: California’s Army nurses in World War I

    Between April 6, 1917 and November 18, 1918, over 21,000 American women enlisted in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. This digital exhibit explores and commemorates the lives of California’s Army nurses buried in national cemeteries: Alta Ireland Heron, Vera Marston Rush, Etta Parker, Guilda N. Jones Vicini, and Mayme E. Williamson.

  • Read Object 23: Oteen Veterans’ Hospital

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 23: Oteen Veterans’ Hospital

    After the United States entered World War I in 1917, the government hastily built new facilities both to train Army medical personnel and to provide care for soldiers wounded during the fighting or stricken with disease. Oteen Veterans' Hospital was one of these.

  • Read Object 22: United States Veterans’ Bureau Medical Bulletin

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 22: United States Veterans’ Bureau Medical Bulletin

    In the space of just a few years following World War I, the U.S. government created an expansive health system for ex-servicemembers under the direction of a new and independent federal agency, the Veterans’ Bureau. A medical bulletin was soon published monthly featuring articles from the healthcare staff.

  • Read Object 21: Bonus Army

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 21: Bonus Army

    After World War I, Americans discharged from military service faced a difficult homecoming. Many struggled to find work in the tight labor market created by a post-war recession. After a deferred payout, the Bonus Act, was passed, many Veterans marched on the capital to voice displeasure. The Bonus Army soon formed.

  • Read Object 18: The Perry Point Grist Mill and Mansion House

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 18: The Perry Point Grist Mill and Mansion House

    VA manages more than 1,700 historic properties, but none older than the Grist Mill and Mansion House on the campus of the Perry Point VA Medical Center in Maryland.

  • Read Object 13: Veterans’ Administration Seal

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 13: Veterans’ Administration Seal

    On July 21, 1930, President Herbert C. Hoover signed Executive Order 5398 establishing the Veterans’ Administration (VA), the forerunner of today’s Department of Veterans Affairs. Soon Adminstrator Frank Hines had created a new Veterans' Administration seal to go with the new agency.

  • Read Object 11: Staff of Tuskegee Veterans Hospital

    History of VA in 100 Objects

    Object 11: Staff of Tuskegee Veterans Hospital

    To accommodate the growing number of African American Veterans in the south following World War I, the Veterans Bureau opened the Tuskegee Veterans Hospital in 1923 reserved exclusively for their use. Originally called the “Hospital for Sick and Injured Colored World War Veterans,” the installation was staffed entirely by Black doctors and nurses.

  • Read Black Soldiers From 3-24th Infantry’s Legacy

    Featured Stories

    Black Soldiers From 3-24th Infantry’s Legacy

    On February 22, 2022, the National Cemetery Administration unveiled a wayside sign at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near seventeen graves of Black World War I soldiers from the 3-24th Infantry executed by the Army as mutineers after a violent, racially driven melee in Houston. The events led to an immediate, historic change to the courts-martial appellate-review process on January 17, 1918.

  • Read Fort Whipple – Historic VA Medical Center started as Army post

    Featured Stories

    Fort Whipple – Historic VA Medical Center started as Army post

    The present-day Bob Stump VA Medical Center campus in Prescott, Arizona has had a long and interesting history from the time the Arizona Territory was created in 1863. Established as Fort Whipple, the facility transitioned over many years to an eventual VA Medical Center campus.

  • Read Halyburton and Grimsley – Story of U.S.’s First POWs in WWI

    Featured Stories

    Halyburton and Grimsley – Story of U.S.’s First POWs in WWI

    After a night raid by German forces on Nov. 2, 1917, a group of U.S. soldiers became the first group taken prisoner in WWI. These POWs included Sgt. Edgar Halyburton and Pvt. Clyde Grimsley, and each suffered the privations that occurred in early 20th Century imprisonment.