Kentucky Returned Peace Corps Volunteers gathered at the state capitol in 1991. First Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver stands in the middle.
To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the United States Peace Corps, the Kentucky Peace Corps Association is highlighting the service of Kentucky's returned Peace Corps volunteers in a new traveling exhibit that will open at the William T. Young Library on March 1, 2026.
Taking viewers on a decade-by-decade trip through the history of the Peace Corps, the exhibit shares brief stories of volunteers from Kentucky who have worked with communities around the world. Their first-hand accounts highlight both the transformative experience of volunteering in their countries of service and the profound insights they brought with them back home.
Many of the exhibit vignettes draw from the almost 100 oral history interviews done by Angene and Jack Wilson for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at UK Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center and then used as the basis for their book Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers, published by the University Press of Kentucky 2011. Those interviews are now part of a much larger Peace Corps Oral History Archives Project.
Established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. Kennedy and authorized by the United States Congress the following September by the Peace Corps Act, the official goals of the Peace Corps are to help people of interested countries meet their needs for trained people, to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of people served, and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples by Americans. Volunteers work in fields such as education, health, entrepreneurship, and community development.
The Peace Corps exhibit will be on display in the lobby of the William T. Young Library throughout the month of March. An opening reception featuring remarks by Mayor Linda Gorton will be held from 3:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday, March 1. Free parking for the reception will be available in the Young Library employee lots located off of Woodland and Columbia Avenues.
Both the exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. RSVPs are not required.
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The Nunn Center for Oral History at UK Libraries' Special Collections Research Center is recognized around the world as a leader and innovator in the collection and preservation of oral histories. The center is home to over 20,000 oral history interviews that provide a unique look into Kentucky and American history and represent an irreplaceable resource for researchers today and generations from now. The Nunn Center’s collections focus on 20th century Kentucky history, Appalachia, Kentucky writers, agriculture, the history of education, politics and public policy, the civil rights movement, veterans, the university, health care, as well as the coal, equine and Kentucky bourbon industries.
