The American Legion Library & Museum works to encourage membership growth and public support of the Legion by providing access to key documents that tell the national organization’s continuing story. In our most recent initiative, the Library & Museum has completed the digitization of more than 50 years of American Legion national newsletters. These newsletters cover a timeframe, 1950-2000, that complements previously digitized material. The newsletters from the early 1950s to 1990, primarily published under the title The American Legion Advance, focus on supporting post leadership with programming ideas and community outreach initiatives. A newsletter still in print today, The American Legion Dispatch, has been digitized back to its first issue in 1991. The Dispatch focuses on national activities particularly related to veteran concerns raised in Congress and the federal government. It also highlights activities of American Legion posts and departments. The nearly 7,500 pages of digitized newsletters are available through the American Legion Digital Archive.
Additionally, the Digital Archive offers several central publications that illuminate the history of The American Legion from 1919 to the mid-2010s. These include:
• The American Legion magazine in all its versions, 1919-2016
• Forty years of historic American Legion press releases, 1925, 1945-1952, 1957-1991
• Proceedings of national meetings, 1919-present
Visit the Digital Archive and discover something new about The American Legion.
