Restoring 1960s Vietnam War Protest Photos: The Home Front Divided

The Vietnam War protest photograph is a document of American political division at a specific moment: the late 1960s when the country was arguing about the war in ways that went beyond political disagreement into cultural conflict.

The Protest as Historical Document

Vietnam War protest photographs document specific events — the Moratorium, the mobilizations, the campus demonstrations — that are historically significant independent of the personal family connections to them. A photograph of a protest in 1969 may contain evidence of specific events that have other historical documentation.

Student and Campus Photography

Much Vietnam War protest photography was made by students — the participants in campus protests who photographed their own activism. These photographs have both personal significance and historical value as documentation of student activism.

The Counter-Protest Archive

Not all 1960s political photographs documented anti-war sentiment. The pro-war and counter-protest photographs are part of the same historical record, documenting American political diversity in a period of intense division.

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