Throughout his life, General Van Fleet kept extensive records of correspondence, documents, photos and memorabilia. He donated these personal archives to the George C. Marshall Foundation, located on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. The originals, some 150,000 documents and several thousand photos, occupy more than 80 feet of shelf space in their vaults. These files are referred to as the Van Fleet Collection.
The Van Fleet Foundation undertook the project to digitize this entire collection and to publish it on the Internet. Available here is a complete guide and index to the James A. Van Fleet Papers (aka the “Van Fleet Collection”) prepared by Alison L. Oswald, Project Archivist at the George C. Marshall Foundation in 1994.
There are two methods available for searching the archive. The primary method uses the proprietary artificial intelligence systems for both the storage of digital files and for the free form search and retrieval of information that have been developed by the Van Fleet Foundation.
Queries can be submitted in English or in Korean. Answers to queries will be provided as a summary of available information with an attached bibliography of the original source files for the answer, ranked in order of relevance to the query. Queries in English will receive a summary answer in English. Those in Korean will get a summary answer in Korean. Source documents will be in their original languages. They can be downloaded and then translated.
The second search method uses the specific title or location of a file that is sought. This information can be found by doing a browser search of the complete guide and index for box number and folder number location.
All material contained in this digital archive can be freely copied and shared. We ask only that you acknowledge the Van Fleet Digital Archive and the Van Fleet Foundation as the source of any material that is quoted or published.
We are always interested in adding relevant files to the Van Fleet Digital Archive. If you have items which you would like to add to the Archive please contact us using this form or by phone, text or email. We appreciate your willingness to share historical information pertaining to General Van Fleet.
