POST WAR 1945 - 1970

These stories relate to the post-World War II period until 1970. This includes the economic boom and social transformation of postwar United States, how the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics and the struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil liberties.

Click on the links below to go to a particular investigation or go back to the Archive.

 

3D Cuban Missile Crisis

Did this portable projection screen help save the Free World? ...More

Alcoholics Anonymous Letter

Is this letter from the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous proof of one man's contribution to this secretive society?...More

Car Tape Deck

A man thinks he may have inherited the first commercially produced automobile tape player in the U.S...More

Cesar Chavez Banner

A San Francisco woman has heard about a beautiful old banner owned by a local archive that, rumor has it, was carried at the head of the famous Delano Grape Boycott march led by Cesar Chavez in 1966...More

Charlie Parker's Saxophone

A woman owns a beautiful old alto saxophone that belonged to her father and according to family legend was once owned by the legendary jazz musician Charlie "Bird" Parker...More

Cleveland Electric Car

A Cleveland man with a passion for trains has long wondered about an electric street car in his city’s transit museum...More

Howard Hughes Crash

Was this the instrument that chartered Howard Hughes' near fatal plunge into Beverly Hills?...More

Leisurama Homes

The grandson of Andrew Geller, the designer of Leisureama homes, is trying to find some of his grandfather's products in Florida..More

Manhattan Project Letter

Did this letter help persuade President Harry S. Truman to change policy in the post war era? ...More

Pete Gray Cartoon

Do these unsigned drawings from the golden age of comics tell the tale of a real life superhero? ...More

Poison Pin

A miniaturist recently rediscovered a purchase he had made at an auction several years before...More

Pop Lloyd Baseball Stadium

Why was a baseball field in Atlantic City, New Jersey, named after an African-American ballplayer in a time of intense racial tension?...More

Unwed Mothers' Home

The only reminder one woman has of her birth parents is a medallion of the Virgin Mary that was attached to her diaper when she was presented from a home for unwed mothers to her adoptive parents...More

USS Thresher

How are these documents connected to a nuclear submarine, which sank with all hands during the height of the Cold War? ...More