Share a Piece of Your Peace Corps Story

The Museum of the Peace Corps Experience preserves objects that reflect the personal journeys of Peace Corps Volunteers and their partners around the world. We’re especially interested in a single meaningful item that tells a powerful story about your service — something you used, received, or held onto because it mattered.

• Relationships with local communities and host families and coworkers?
• Tools, household items, or personal objects used regularly during service (missing is folk art used as home decoration e.g. – is this omission on purpose?)
• Gifts received that represent a significant relationship or experience
• Specific Peace Corps programs (e.g., public health, agriculture, teaching)
• Daily challenges and adjustments (e.g., language, transportation, food, health)

We discourage the donation of textiles, including clothing and fabrics, as they are challenging to preserve and rarely suitable for exhibition. Instead, we encourage you to submit one item that speaks to your Peace Corps experience — something personal and story-rich. We do accept collections of artifacts, but make decision about each artifact individually.

Handmade items purchased during service, like souvenirs or craft items, are typically not accepted unless they carry clear personal significance and context.

If you have a journal, letter, or photograph to accompany your object, we’ll gladly consider them as part of a complete submission. (Standalone documents and media are collected by the Peace Corps Community Archive at American University.)

We also accept book donations by Peace Corps authors.

How to Gift an Object

1. Photograph your item clearly from multiple angles on a plain background with nothing else in the photo.
2. Describe the item and its story — What is it? How did you use or receive it? Why did you keep it?
3. Submit your proposal via the ‘Gift an Object’ button below.
4. Work with our Collections Team to determine whether the object can be accepted. We’ll be in touch within a couple weeks of the initial inquiry.
5. If accepted you will be asked to complete a deed of gift form and ship the object to us.

We deeply value your contribution to preserving the legacy of Peace Corps service.

Questions? Contact our Collections Team Lead debbie.manget@peacecorpsmuseum.org