COMING HOME · EXHIBITION FEATURE
What the letters knew that the news did not.
From the Coming Home exhibit: correspondence between St. Louis families and their soldiers in Vietnam — and the months after the last letter arrived.
[BYLINE · CURATOR, MILITARY HISTORY]
April 4, 2026
7 min read
The Coming Home exhibition at Soldiers Memorial begins with letters. Some are from the front. Most are from the months that followed.
How families learned the war was over
For many St. Louis families, the war did not end on a date the news could announce. It ended quietly, in a return flight, a duffle bag in a hallway, a job interview, a doctor's appointment that did not go well.
Keep reading
More from the Society.
- [HERO · ARCHIVAL PHOTO OF MILL CREEK VALLEY CORNER STORE, 1955, COMPOSITED WITH SAME CORNER TODAY]
MILL CREEK THREAD · ANCHORED AT THE MUSEUM · 11 min
Why we still talk about Mill Creek Valley.
Sixty-six years after the demolition, the neighborhood is still the most important story St. Louis hasn't finished telling.
- [HERO · GRID OF SUBMITTED OBJECTS — PHOTOS, NOTES, FAMILY ITEMS]
WE ARE ST. LOUIS · YEAR-IN-REVIEW · 6 min
What 1,200 contributions taught us about the city.
Year one of We Are St. Louis — what people sent in, what they wrote about, and what the project will do next.