LSU Librarians Uncovering Hidden Histories from WWII to the Wild West
October 27, 2022
Hayley Johnson (foreground) and Sarah Simms.
For the past six years, LSU librarians Hayley Johnson and Sarah Simms have helped give voice to the voiceless by uncovering the hidden histories of the United States of America.
Their work began in 2016 with research that examined the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans in Louisiana during World War II, and it has since expanded to include an exploration of stories from communities that have been historically omitted from narratives about the settlement of the American West.
“The two projects seem so different, but there are these threads that link both. It’s a very natural evolution, even though it’s two different groups from two different periods of time. I think we are both quite passionate about it,” Simms said.