Community
Archives reveal the Invisible Threads that connect us
We came as strangers and left as family.
The work is here and now. Together we can explore our individual past and our collective history.
Adoptees · Birth families · Caregivers · Volunteers · Veterans · Diaspora members
Invisible Threads
A gathering of the Operation Babylift community
Invisible Threads was a four-day gathering in Boulder, Colorado, April 9 to 12, 2026, with caregivers, adoptive parents, adoptees, and families together in one place. The name came from a poem by Noel Nguyen and was received by the community.
The people who have already walked the search, the records, and the reunion are themselves a resource. That peer network is open to adoptees who want it.
Upcoming
Exhibits and gatherings
Reframing Seattle’s Southeast Asian Histories
MOHAI, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
On view now, extended through Sunday, October 18, 2026
An exhibit curated by Thanh Tan, with contributions from many members of Seattle’s Southeast Asian communities, including Devaki Murch and the Operation Babylift Collection.
Saturday Night at the Livery
The Livery, Norwood, Colorado
Saturday, October 24, 2026, 7 pm
Norwood Colorado's Speakers Series, presented with the Norwood Park & Rec District. Devaki Murch presents The Mirror of Return: Operation Babylift Then and Now.
Who are you when you look in the mirror, and there is no reflection?
She will bring files and artifacts from the collection. Your voices are a key part of the story. $5 cash at the door, with a non-alcoholic cash bar.
Archives in Love and War: The Operation Babylift Story
Holladay Library, Salt Lake County Library, Utah
Exhibit: February 1 to March 25, 2027
An exhibit of original records, photographs, and first-person stories, curated by archivist Devaki Murch. Two evening presentations, both Thursdays, 6:30 to 8 pm:
- February 4, 2027: opening presentation
- March 25, 2027: closing presentation
Adoptees, veterans, volunteers, and families are invited to both. No registration is required.
The File Delivery Circuit, 2027
Original records returned to adoptees in person, in six cities. Each stop pairs a file delivery session with a StoryDeck facilitation and a StoryShare gathering. Cities will be announced here.
Featured stories
Coming soon
Gallery
Exhibits, gatherings, and records
Follow the work on Instagram: @archivesinloveandwar
Invisible Threads Gathering
University of Colorado Boulder, April 9 to 12, 2026
My Name Is Mimosa
East Window Gallery, Boulder, Colorado, April 2026
Operation Babylift Pan Am Gala
Garden City, New York, 2025
Hawai‘i
Lahainaluna High School, University of Hawai‘i Maui College, and University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2026
New Perspectives
Regis University, Denver, Colorado, 2025
Arrived
Gallery and presentation, Boulder, Utah, March 2025
The records
Friends For All Children Collection
Network
Partners and allies
Torrey House Press
Our fiscal sponsor. Gifts to Archives in Love and War are received through Torrey House Press (EIN 47-5055025).
Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University
The Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University, a Vietnam War research center and archive and a partner in this work.
Center for the Study of War Experience, Regis University
Hosted Operation Babylift: New Perspectives in 2025 and holds oral histories of wartime experience.
Friends For All Children
The Boulder, Colorado agency that placed children during Operation Babylift. Its original records are the heart of the Operation Babylift Collection.
East Window Gallery
The Boulder gallery that hosted My Name Is Mimosa in April 2026.
Quill Hawk Publishing
Publishing partner for the Invisible Threads anthology.
Legacy Washington
The Washington Secretary of State's history and oral history program, and the publisher of New Land.
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University
Co-host of the June 2026 conference on archives and U.S.-Vietnam relations in Hanoi, and a partner university in Vietnam.
National Archives Center II, Vietnam
Vietnam's national archives in Ho Chi Minh City, which hold government records from 1955 to 1975. Its records are cross-referenced with the Operation Babylift Collection.
Con Tím Mẹ
A Vietnamese organization in Huế that reconnects Vietnam War-era adoptees with their birth families.
The Vietnamese Boat People
A nonprofit podcast and oral history archive of boat people narratives, held at New York University.
Where we have gathered
- June 2026: History, Archives, and U.S.-Vietnam Relations, Hanoi, Vietnam, hosted by the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities
- April 2026: Invisible Threads Gathering, Boulder, Colorado
- April 2026: My Name Is Mimosa, East Window, with an opening reception on April 4
- 2025: Operation Babylift: New Perspectives, Regis University, with the Center for the Study of War Experience
- April 2025: Operation Babylift Gala, Pan Am Museum
- 2025: Gathering in Garden City, Long Island, New York, where adoptees explored archival binders together for the first time
Take part
Ways to be part of this
Share your story
Oral history, live storytelling, or a written essay, always with your consent and at your pace.
Write to us →Caregivers and volunteers
If you cared for children in Saigon or helped in 1975, your voice belongs in the record, and your care is part of why these lives exist.
Get in touch →Hold records or artifacts?
If you hold records relevant to Vietnamese adoptees or Operation Babylift, you are holding someone’s history. We would like to hear from you.
Contact the archive →Stay in touch
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