Oral History Program

Collections

The following collections are held in Columbia. All oral history recordings and transcripts can be physically accessed at each branch of The State Historical Society of Missouri.

Processed Collections

• Beta Phi Mu, Librarian Oral History Project, Records, 1980-1985 Finding Aid

  The Beta Phi Mu Librarian Oral History Project collection contains the audio, video, and transcripts of interviews with Missouri librarians and members of Beta Phi Mu. Also included are an interview guide, correspondence, the interviewers’ notes, and background materials on the librarians.

• Bootheel Project, Records, 1993-1997 Finding Aid

  Records of the Bootheel Project, which documents the art, culture, and heritage of the Missouri Bootheel. The records include photographs, color slides, audio cassettes, transcripts, and video cassettes of interviews with Bootheel residents. Sound recordings, planning documents, field workers' notes and miscellaneous items collected throughout the project are also included.

• Bradley, Melvin, (1920-2003), Papers, 1855-2003 Finding Aid

  This collection covers Bradley's work as a livestock specialist in the Cooperative Extension Office of the University of Missouri from 1968 through the 1990s. The papers consist of research materials, correspondence, clippings, photographs, drafts for books, articles, exhibits, and speeches, and interviews on audio cassette conducted for the Missouri Mule History Project.

• Curtis, Thomas B. (1911-1993), 1978 Finding Aid

  An interview with a former Republican Congressman who served Missouri's Second District from 1951 to 1969 and was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

• Dale, E.L. (1890-1969), 1965 Finding Aid

  Tape and transcription of interview with editor of Carthage Evening Press. Topics include Dale's background, role of news, editor, government role in news media, civil rights, and contemporary issues in U.S. and Missouri.

• Douglass Family, Collection, 1838-1990 Finding Aid

  The Douglass Family Collection contains oral histories, volumes, photographs, and correspondence dealing with farm life and agriculture in McBaine, MO. There are also a family tree, and documentation of a flour mill owned by Northcutt & Brothers in Mexico, MO.

• Hall, Durward G. (1910-2001), 1979 Finding Aid

  An interview with a former Republican Congressman who served Missouri's Seventh District from 1961 to 1973 and was a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

• James T. Scott Memorial, Collection, 2010-2011 (C4072)Finding Aid

  The collection contains audio, video, and images related to the James T. Scott Monument Committee in Columbia, Missouri. The committee was created to raise funds to purchase a new headstone for lynching victim James T. Scott’s burial site in Columbia Cemetery.

• Keeley, Mary Paxton (1886-1986), Papers, 1830-1983 Finding Aid

  Papers of the first woman graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, 1910. Active as a journalist, teacher, playwright, poet, fiction writer, genealogist, and photographer. Material includes correspondence; diaries; manuscripts for Keeley's articles, fiction, and poetry; clippings; tapes; and photographs.

• Kirkwood, Missouri, 1995-1997 Finding Aid

  The Kirkwood, Missouri, Oral History Project was an attempt to supplement the book, Kirkwood, Missouri, The Greentree City: A Pictorial History, edited by Barbara J. Byerly and J.B. Lester, which was published in 1994. The interviews were to emphasize events after 1960.

• Lance, Donald M. (1931-2002), Papers, 1938-2002 Finding Aid

  Audio cassettes include interviews with Germans in Missouri and with decorated U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Byrl D. “Pappy” Taylor (f. 365, a.c. 132-134) Missouri folk musicians, and examples of English language dialects.

• Miller, James L. (1897-1989 ), 1965 Finding Aid

  Tape and transcripts of an interview with the editor of the Washington Missourian.

• Monroe, Jr., Haskell M., Collection, 1994-1996 Finding Aid

  Consists of several hundred interviews produced by Haskell Monroe and University of Missouri students to document Columbia, Missouri, in the 1930s and 1940s. The records include audio cassettes, transcripts, and miscellaneous material.

• Missouri Environment Finding Aid

  
  

  The Missouri Environmental Oral History Project began in 1997, was placed on hold the following year, but has started back up as of April, 2011. The project seeks to document the history of conservation, preservation, environmentalism, land and natural resource use in Missouri. Given the recent surge in interest of important state, national, and global environmental issues it was important to revive this program.

  The interviews fall under the following subject areas:

  • Agriculture
  • Current River
  • Jacks Fork River
  • Environment
  • Forests and Forestry
  • Lumber and Lumbering
  • Mines and Mineral Resources
  • National Park Service
  • Ozark National Scenic Riverways
  • U.S. Forest Service
  • Wildlife Conservation
  
  

• Missouri Ex-POWs Finding Aid

  Since 2000, the Missouri Ex-POWs Oral History Project has sought to record, preserve, and honor the personal histories of the state's former prisoners of war. Most interviewees were prisoners of either the German or Japanese military during World War II.

  The initial phase of the project concentrated on members of the American Ex-Prisoners of War, Heart of America Chapter based in Kansas City, Missouri. The American Ex-Prisoners of War (AX-POW) is a national, non-profit organization of American citizens who were captured by the enemy. Researchers will note that some of the interviewees, although members of the Missouri-based chapter, were living in Kansas at the time of the interview.

  This is an active collection.

  The interviewees were imprisoned in the following camps:

  Stalag	Stalag Luft	Lazarett (Hospital)	Japanese Camps (China)	Japanese Camps (Japan)	Japanese Camps (Philippines)
  II B III A III B III C IV A IV B V A VII A VII B VIII A IX B X B XC XI A XI B XII A XII B XIII B XIII C XIII D XVII A XVII B	I III IV	V B VI G IX C	Fengtai Kiangwan Mukden (Manchuria) Woosung	Japanese Camps (Japan) Akenobe Fukuoka 1 Fukuoka 3 Fukuoka 14 Fukuoka 17 Hakodate Hirohata (Seitetsu Steel) Nagoya Oeyama (Osaka 3) Ofuna Omine Machi Sakurajima (Osaka Ironworks) Toyama Tsumori (Osaka) Zentsuji	Bataan Death March Bilibid Prison Cabanatuan Camp Holmes Camp O’Donnell Davao Penal Colony Las Piñas

• Missouri Mule History Project, Records, 1980-1993 Finding Aid

  Records produced by a University of Missouri project to document the history of the state's mule industry, consisting of oral history recordings and transcripts of interviews with men and women concerning their experiences with the Missouri mule, project produced publications, and promotional materials.

• Missouri Newspapers, Records, 1996- Finding Aid

  Interviews with Missouri newspaper people regarding the history and evolution of newspapers in Missouri. The records include audio cassettes, transcripts, logs, notes, correspondence, and related ephemera.

• 

  Missouri Veterans Finding Aid

  The Missouri Veterans Oral History Project, begun in 2008, builds on the Ex-POWs Oral History Project, expanding the scope for collecting, documenting, and preserving the personal histories of Missourians who served in U.S. military conflicts and war. Currently, the project focus is on veterans of World War II, but will eventually include oral histories of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as more recent Middle Eastern conflicts.

  This is an active collection.

• Missouri Veterans History Project, Oral History Records, 2010– Finding Aid

  The records of the Missouri Veterans History Project contain the local copy of veteran oral history interviews recorded for the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

• One–room Schoolhouse Oral History Project, Records, 2008– Finding Aid

  Interviews with people who attended or taught at one-room schoolhouses.

  This is an active collection.

• 

  Politics in Missouri Finding Aid

  Begun in 1996, the Politics in Missouri Oral History Project is the longest continuous effort of The Oral History Program. Mid- to late-twentieth century Missouri political history remains under-studied, and we hope to address this void by making a large new resource available to the public and the scholarly community. Currently, the collection contains over 160 oral histories.

  The project continually seeks interviews with former Missouri legislators, governors, state-wide elected officials, aides, lobbyists, and various political participants.

  This is an active collection.

• Puchta, Randolph E. (1928-2006), 1998 Finding Aid

  Interview with Puchta, a resident of Hermann, MO. Puchta discusses his early life, German ancestry, wine making, local customs and leisure activities, and transportation. Of note are his descriptions of photographs from the Edward Kemper Collection at The State Historical Society of Missouri, Manuscript Collection-Columbia (Accession No. 4633).

• Rainey, Homer P[rice] (1896-1985), 1968 (C2542)

  Interview with a former president of Bucknell University, Stephens College, Franklin University, and the University of Texas. Interview concerns his theories of education, college administration, his Texas presidency, and his gubernatorial campaign.

• Rogers, Harrison Lang (1919-2002), 1965 Finding Aid

  Tape and transcription of an interview with the editor of the Joplin Globe and the Joplin News Herald. Topics discussed include Rogers' background, role of news editors, contemporary issues in Missouri and America, civil rights, American political parties and the conflict between Missouri's urban and nonurban areas.

• The State Historical Society of Missouri, Audio Cassette Collection, 1976-2000 Finding Aid

  Oral history interviews were conducted with Dr. Horace E. Thomas in 1997 and 2000 are under a.c. 19, 20, and 31. See also the Thomas, David E. (1878-1935) and Horace E. (1910-2001), Papers, 1904-1985, n.d. (C4002) The papers of Horace E. Thomas, a Columbia, Missouri, surgeon who spent World War II in military hospitals in the South Pacific consist of correspondence, manuscripts, class notes, research notes, photographs, printed articles and pamphlets, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous materials related to their careers, including research for Horace’s medical school thesis, Chronic Radiation Poisoning in Rats.

• Tolson, Fannie Marie (1911-2005), Papers, 1890s-2005 Finding Aid

  Fannie Marie Tolson was the first African-American educator to teach in the desegregated schools of Fayette, Missouri. Her papers include family correspondence and photographs, memorabilia from Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri, teaching aids, documents concerning St. Paul's Methodist Church in Fayette, and recordings of two interviews conducted with Tolson.

• Washington Press Club Foundation, Women in Journalism, Records, 1987-1994 Finding Aid

  Records of the Washington Press Club Foundation, Women in Journalism oral history project. The records consist of transcripts from oral history interviews of 53 female journalists.

• White, Robert M., II (1915-2008), 1965 Finding Aid

  Tape and transcriptions of interviews with the editor of Missouri's Mexico Ledger. Interview includes White's background, experiences with Harry Truman and Douglas MacArthur, views on being editor of the New York Herald Tribune and the Mexico Ledger, and general reminiscences about people White knew and news reporting.

Unprocessed Collections

• Dial, Marshall (WUNP6033)

  Collection of taped interviews between Marshall Dial and various residents of the Bootheel for Dial's radio show, "Stories They Tell."

• East Campus Neighborhood Survey, Columbia, Missouri, Records (SUNP5868)

  Correspondence, proposals and other grant application material, resident contact information and other background material, and oral history recordings, notes, and logs related to a University of Missouri, Department of Art History and Archaeology sponsored architectural/historic survey; 1992-1993.

• Missouri Extension Homemakers Association (Collections WUNP4650, WUNP4682, WUNP4729)

  Oral history interviews with members of extension clubs commemorating the 50th anniversary of the organization.

• French Heritage, Records (SUNP5821)

  Audio and video recordings of interviews and performances, transcripts, correspondence, field notes, slides, and miscellaneous material related to French settlement and culture in Missouri and the Mississippi valley; 1989-1999.

• Monhollon, Rusty, Collection (WUNP5896)

  Audio recordings and transcripts of oral history interviews conducted by students for a University of Missouri course on post-1945 U.S. history, 2001.

• Missouri River Folk History Project, Records (SUNP6109)

  Oral history interviews of Missourians who have lived and worked along the Missouri River. Meredith Ludwig conducted the interviews.

• Missouri Veterinary Medical Foundation, Records (SUNP5780)

  Records of a project to document the history of veterinary medicine in Missouri, consisting of audio recordings of interviews with retired Missouri vets, 1975-1976, interview records, and related material.

• Missouri, Wayne County, Collection (SUNP3132)

  Audio recordings of Wayne County, MO residents concerning the settlement, education, business, transportation, religion, Civil War, and other aspects of the history of the county.

• Schroeder, Adolf E., Papers (WUNP5349, WUNP5536.01, WUNP5536.02)

  Additions to professional papers of a University of Missouri-Columbia Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies chairman. Contains correspondence, teaching materials, departmental papers, oral histories of German-Americans in Missouri, and student materials.

• Stewart, Norm, Collection (SUNP5854 and SUNP5854.01)

  Collection includes items related to the playing and coaching career of the University of Missouri basketball coach; 1950s-1999. Collection includes oral history interview with Coach Stewart.

• Stockwell, Ryan, Collection (WUNP6110)

  Oral history interview of Richard M. Collins, active member and employee of the Missouri Farmers Association. The interview was conducted by Ryan Stockwell in 2005 as part of the Farming in Missouri After WWII Oral History Project. Includes transcript and biographical information sheet.

• Symington, Stuart, Jr., 1994 (WUNP5874)

  Audio recording and transcription of interview with Stuart Symington, Jr. son of United States Senator from Missouri Stuart Symington.

• University of Missouri, School of Journalism, Honor Medalists, (WUNP6159)

  The University of Missouri School of Journalism awards honor medals to the school's outstanding journalists. Oral history interviews of the medalists comprise this collection which includes audio cassettes and CDs.

• Veterans History Project, Cass County, Missouri, Collection (SUNP5974, .01, .02, .03, .04)

  Taped oral history interviews and transcripts of Missouri veterans conducted as part of the Veterans History Project in Cass County, Missouri. Collection also includes some photographs.

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