ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The oral histories presented here are the result of the hard work, commitment and generosity of many people and organizations. We are especially thankful for the continuing support of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, and the tireless efforts of the Library’s Information Technology (IT) staff. The program has also benefited from its inception with a dedicated and talented pool of volunteers. They have unselfishly offered their time and skills in performing a wide variety of tasks, from conducting interviews, to transcribing, auditing, editing and otherwise processing the interviews. The program would not exist without their support.

The ALPL Oral History program has been fortunate to receive several grants from public and private institutions. Grant money is often used for transcribing interviews. (The Director of Oral History and selected volunteers still retain the task of editing and otherwise processing the interviews.) Our granting institutions include the Tawani Foundation of Chicago, Illinois, which supports the Veterans Remember project, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, whose grant supports the Oral History of Illinois Agriculture project. The Springfield African-American History Foundation (AAHF) transcriptions have been funded in part by an Illinois Humanities Council grant to the AAHF. See the respective Oral History Project pages for more information on these institutions.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the debt the program owes to Dr. Cullom Davis, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois-Springfield, formerly Sangamon State University. Over the years, Dr. Davis gained a national reputation as one of oral history’s pioneers, authoring books and numerous articles on oral history, and serving as the President of the Oral History Association in 1984-1985. Dr. Davis retired from the University in 1995, but graciously serves as a mentor to Dr. DePue, and an informal advisor to the ALPL Oral History program.