13 September
Explore the resources below for more stories by and about Iowa and Midwestern workers:
The Speaking of Work Podcast
Speaking of Work is an audio documentary program that explores the everyday and extraordinary stories of Midwestern workers, past and present. It is produced and hosted by ILHOP oral historian John McKerley in collaboration with the Iowa Labor History Society. Click here for the program home page.
Iowa Labor History Society
The Iowa Labor History Society is a statewide non-profit that brings together individuals and affiliate organizations to preserve and promote Iowa’s labor and working-class history. On this site, you’ll find information regarding the society’s Speaking of Work traveling exhibit, their work supporting K-12 education (including the James Wengert prize for best entries at National History Day), their annual public conferences, their advocacy around these issues, their leadership, and information regarding how to join.
The Migration is Beautiful Project
Migration is Beautiful is a digital humanities project drawn from the holdings of the Mujeres Latinas collections at the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa. The website highlights the journeys Latinas and Latinos made to Iowa and situates the contributions of Latino communities within a broader understanding of Iowa’s history of migration and civil rights activism.
German Iowa and the Global Midwest
Germans in Iowa and the Global Midwest brings together source material on German immigration to Iowa from the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Iowa Women’s Archives, the University of Iowa Special Collections, the Davenport German American Heritage Center, and other collections from throughout the state. The site includes documents regarding German immigration by county and subject, as well as German language newspapers and handwritten documents. While the site focuses on German immigration, it also includes material on a range of European immigrants and is especially rich in its treatment of nativism in Iowa during World War I. The site pairs especially well with ILHOP interviews regarding the experience of European immigrants and their families (e.g., Emil Ploessl, Mary Ashlock, and Julie Fritz), workers’ wartime experience (e.g., Ernie Ward), and the postwar strike wave (e.g., Kenneth Ellis and Don Jones).
African American Midwest
The African American Midwest is a digital history and documentary project highlighting the experiences, culture, and struggles of Black Midwesterners since the colonial period. The site features expert commentary and analysis by category and state, links to related digital projects (including some primary documents), and a trailer to the project’s upcoming documentary film, The African American Midwest: A 400 Year Fight for Freedom. The project pairs well with ILHOP’s interviews documenting the lives of Black workers and the migrations of people of African descent to and through the region across the twentieth century. For example, see the interviews with DeEdwin White, Anna Mae Weems, John R. Campbell, Jr., Carl McGrone, and Simplice Mabiala Kuelo.