Chicago History Museum Making History Award Oral History Project

Since 1995, Prof. Timothy Gilfoyle has conducted oral history interviews with most of the recipients of the Making History Awards, given annually by the Chicago History Museum (CHM) to Chicagoans whose enduring contributions to the city and metropolitan region made them figures of historic importance. The interviews were conducted with audiotape or an audio recorder and have been transcribed. The transcriptions, however, have never been formally processed by CHM and made available to researchers or the public.

Student internships for Spring 2017 are available for Loyola History majors interested in processing the interviews, creating an index and finding aid for future researchers, receiving training in working with oral history materials, improving their writing skills, and learning about Chicago and American history. Interns will work closely with Prof. Gilfoyle to select interviews that fit with their personal interests.

Students will be responsible for the following tasks:

1. Proofreading the transcripts (generally between 25 and 50 typewitten, single-space pages) to check for misspellings or errors.

2. Insuring that the format for each transcription is consistent.

3. Developing a typewritten index of proper names and relevant subjects in accordance with the CHM Indexing and Formatting Guidelines which will be provided to each student participant.

4. Writing a one-page summary of the individual’s career and topics discussed in the oral history interview.

5. Students are expected to work approximately five hours on each transcript (2 minutes per page or one hour for a 30 page transcript, one hour for correcting errors, one hour to type the index, one hour to write the one-page summary, and one hour for revisions). This will vary in accordance with the length of the transcript.

6. Students are expected to process 10 to 12 transcripts during the semester.

7. Meeting with Prof. Gilfoyle on a regular basis to discuss the work and any difficulties with the transcription, and to reflect on the contributions of the subjects of these interviews to history.

8. Students will be evaluated and graded according to the quality of the final summary and index they write for each interview transcription.

The final index and summary will be signed by the student and included as part of the official CHM depository record.

Students interested in the internship should contact Prof. Gilfoyle at tgilfoy@luc.edu with a one-page explanation on why they wish to participate, what qualifications (if any) they have, and the individual interviews they would ideally like to process (see the list below). Please include the names of two references with email addresses.

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS IN NEED OF PROCESSING

Robert W. Galvin, former CEO of Motorola, Inc., 24 Oct. 1995.

John Swearingen, former President and CEO of Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco), 25 November 1997.

William B. Graham, former CEO of Baxter Travenol Laboratories, Deerfield, Ill., 11 March 1997.

John Bryan, CEO, Sara Lee Corp., 5 May 1999.

Bruce Graham, architect and former partner in Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 5 May 1999.

Lester Crown, philanthropist and financier, 12 May 2000.

Irving B. Harris, businessman and philanthropist, 4 May 2001.

John H. Nichols, CEO, Illinois Tool Works and the Marmon Group, 7 May 2001.

William Warfield, concert singer and actor, 24 May 200l.

Walter Netsch, architect and partner in Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 2 May 2002.

Dr. Henry Betts, physiatrist and CEO of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 14 April 2003.

Edward A. Brennan, CEO of Sears and chair of American Airlines, 20 June 2003.

Stanley Freehling, philanthropist, 5 April 2004.

Carol Marin, journalist and television anchor, 7 April 2004.

James O’Connor, CEO of Commonwealth Edison, 26 April 2004.

Ray Meyer, DePaul University and Hall of Fame Basketball Coach, 29 April 2005.

Ronne Hartfield, arts and museum consultant, 4 May 2005.

Andrew McKenna, CEO of Schwarz Paper Co., 6 May 2005.

Helmut Jahn, architect, 25 May 2005.

Edgar Jannotta, Managing Director of William Blair & Co., 9 May 2006.

Marshall Field V, publisher of the Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News and philanthropist, 6 July 2007.

William Osborn, CEO and President, Northern Trust Bank, 20 Nov. 2007.

W. James Farrell, CEO of Illinois Tool Works, 25 June 2008.

Don Perkins, CEO of Jewel and corporate director, 1 May 2009.

Norman Bobins, banker and philanthropist, 21 May 2009.

Gordon Segal, founder of Crate & Barrel and philanthropist, 16 July 2009.

Bill Kurtis, journalist, television news anchor, and film producer, 18 May 2011.

Donna La Pietra, journalist, film producer and philanthropist, 18 May 2011.

Renee Crown, philanthropist, 6 June 2011.

John W. Rowe, CEO and Chairman of Exelon Corporation, 10 Sept. and 9 Oct. 2013.

Ronald J. Gidwitz, CEO of Helene Curtis Industries and philanthropist, 27 May 2014.

Richard Jaffe, CEO of Oil-Dri Corporation and philanthropist, 16 June 2014.

Fritzie Fritzshall, President of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, 30 April 2015.

Jesse White, Illinois Secretary of State and founder of Jesse White Tumblers, 18 May 2015.

John A. Canning, Jr., Founder of Madison Dearborn Partners, 27 May 2015.

Frank Clark, CEO & President of Commonwealth Edison, 3 May 2016.

Art Johnston, LGBTQ activist, 4 May 2016.

Michael Moscow, President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 7, 10, 24 June 2016.