Iowa Labor History Oral Project

ILHOP is the largest and longest-running, labor-focused oral history project in the world.

It was the brainchild of Iowa Federation of Labor president Jim Wengert. In addition to being a great storyteller, Wengert recognized that workers’ stories had great value and were often in danger of being lost. His solution was ILHOP, an ongoing, collaborative oral history project with an advisory board made up of workers, union leaders, historians, archivists, and labor educators.

Today, the project is directed by the University of Iowa Labor Center in coordination with the advisory committee and partner organizations—including ILHS. You can access more than 1,000 streaming audio files and interview transcripts through the University of Iowa’s Digital Library, or by visiting the State Historical Society of Iowa.

For more information, check out a longer history of ILHOP here, or contact ILHOP oral historian John McKerley at john-mckerley@uiowa.edu. You can also listen to John and retired University of Iowa historian Shelton Stromquist (an ILHS board member) talk about the project on Iowa Public Radio, by clicking here.