Great Depression Era Interviews

UNO Libraries is pleased to announce that the first oral history interviews from the Omaha Stories: Oral Histories of Omaha, Nebraska website project are now available online. The first interviews available online include four interviews with Nebraskans describing their experiences living through the Great Depression in the 1930s. These interviews are all part of the American Indian Oral History and Omaha Folklore Project Oral History Collection in UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections.

Along with the audio recording freely available online, folks may also opt to follow along with the transcript for each interview. The transcripts of the interviews can also be searched. Here is some brief information about each interview.

In her 1977 interview, Doris (nee Richardson) Findley discusses her life before and during the Great Depression including Prohibition, Women's Suffrage, and the 1929 Stock Market Crash. She was born in 1903 in Brown County, Indiana. Findley discussed farming, memories of U.S. Presidents, Prohibition, women getting the right to vote, the World Wars, and other topic. She also shared her memories of the fear she felt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II. She was interviewed by her granddaughter Kathy L. Peacock, a UNO student.

Herman August Eggert was interviewed by UNO student Elsie Ann Coltott in 1975. He was born in Lyons, Nebraska and his parents were German immigrants. Eggert was raised in a religious household. After high school he became a professional baseball player and was later a missionary and a farmer during the Great Depression.

Mrs. Oscar Elge was interviewed in 1976 by her grandson Mark Glad, a UNO student. Elge was born on a farm in Phillips, Nebraska in 1897. She married a Swedish immigrant and shared memories of her childhood and living through the Great Depression. She discussed school, travel, church, a barn fire, World War II, and other topics.

Stanley Dygas was interviewed by UNO student Meg Green in 1977. Dygas was born in 1916, the son of immigrant parents from Eastern Europe. During the Great Depression he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Dygas discussed school, work and unions, farm life, friends, gangs, fights, the CCC, World War II, and social activities in his oral history interview.

The American Indian Oral History and Omaha Folklore Project Oral History Collection in UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections includes dozens of interviews conducted from the mid-1970s through approximately 1980 (finding aid available online). Along with the Reflections in Time video recordings, describing these audio interviews and making them available online is part of the Omaha Stories: Oral Histories of Omaha, Nebraska website project.

Stay tuned for more about some of the over 200 interviews conducted from 1974 to 2007 from Omaha Stories: Oral Histories of Omaha, Nebraska.

Visit the Omaha Oral History Blogs to learn more.