During the 1930s, the state of Illinois suffered the effects of the Great Depression, just like the rest of the country. Students at the University of Illinois felt the effects of the economic downturn in a number of ways.
This collection of 45 oral histories was compiled from a series of interviews conducted by the Student Life and Culture Archival Program in 2000, 2001, and 2007 in an effort to document student life at the University of Illinois from the years 1928 to 1938.
The last living interviewee died in December 2021. This makes these recordings all the more important, as they preserve the experiences, memories, thoughts, and voices of those who are no longer here to share them.
