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| The HistoryMakers | |
|---|---|
| Name | The HistoryMakers |
| Type | Nonprofit oral history archive |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Julieanna L. Richardson |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Collections | Oral histories, video interviews, transcripts, photographs |
The HistoryMakers is a United States-based nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and making accessible oral histories of African Americans. It maintains a large audiovisual archive of interviews with figures from politics, arts, science, sports, religion, business, and activism, seeking to document lived experience across generations. The organization collaborates with libraries, universities, foundations, and media partners to support research, teaching, and public history.
The project aligns with archival efforts like the Library of Congress's Folklife Center, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution in preserving primary-source interviews. Its collection complements initiatives such as the National Archives, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and university oral history projects at Harvard University, Yale University, and Howard University. The archive features interviews with civil rights figures comparable to those in the Civil Rights History Project and cultural interviews akin to those in the American Folklife Center.
Founded in 1999 by Julieanna L. Richardson in Chicago, the organization emerged amid turn-of-the-century archival expansions like the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and digitization efforts at institutions such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. Early support included partnerships with local entities like the University of Chicago and the Chicago Public Library, and philanthropic engagement reminiscent of grants from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The founding vision drew on precedents from oral historians such as Studs Terkel and preservationists like John Hope Franklin.
The archive comprises long-form video interviews, transcripts, photographs, and curated exhibits for institutions including the Newberry Library and academic partners at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. Educational programs have been offered to K–12 initiatives and higher-education courses in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution's education offices. The collection's cataloging practices reflect standards used by the Society of American Archivists and metadata approaches similar to the Digital Public Library of America. Public-facing programs include traveling exhibitions, lecture series, and online exhibits comparable to projects at the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of African American History (Boston).
The archive includes interviews with artists and entertainers such as Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali, and Maya Angelou; political leaders and activists like Barack Obama, Coretta Scott King, John Lewis, Malcolm X, Shirley Chisholm, and Thurgood Marshall; scholars and intellectuals including W. E. B. Du Bois, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Angela Davis, and John Hope Franklin; business leaders and philanthropists in the tradition of Madam C.J. Walker and Reginald F. Lewis; and scientists and physicians reflective of figures such as Charles Drew and Katherine Johnson. Sports and cultural icons represented echo the prominence of Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Serena Williams, and LeBron James. The roster also contains journalists and broadcasters in the lineage of Ida B. Wells, Gwen Ifill, Roy Wilkins, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
Scholars in African American studies at institutions like Howard University, Spelman College, and Morehouse College have cited the archive in research alongside collections at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Smithsonian Institution. Public historians and journalists at outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR have used interviews for reporting and documentary production comparable to collaborations with Ken Burns and producers at PBS. The archive has been noted in academic journals associated with the American Historical Association and the Oral History Association for expanding primary-source access on twentieth- and twenty-first–century African American life.
Funding streams have included private philanthropy from foundations akin to the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, programmatic support from government entities like the National Endowment for the Humanities, and partnerships with universities including Northwestern University and University of Michigan. Governance has involved a board with leaders from cultural institutions, academia, and business sectors similar to trustees at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Endowment and grant management practices reflect nonprofit standards common to organizations such as the YMCA and the United Way.
The organization developed an online catalog and streaming access modeled after digital initiatives like the Digital Public Library of America and the Library of Congress's digital collections. Collaborations with academic consortia enable integration with university digital repositories at Duke University and University of California, Berkeley. Digitization efforts follow best practices promoted by the Society of American Archivists and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. Outreach includes APIs, educational toolkits for schools such as Chicago Public Schools, and partnerships for media production with broadcasters like PBS and NPR.
Category:Archives in the United States Category:Oral history