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Project Details

The Voices of Charity Oral History Project was initiated in honor of the Centennials of Marillac Social Center (in 2014) and the St. Vincent de Paul Center (in 2015) social service centers in Chicago, founded by the Daughters of Charity.

In order to document the histories of the two Centers, narrators were selected based on their having worked at one of the Centers for at least ten years or more. In all, twenty-one narrators were interviewed between October 2012 and October 2013. Interviews lasted anywhere from one hour to over three hours, and addressed workers' experiences dating as far back as the 1960s.

Interviews were transcribed verbatim and checked against the audio for omissions/errors; minor edits were made to ensure clarity.

Subjects or Themes

Social Services, African American, Daughters of Charity, Illinois, Chicago

Project Language(s)

English

Time Period

Geographic Location

Project Categories

Content Type

Oral History, Images, Sound

Target Audience(s)

Creators

DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Project Director: Prof. Amy Tyson: Associate Professor, Department of History
Graduate Research Assistant, and Lead Interviewer: Eleanor Bossu
Web Developer: Michael Cohen
Volunteer Interview Auditor: Caelin Niehoff
Project Student Interviewers & Transcribers: Jeffrey Buchbinder, Molly Clark, Matthew D’Agostino, Carly Faison, Austin Kiesewetter, Joshua Messer, Anthony Natali, Caelin Niehoff, Olivia Orndorff, Jacqueline Román

MARILLAC ST. VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES
Community Partner Contacts: Sr. Patricia Dunne, D.C., Katy Murphy

Oral History Narrators
Betty Collins
Sr. Patricia Dunne, D.C.
Viola Floyd
Deanna Hallagan
Maureen Hallagan
Gwen Horton
Bessie Houston
Ora Lomack
Willie Morris Jr.
Albert Richardson
Ersilee Wesley

Michelle Brown
Theresa Deal
Don Hamilton
Irwin Hermanowski
Maria Laverde
Edith Morton
Diane Prince
Sr. Katie Norris, D.C.
Pearl Washington
Zelma Wilson

Year(s)

2012-2014

Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location

DePaul University

Labor and Support

Funding supported the many hours of labor that Eleanor Bossu put into the project in terms of interviewing and transcription work. Funding also supported Michael Cohen's website creation. Student labor supported the project as some of the interviews were conducted and transcribed as part of a class project. Amy Tyson provided faculty labor and support throughout the project's duration. The project spanned 2 full years from the initial interviews in 2012 to the final audits on the transcriptions in 2013 and the final website construction in 2014.

Project Cost

Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement

The oral history project was generously funded by the Irene and Bill Beck Faculty Fellowship, sponsored by the Beck Research Initiative for Women, Gender, and Community and the Irwin W. Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning and Community Service Studies. The website design was generously funded by the Vincentian Endowment Fund of DePaul University.