Chicago Historical Society Puts Studs Terkel Collection Online

Posted on May 24, 2002

An extensive website featuring hundreds of hours of original interviews conducted by Studs Terkel for his books and long-running radio program has been launched by the Chicago Historical Society. The website was unveiled Thursday, May 16, in celebration of Terkel's 90th birthday.

Studs Terkel: Conversations with America is an expanding resource of streaming audio files that features original, unedited recordings made by Terkel over the past 50 years. The website is made possible by a collaborative partnership between the Chicago Historical Society, The National Gallery of the Spoken Word and the National Science Foundation.

"Sharing these conversations with a global audience amplifies Studs Terkel's legacy of asking questions that inspire the voices of history," said Russell Lewis, Andrew W. Mellon Director for Collection and Research at CHS. "We are proud to help present this in-depth, online resource devoted to Studs' extraordinary life and career."

Best known as a radio personality and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a dozen books, Terkel also has worked as an actor, playwright, sportscaster, film narrator, jazz columnist, civil service employee and music festival host. "The Studs Terkel Program" was heard from 1952 to 1997 on WFMT-FM, Chicago's fine arts radio station.

In 1998 Terkel was named Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Chicago Historical Society. In cooperation with WFMT and The Radio Network he donated to CHS approximately 5,000 hours of recordings of "The Studs Terkel Program," featuring many of the 20th century's most influential thinkers, creative artists and political figures. Two years later Terkel added to the CHS collection approximately 2,000 hours of unedited conversations and personal papers related to his published books, including Division Street: America, Hard Times, The Good War, Race and Talking to Myself.

In addition to the many recordings now available at studsterkel.org, additional tapes and materials continue to be formatted for preservation and research. Support for the Studs Terkel Collection at CHS is provided by The Chicago Community Trust, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Chicago Park District. The Studs Terkel Collection is part of the Chicago Historical Society's archive of more than 20 million items. In addition to displaying artifacts in numerous public exhibitions, CHS also makes its collection of papers, photos and tapes available to researchers at the CHS Research Center.