American West Center.

In 1964, History professors A. R. Mortensen and Gregory Crampton conceived the University of Utah's American West Center (originally called the Western History Center) as an institution devoted exclusively to research on the American West. As a part of its mission to create and disseminate knowledge about the American West, the center established the ongoing Ethnic Oral Histories Project to explore the experiences of Utah members of Native American and ethnic immigrant communities, including the Jewish community.

In 1966 Doris Duke funded a program to interview American Indians in several states in order to document American history from the Indian point of view. The program was directed in Utah by C. Gregory Crampton for the Western History Center (now the American West Center) at the University of Utah. The interviews represent tribes in Utah and in neighboring states, and include both urban and reservation dwellers. Also included are interviews with non-Indians who were closely associated with various Indian individuals or groups.

The American West Center is a research center at the University of Utah which is affiliated with the College of Social and Behavioral Science. The Center is dedicated to providing educational and curricular support to Indian tribes, school districts, other interested organizations, and the general public through consultations, research, and publications.

In 1966 Doris Duke funded a program to interview Native Americans on their views of history and their place in society. The program was directed by C. Gregory Crampton of the American West Center at the University of Utah. The interviews, now housed in the J. Willard Marriot Library, represent various Native American tribes from the intermountain region and non-indians who were closely associated with these tribes.

While director of Special Collections at the Marriott Library, Dr. Everett L. Cooley proposed an oral history project to chronicle the development of the University of Utah and provide a more comprehensive view of its history than is found in the written records that have been preserved. A small amount of funding was secured and a limited number of individuals were interviewed.

It became apparent, however, that a much broader program was needed in order to document the activities of local leaders in business, communications, politics, education, and other areas. The funds to launch such an oral history program were generously provided by a prominent businessman who is a scholar in his own right and very much interested in the acquisition and dissemination of historical materials to scholars, researchers, and the public. In 1983, the donor gave the University of Utah a challenge grant to finance the beginning of the oral history program and named it for Everett L. Cooley, who had retired that year from his position as assistant director of the Special Collections department of the Marriott Library and professor of history at the University of Utah.

The program was initiated and an advisory committee was selected. The committee consisted of Everett L. Cooley, Roger K. Hanson (director of the Marriott Library), Gregory C. Thompson (newly-appointed director of Special Collections at the Marriott Library), S. Lyman Tyler (director of the university's American West Center), and Brigham D. Madsen (retired professor of history). In 1985, Dr. Tyler retired but remained on the committee, and Floyd A. O'Neil, the incoming director of the American West Center, was named to the committee. The last committee member, Margery Ward, directed the tapes from the many interviewers through the process of transcription and editing.

The American West Center, which had a previously established oral history program, transcribes the tapes and produces the finished transcripts of the interviews. After completion, the transcripts are permanently housed in the Manuscripts Division of the Special Collections Department of the J. Willard Marriott Library.

The greatest emphasis has been on interviewing individuals connected with the University of Utah. However, there has been expansion in other areas of Utah history. There are now projects underway to interview individuals active in the fields of education, recreation, science and medicine, religion, and other areas, in addition to the previous focus on the University of Utah.

In 1964, History professors A. R. Mortensen and Gregory Crampton conceived the University of Utah's American West Center (originally called the Western History Center) as an institution devoted exclusively to research on the American West. As a part of its mission to create and disseminate knowledge about the American West, the center established the ongoing Ethnic Oral Histories Project to explore the experiences of Utah members of Native American and ethnic immigrant communities, including Italian Americans.

Many Italians immigrated to Utah during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although some came because they were Mormon converts, more were attracted to Utah as laborers for the state's railroad and mining industries in Salt Lake, Weber and Carbon Counties. Although varying degrees of strife existed between the Italian immigrants, other residents of Utah, the Ku Klux Klan, and even between immigrants from Northern and Southern Italy, Italian Americans developed active communities like the "Little Italy" near Salt Lake City's Rio Grande Station and established lodges and societies in mining towns like Bingham and Castle Gate. Miners joined labor unions and were active in several strikes in the early twentieth century. The interviews in this collection focus on these early days, but they also more loosely encompass the Italian American experience in Utah from the end of the nineteenth century to the mid-late twentieth century when these oral histories were compiled.