Iowa Labor History Oral Project

ILHOP is the largest and longest-running, labor-focused oral history project in the world.

It was the brainchild of Iowa Federation of Labor president Jim Wengert. In addition to being a great storyteller, Wengert recognized that workers’ stories had great value and were often in danger of being lost. His solution was ILHOP, an ongoing, collaborative oral history project with an advisory board made up of workers, union leaders, historians, archivists, and labor educators.

Today, the project is directed by the University of Iowa Labor Center in coordination with an advisory committee and partner organizations—including ILHS. You can access more than 1,000 streaming audio files and interview transcripts through the University of Iowa’s Digital Library.