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Beyond Suffrage A Century of Northern Utah Women Making History
Special Collections at Weber State University documented women past and present who have influenced the history of Northern Utah.This project looked at how the 19th Amendment gave women a voice, representation, and was the catalyst for the way women became involved in the development of the state. The project examines the 50 years (1870-1920) before the amendment, the decades to follow, and how women are making history today.
The WSU Storytelling Festival Oral History Collection
This was a three-day festival that brought together storytellers from all over the nation, including youth storytellers. The events were made up of workshops and presentations, a fund-raising banquet, and wonderful stories from gifted performers. This interesting collection includes oral history interviews with visiting storytellers discussing how they became interested in storytelling and where they receive their inspiration.
Great Depression in Weber County
These forty-five interviews address the Great Depression through the eyes of individuals who experienced it first-hand. It includes a variety of perspectives including bankers, laborers, railroad workers, attorneys, farmers, educators, businessmen, community and church leaders, housewives, children, and physicians. All of the interviewees lived in Weber County between 1929 to 1941. These narratives are based on their memories of the Great Depression, their emotional reactions to that experience, how it affected their lives then, and how it still impacts them today.
This was a project to collect oral histories, photographs and artifacts related to the immigrant populations that helped shape the cultural and economic climate of Ogden. This project expanded the contributions made by Ogden’s immigrant populations: the Dutch, Italian and Greek immigrants who came to work on the railroad and the Japanese who arrived after World War II from the West Coast and from internment camps.
The World War II "All Out for Uncle Sam"
This project contains interviews from veterans of the war, wives of soldiers, as well as individuals who were present during the war years. The interviews became compelling background stories for the "All Out for Uncle Sam" exhibit, which was hosted by Ogden's Union Station in 2018. The project received funding from Utah Division of State History, Utah Humanities Council and Weber County RAMP.
WWII Prisoners of War in Ogden
This was an oral history project documenting the lives of Italian and German prisoners of war that were held at Defense Depot Ogden during World War II. The site, designated as a POW camp on October 11, 1942, was one of the first ten camps of its type in the country. An estimated 5,000 Italian prisoners and 4,000 German prisoners were sent to the facility. The prisoners worked in local warehouses, farms, and orchards. The camp closed during the summer of 1946 once the 10,000 prisoners were shipped home. This project contains interviews from people who interacted with the POWs, including the community of Weber County and POW widows. They discuss the daily lives of the prisoners including conditions at the camp, work issues, and community opinions about the POW camp.
Special Collections & University Archives
The Special Collections department of the Stewart Library focuses on collecting materials that document Weber and Davis Counties specifically and Northern Utah generally. These materials include printed works, and non-printed items such as photographs, maps, personal papers, organizational records, and other ephemera. In addition to this primary focus, the department acquires materials which help to better understand the history of Utah and those forces, both within its boundaries and in adjacent states, that have contributed to its development.
It is the intent and purpose of Special Collections to provide the following services:
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Preservation of materials & information.
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Scholarly research & recreational reading.
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Coordination of collection development & usage with campus and community needs.
A Few Past Projects