This detailed interview with Archie Green, the faculty sponsor of the Folksong Club, begins by documenting Green’s upbringing in an immigrant enclave of California and his burgeoning class-consciousness. Although he would have preferred to work as a laborer in California, he was encouraged to become an intellectual at the University of Illinois. During his tenure as a librarian for the Institute of Industrial Relations, he helped the Folksong Club bring folk artists and folklorists to campus. A large focus of the interview is the intersection of politics and folk music. Green also discusses his relationships with various folk artists.
Eisenman discusses the differences in campus culture between the University of Illinois and Harvard. He also describes the academic environment at UIUC, with a particular focus on faculty in the sciences.
Recollections by Mary Rolfe include Illinois Field, faculty life, student housing, trees on campus, Charles W. Rolfe, alumni reunions, 1902 commencement, Thomas J. Burrill, Thomas A. Clark and student life.
William Rose was a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois from 1922 to 1955. He speaks about his youth, amino acid research, work on pepsin and creatine, krebiozen, World Wars I and II, research support, students, presidents, and textbooks.
Winton Solberg, professor emeritus in the Department of History, wrote numerous articles and published multiple books on the University of Illinois's history. Born in 1922, Solberg grew up during the Great Depression and served in World War II, and after the war decided to pursue a PhD in history. He came to the University of Illinois in 1961, when university president David Dodds Henry approached Solberg to write a volume on the university's history. He taught American Intellectual and Cultural History as well as an occasional survey course until his retirement from teaching in 1992. In the spring of 2018, he had two manuscripts pending publication in addition to the recently released Creating the Big Ten: Courage, Corruption, and Commercialization.
