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"Doc" Davidson, Republican member of the Illinois State Senate, 50th district, discusses his Navy Air Corps service during WWII: kamikazes, fighter planes, and aircraft carriers. He also discusses his Springfield chiropractic practice, his political career, Illinois politics, the Chicago school system, and education in Illinois.

1 tape, 90 mins., 22 pp. Interview by William Ortman, 1989 OPEN See collateral file: interviewer's notes and a photocopied photograph of Davidson

Scope and Contents ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Corneal A. Davis, member of the Illinois House of Representatives 1943-79, discusses his years as a member of the Illinois General Assembly: legislative reform, legislative technique, and his work on legislation involving public aid, welfare, education, the Equal Rights Amendment, and taxation. Also discusses his work on the Advisory Commission on Public Aid, Fair Employment Practices Commission, Appropriations Committee, and the Commission on...

Scope and Contents Alumni SAGE Society Legacy Oral History Project Davis, Emeritus Professor of History at SSU/UIS and retired after 39 years of teaching and participation in the experiment that was Sangamon State University. He started at SSU when the university first began by hiring the faculty, some of whom he described as “de-frocked priests” and “refugees from the campus battles of the 1960s.” Davis started the Oral History Office at SSU as a means to preserve less prominent historical interests such...

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STEAMBOATS AND INLAND RIVERS Mack Davis discusses people who made their living on the Ohio River: riverboat captains, cooks, stewards, and rousters. Also discusses his service as steward, trade routes and cargo, and passenger traffic.

1 tape, 15 pp. Interview by John Knoepfle, 1957 OPEN: released by John Knoepfle

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VIETNAM Davis discusses his experiences in the Vietnamese Conflict: enlistment and basic training in the army, transfer to Vietnam, combat and patrols, R&R, leaving Vietnam and returning to Illinois, and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He also recalls growing up in Bethany, Illinois.

6 tapes, 540 mins. Interview by Charles Hill, 1982 OPEN see collateral file

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SPRINGFIELD MARINE BANK PROJECT Davison, an employee with the Springfield Marine Bank, recalls working conditions at the bank, effects of the Depression and increased automation, services offered, and the type of work performed.

1 tape, 60 mins., 14 pp. Interview by John Bucari, 1973 OPEN See collateral file

Scope and Contents Dawe, former coal miner and director of the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals, discusses coal mining in Franklin County, Illinois: coal companies and production, mine shaft support, mine structures, safety, reclamation, company houses, and growing up in Valier, Illinois in a mining family. He discusses the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals, government mining policies, hazards, energy policy and mining skills. 3 tapes, 125 mins. Interview by Barbara Herndon, 1977...

Scope and Contents ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Dawson, member of the Illinois House of Representatives 1957-71, recalls her childhood during the first two decades of the century near Des Moines, Iowa, farm activities, her education at Simpson College and Northwestern University, and her participation in Evanston civic organizations. She discusses her years in the Illinois General Assembly, campaigning, legislation regarding education, revenue, water fluoridation public aid, health, welfare,...

Scope and Contents Sid Dawson, J. Richard Lawwell, William J. Moyer, Captain Thomas J. Reynolds STEAMBOATS AND INLAND RIVERS This memoir consists of four separate interviews with individuals who have lived and worked on the Ohio River. Reynolds discusses running a showboat; Lawwell recalls the 1913 Manchester, Ohio flood and his grandfather Captain Prather; Moyer recalls the 1913 Dayton, Kentucky flood and the 1917 ice flood; and Dawson, the leader of the Riverboat Ramblers Band discusses showboat bands and...

Scope and Contents BLACK COMMUNITY PROJECT Phoebe Day discusses her life in Springfield: her neighbors and neighborhood, her beauty shop business, marriages, and her husband's furniture refinishing business. She recalls her treatment as an office building matron at the Centennial Building under the administrations of Secretaries of State Edward Barnett and Paul Powell. She recalls the 1908 Springfield race riot and the destruction it caused, invasion of her home by soldiers, and efforts to protect the...