Irwin, daughter of businessman Eugene Hemmick and Frances Thayer Hemmick, recalls her family and social life at the turn-of-the-century in Springfield. She discusses the family store and the merchandise sold there, domestic chores and hired help, entertainment and social functions, home life, the family garden, downtown businesses, transportation, a 1908 trip to Arizona, her school days, and the WWI and WWII homefront. She also mentions the activities of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Bettie Stuart Institute, childhood illnesses, conditions for African Americans in Springfield, early city utilities, the Gleaner's Society, Vachel Lindsay, and her father's use of the shingles from the Lincoln home to create images of the president for keepsakes.

3 tapes, 195 mins., 72 pp. Interview by Kay MacLean, 1976 OPEN See collateral file