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The Dole Archives is pleased to announce the availability of The Dole Institute Oral History Project. An online exhibit features streaming audio and video, transcripts and descriptions of 72 interviews. This, along with other project details, can be viewed at http://dolearchives.ku.edu/oralhistory.
Senator Bob Dole served in the U.S. Congress for 35 years for the state of Kansas and is the longest serving Republican Leader in the history of the United States Senate. He was the 1996 Republican Nominee for President, and President Ford’s Vice-Presidential candidate in 1976. He served in many roles throughout his career, including Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance (1981-1985) and 47th Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1971-1973).
The Dole Institute Oral History Project was conducted in two phases between the years 2002-2009 and contains oral history interviews with a variety of people who knew and worked with Senator Dole in various capacities, including friends, staffers, colleagues, journalists, members of Congress, and others.
The first phase took place from 2002-2004. The primary goal of this phase was to document personal memories, recollections, insights and stories in order to document what Bob Dole was like as a person, how he evolved over the years, and to convey a sense of American history and politics as experienced by Dole. Interviews were conducted by long-time Dole staffer Lahoma Yates, with a few done by then-Dole Institute Director Richard Norton Smith. Interviewees include Kansas-based legislators, Dole volunteers, campaign workers, opposition candidates, and others who worked directly with Dole during his years in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate. The group of materials (51 interviews) is currently being processed and is expected to be added to the existing collection in the summer of 2014.
The second phase was conducted from 2007-2009. The primary goal of this phase was to document Dole's leadership style, with an emphasis on issues and legislation during the Senate years (1968-1996). It was during this time that Senator Dole's impact was critical and had the greatest effect on the national political landscape. Interviews were conducted by Historians Richard Norton Smith and Brien R. Williams. Interviewees include Senator Dole, Senate and House colleagues, key staffers and aides, high-ranking campaign personnel, and others who worked directly with Dole in the Senate. This group of materials (72 interviews) is fully processed and is available for research.
Additional discovery tools that the Dole Archives has made use of for the presentation of these oral histories include a finding aid in Archon with links to transcripts, full text searching of all available transcripts using a Google custom search engine, inclusion of the streaming video/audio on a YouTube channel, and a podcast of all available audio in mp3 format.
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