Barbara W. Sommer

Barbara W. Sommer, an oral historian for almost thirty years, has spent her career in the field of public history, serving as historical organization director and director or co-director for numerous oral history projects. She is a co-author of the five-volume Community Oral History Toolkit (2012) with Nancy MacKay and Mary Kay Quinlan. Her book, Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota, came out in 2008; it was followed by “’We Had This Opportunity:’ African Americans and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota,” in The State We’re In: Reflections on Minnesota History. With Mary Kay Quinlan, she is co-author of The Oral History Manual, The Oral History Manual, 2nd ed. (2009), and The People Who Made It Work: A Centennial History of the Cushman Motor Works (2001), and with Quinlan and Paul Eisloeffel, she is a co-author of Capturing the Living Past: An Oral History Primer, on the Nebraska Historical Society website

(http://www.nebraskahistory.org/lib-arch/research/audiovis/oral_history/index.htm. 2005). She is the co-author with Charles E. Trimble and Mary Kay Quinlan of The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard (2008). Quilt House, a history of the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska also came out in 2012. Sommer is the winner of a Minnesota Book Award, Minnesota category, a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, General Nonfiction category, and an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History for Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota.