Donated Collections
Occasionally the Baylor University Institute for Oral History will accept large oral history collections and process them separately from the main archive. Listed below are the collections that are currently available online as their own distinct digital collections. These collections feature AI-generated text which allows for closed captioning and text searches of their content, but do not include the full research-ready transcript PDFs generated for the main archive. If you have any questions about these collections or would like to request use of this material, please contact our collection manager at Steven_Sielaff@baylor.edu.
Born in rural Illinois in 1932, Thomas N. Tegge earned a bachelor’s degree from Butler University and a master’s degree in history from DePauw University. Following service in the U.S. Air Force as an intelligence officer after the Korean War, he and his wife, Shirley, raised six children in Oak Park, Illinois. Tegge began teaching history at Oak Park River Forest High School in 1960 and, in 1968-69, studied Asian history at the University of Hawaii as a Fulbright Scholar. A passionate educator dedicated to making history engaging and meaningful, he launched the innovative course Witness from the Front: An Oral History of World War II in 1986. The course later expanded to include veterans of the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Desert Storm and was taught at both the high school and community college level until his retirement from teaching in 2011.
Recognizing the importance of preserving firsthand accounts, Tegge spent more than 25 years interviewing hundreds of veterans and documenting their experiences through oral history. His work brought these stories directly into classrooms, ensuring that students could learn from those who lived through major historical events. In 2022 the Tegge family donated his collection to the Baylor University Institute for Oral History, which has enhanced the recordings and added transcriptions to help preserve them for future generations. The collection contains more than 250 video oral histories with U.S. military veterans, now available online and fully text-searchable via their video captions.
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were a pioneering group of 1,074 women who served during World War II after undergoing rigorous Army Air Forces flight training. Formed in 1942 to address a shortage of combat pilots, they flew more than 60 million miles in military aircraft, performing dangerous duties including test flights, target towing, and transporting critical materials. Despite their significant contributions, the WASP were disbanded in 1944, their records were sealed for decades, and recognition came only much later when they were granted veteran status in 1977 and awarded service medals in 1984. Tragically, these honors came too late for the 38 WASPs who lost their lives while serving.
Among these trailblazers was Waco native Deanie Bishop Parrish, whose service inspired her daughter, Nancy Parrish, to preserve the history of the WASP after discovering how little documentation existed about their experiences. Nancy’s efforts led to the creation of WASP on the Web and Wings Across America, a nonprofit project that recorded interviews with more than 100 former WASPs that found a home at Baylor University in 1998. In 2024, the collection was transferred to the Institute for Oral History, where ongoing digitization, transcription, and online access efforts are ensuring that the stories of these remarkable women are preserved and made available to future generations.