Over the years, commencement speakers at U of A have ranged from politicians to businessmen to university presidents and other scholars. “Commence and Go Forth – U of A Commencement Speeches” is a digital exhibit that contains speeches by Hubert Humphrey, Wilbur Mills, Brooks Hays, and Rodney Slater, among others. All speakers have imparted some piece of wisdom to the graduating class as many of the students stand at a crossroads and start a new chapter in their lives.
The speeches were found in various manuscript collections and publications and the exhibit collects them together for the first time as scans of originals, from published versions to versions still containing editing marks and handwritten notes.
Each speech is accompanied by a transcript for ease of use. The first phase of the project features speeches from 1947 to 2007 with the bulk of the collection from the 1940s to the 1970s. Additional speeches will be added as they are discovered or donated to the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections.
“It was in the neighboring hills of Arkansas that I first saw the light of day.” – Loy Wesley Henderson, U.S. Foreign Service Officer on June 26, 1957
The project was completed in October 2015 and was coordinated by Amy Allen and Angela Fritz with additional collaboration by Lee Holt, Deb Kulczak, Martha Parker, Janet Parsch, Heath Robinson, Alexsis Bell, and Dylan Hurd.