The purpose of the Missouri Mule History Project was to document the once vast mule industry in Missouri by gathering and preserving the recollections of Missourians involved with the breeding, marketing, and working of mules. The collection comprises primarily audio recordings and transcripts in an Interview series, and a Publications series which completes the collection. The Interview series consists of audio recordings and transcriptions of interviews conducted primarily in 1982 and 1983 with approximately 130 individuals, mostly Missourians, involved in the breeding, rearing, training, showing, marketing, and working of mules during the period when the Missouri industry was operating at or near its peak as one of the nation's predominant mule producing states. As many of the informants were in their 80s and 90s, the recollections represent a lifetime's experience, ranging back to the early part of the twentieth century and detailing many aspects of the mule in Missouri. The audio recordings of interviews and accompanying transcriptions are arranged alphabetically by interviewee.
Supplementary material is included with some transcripts.
Mules at work in other types of commerce, including hauling, road building, logging, mining, and levee building, is also addressed. The interviews often covered broader subjects and relate experiences and attitudes about farming and rural life, government, the economy, folklore, education, and recreation. A number of veterans were interviewed, and they discuss experiences with the mule as used by the U.S. military, especially in World War II in the difficult terrain of the China, India and Burma theater of operations, and in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The marketing of mules is highlighted in interviews concerning the extensive operation of the Guyton and Harrington Horse and Mule Company of Lathrop, Missouri, which supplied hundreds of thousands of Missouri mules for use in World War I. Other interviews focus on the business of mule breeding, trading, buying, selling, and shipping, and other aspects of the once thriving Missouri mule trade. Another project area of interest was the exhibition of mules, and interviews with showmen and handlers concern competitions at county fairs, the Missouri State Fair, and the American Royal livestock show.