The on-going Oral History Project is devoted to preserving the personal histories of former teachers and students in one-room schools. These individuals are interviewed on audio tape and a transcription of the interview is made. Both the audio tapes and the transcriptions are permanent parts of the Blackwell Oral History Collection and are available for study.109 interviews have been conducted so far.
The Blackwell Mural Project has produced several murals that hang in the halls of Northern Illinois University’s College of Education. These were produced with the help of students in the Art Education and Upward Bound programs. Currently, the Blackwell is sponsoring more murals depicting the history of education also to be hung in the College of Education.
The Blackwell History of Education Museum has almost 50 essays exploring the artifacts in the Blackwell Technology Collection and the AECT (Association of Educational Communications and Technology) Archives. Most were written by NIU students for their Educational Technology/Instructional Technology 640 class. The Blackwell is continuing to expand this collection and is always accepting more essays.