Junior Achievement Archives
In 1999, the Pioneers Archival Committee was formed and $350,000 was raised to establish the JA Archives and Museum. This fund drive was significantly helped by a $100,000 gift from Jim and Pat Hemak and a $50,000 Lilly Endowment grant coordinated by Pam Hicks (spouse of the late Dave Hicks).
In 2002, Junior Achievement USA established the JA Archives at the Indiana University/Purdue University Library in the Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Archives hold important documents, photographs, and program materials that tell the story of Junior Achievement’s growth and innovation. It is a library of important historical documents that have been professionally indexed and are kept in a climate-controlled environment to preserve them.
Most materials are not digitized so they cannot be accessed online. When someone wants a copy of a document, they contact the archivist with the name of the document and the box indicated in the finding tool.
What’s Cool in the Archives?
- Applied Economics in lots of languages!
- Cold War and Post-Cold War Era photos and materials
- Scrapbooks
- Early JA artifacts
- Lots of pictures of US Presidents!
- Oral History recordings and transcripts
Anyone can use the Archives: academic researchers, any Junior Achievement employee (past and present), program participants, and curious members of the public.
If you want to look at what is in the archives, check out this “finding tool” or this link to the “digital collection“. You can get directly to the photos.
Oral History
As of January 2021, the following interview transcripts and recordings are available on the Oral Histories Page:
All transcripts will eventually be added to the archives.
