Devine, Michael J. Papers

Director, Illinois State Historical Society, 1985-1991; Director, American Heritage Center, 1991-2001; Director, Harry S. Truman Library, 2001-2014.

The papers of Michael J. Devine contain records relating to Devine’s time as the director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and his research and writing on the Korean War. Records include correspondence, chapter drafts and manuscripts, handwritten notes, personnel records, printed materials, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other items relating to his work as director of the Truman Library and his career as an historian and administrator.

Size: 2.8 linear feet (About 5,600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave their copyright interest in this collection to the U.S. Government. Records created by employees of the U.S. Government during the course of their duties are in the public domain. The copyright interest in other records in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of the records, or to their heirs.
Processed by: Brian Jolet (2026).

Michael Joseph Devine was born in 1945 in Aurora, Illinois. In the early 1950s, his parents moved to Joliet, Illinois, where he graduated from high school. Following high school, Devine received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa in 1967 before earning a master’s degree (1968) and a doctoral degree (1974) from Ohio State University. After receiving his master’s degree, Devine briefly joined the Peace Corps, which brought him to Korea for the first time. While attending college, he began teaching and later became an assistant professor of history at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio in 1972. After receiving his doctorate, Devine was hired as the administrator of the Ohio Historical Society in 1974. In this position, he oversaw the Ohio Bicentennial Commission in 1976. In 1979, Devine became the assistant director of the Ohio Historical Society. He later served as the executive director of the Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges before becoming the deputy director of Historic St. Mary's City in Maryland in 1982.

In 1985, Devine returned to Illinois, where he served concurrently as the director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) and as the executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society in Springfield, Illinois. He was named Illinois State Historian in 1990, at which time he resigned as director of the IHPA. In 1991, Devine moved to Wyoming to become a professor of history at the University of Wyoming. During this time, he also headed the American Heritage Center, a repository of rare books and manuscripts relating to the American West based at the University of Wyoming. Devine’s administrative experience led to his appointment as director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in 2001. He worked in that position until 2014. Following his retirement from the Truman Library, Devine taught history courses as an adjunct instructor at the University of Wyoming and continued researching and writing about the Korean War.

Between the 1980s and 2020s, Devine authored numerous academic articles and writings, earned an array of academic awards, and taught a range of history courses at various colleges. He served as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer three times, twice in Korea and once in Argentina. His first book, John W. Foster: Politics and Diplomacy in the Imperial Era, 1873-1917, was published in 1981. In 2023, he published a book on the Korean War, titled The Korean War Remembered: Contested Memories of an Unended Conflict.

The papers of Michael J. Devine contain a range of materials relating to Devine’s work with the Truman Library and Museum and as a teacher and scholar of the Korean War. A large portion of the records relate to Devine’s book The Korean War Remembered: Contested Memories of an Unended Conflict (2023). The collection is divided into four series: a Correspondence File, an Academic File, a Subject File, and a Printed Materials File.

The Correspondence File series contains personal, work-related, and academic-related emails, letters, and greeting cards from the 1980s until the 2020s. Enclosed materials are attached to several letters. While some of the messages are from Devine’s time with the IHPA and the University of Wyoming, the series pertains largely to his interval as director of the Truman Library. Several emails relate to the transfer of materials from the Korean War National Museum and the Center for the Study of the Korean War to the Truman Library and Museum. Correspondence is both incoming and outgoing. Copies of letters and emails that were neither sent to or by Devine are included in the series.

The Academic File series includes materials relating to history courses, lectureships, conferences, and academic writings. The series includes presentations, articles, chapter drafts and manuscripts, and hand-written notes. These records primarily concern Devine’s book The Korean War Remembered. There are also records pertaining to Devine’s other writings: journals and web-based articles and a chapter Devine wrote for the book Leadership and Legacy: The Presidency of Barack Obama (2021). Articles, sources, and source lists that Devine used for The Korean War Remembered are included in this series. The series additionally contains materials from academic conferences that Devine attended—such as presentations, notes, and correspondence—as well as syllabi and assignments from history courses he taught.

The Subject File series contains an array of records pertaining to Devine’s time with the Truman Library and his career in the historical field. Records relating to the Truman Library in this series include Devine’s self-appraisals, performance appraisals, meeting notes, handwritten notes of telephone conversations, and Employee Viewpoint Survey results. The series also includes materials relating to the Kim Family Annual Appreciation Day and a transcript of Devine’s interview with the Lincoln Presidential Library in 2014.

The Printed Materials File series in the Devine Papers is comprised of pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, blog posts, press releases, journal articles, and newspaper and magazine clippings. The brochures and pamphlets in the series are primarily from the Truman Library and Museum but are also from other historical attractions and academic events. Several of the journal articles in this series pertain to Devine’s Korean War research. Many of Devine’s articles from The Examiner (Independence), known as "Truman Talk," are included in the series.

Photographs and optical discs from this collection were transferred to the Truman Library’s Audiovisual Collection.

The Truman Library also holds the papers of Devine’s predecessors as Director of the Truman Library, Larry Hackman, Philip C. Brooks, and Benedict K. Zobrist. Other related resources at the Truman Library include oral histories with Devine and Hackman, the Records of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute, the Records of the Harry S. Truman Library, Inc., and the Records of the National Archives and Records Administration: Harry S. Truman Library (Record Group 64).