Primary Sources: Oral Histories

Donna M. DeBlasio
Publication Year: 2009

Veterans History Project > How to Participate > Interview Tips & Resources (LOC)

"Welcome to Oral History in the Digital Age where we will connect you to the latest information on digital technologies pertaining to all phases of the oral history process."
From Institute of Museum and Library Services

The American Folklife Center > Oral History Interviews > Planning an Oral History Project (LOC)

By Barbara W. Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan
Paperback, June 2009

Online oral history workshops offered from Baylor University's Institute for Oral History.

"This booklet presents some guidelines Smithsonian folklorists have developed over the years for collecting folklife and oral history from family and community members. It features a general guide to conducting an interview, as well as a sample list of questions that may be adapted to your own needs and circumstances." From Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

© Judith Moyer 1993, Revised 1999; from DoHistory

How to participate in StoryCorps

UC Berkeley > The Bancroft Library > Oral History Center

"After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States."

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940
"This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project . . . from 1936-1940."

"Densho’s mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy, and promote equal justice for all."

Contains "typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes."
From University of Oklahoma > Western History Collections.

"Frontline Diplomacy: The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training at the Library of Congress makes available interview transcripts from the oral history archives of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST). These transcripts present a window into the lives of U.S. diplomats and the major diplomatic crisis and issues that the United States faced during the second half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st."

"The NCJW Oral History Project provides a compelling insight into the growth of an important American Jewish community and the contributions made by the people interviewed."
University of Pittsburgh > Pittsburgh and Beyond > The Experience of the Jewish Community

"The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is a comprehensive program dedicated to documenting, preserving and disseminating the remembered past of persons affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing."

"'Oral Histories of the American South' is a three-year project to select, digitize and make available 500 oral history interviews gathered by the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP)."

from The University of Southern Mississippi Digital Collections

Berkeley > Bancroft Library > Oral History Center

"The Rutgers Oral History Archives seeks to record the narratives of:
~ Alumni and/or New Jersey residents who served during times of conflict
~ People with a story to tell about New Jersey's rich social and cultural history
~ Men and women who helped shape the history of Rutgers University"

"The September 11, 2001 Documentary Project captures the reactions, eyewitness accounts, and diverse opinions of Americans and others in the months that followed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93."

"The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program Digital Collection includes the digital holdings of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) at the University of Florida. With over 5,000 interviews and more than 150,000 pages of transcribed material, the SPOHP collection is one of the largest oral history archives in the South . . . ."

"The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war."

"Since 1981, Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, has interviewed Holocaust survivors. The University's Mardigian Library has been the repository of these interviews. It has been our privilege to provide a forum for those voices, "listening ears," as one survivor notes, and the facilities to record the testimonies. As a University of distinction, the campus has demonstrated its dignity and character because of the respect it has accorded the tapes and the people who made them."

"The Voices of Feminism Archival Development Project, funded by the Ford Foundation from 2002 to 2008, aims to bring race, class, and sexual diversity to the holdings of the Sophia Smith Collection."
Sophia Smith Collection, Women's History Archives at Smith College

Part 1 of interview with William Ruckelshaus

Part 2 of interview with William Ruckelshaus

Part 3 of interview with William Ruckelshaus

Part 4 of interview with Williams Ruckelshaus