LibGuides: Oral History: Oral History Home

Oral History

The Oral History Association defines Oral history as "a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies."

In Doing Oral History, Donald Ritchie explains, “Oral History collects memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews. An oral history interview generally consists of a well-prepared interviewer questioning an interviewee and recording their exchange in audio or video format. Recordings of the interview are transcribed, summarized, or indexed and then placed in a library or archives. These interviews may be used for research or excerpted in a publication, radio or video documentary, museum exhibition, dramatization or other form of public presentation. Recordings, transcripts, catalogs, photographs and related documentary materials can also be posted on the Internet. Oral history does not include random taping, such as President Richard Nixon’s surreptitious recording of his White House conversations, nor does it refer to recorded speeches, wiretapping, personal diaries on tape, or other sound recordings that lack the dialogue between interviewer and interviewee.”

Oral Histories are also important tools for documenting and challenging social justice issues. Voice of witness, a non-profit organization, focuses on the power of Oral Histories as tools to amplify the voices of minorities.

As described by Voice of Witness in Say it Forward: A guide to social justice storytelling, Oral History is an accessible way for human beings to exchange social, cultural, and historical knowledge with each other. It's a traditional art form that retained its appeal and power to connect us across continents and cultures, even in an age when digital communication seems to transform how we talk to each other. By its nature, oral history can be thoroughly subversive because it makes space for stories that otherwise might not be heard. It creates a platform for individuals and communities that don't feel connected to more dominant, established narratives to speak up and share their own personal experiences. The oral history process can liberate people to count themselves as a part of history, and not separate from it, especially individuals and communities that have been marginalized or silenced.

Oral History seeks to grab the mic from the constantly amplified voices of the powerful and privileged and direct it toward ordinary people with stories that deserve hearing. This impulse is an oral historian's response to the inequity that results from ignoring or silencing the mosaic of stories that make up any historical event, time period, or social issue.

References

Oral History Association. (2022, April 28). OHA Principles and Best Practices. https://www.oralhistory.org/principles-and-best-practices-revised-2018/

Mayotte, C., & Kiefer, C. (Eds.). (2018). Say it forward: a guide to social justice storytelling. Haymarket Books.

Oral History Association
Since 1966, the Oral History Association has served as the principal membership organization for people committed to the value of oral history. OHA engages with policy makers, educators, and others to help foster best practices and encourage support for oral history and oral historians. With an international membership, OHA serves a broad and diverse audience including teachers, students, community historians, archivists, librarians, and filmmakers.
Voice of Witness
Voice of Witness (VOW) is an award-winning nonprofit that advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against—injustice.
VOW’s work is driven by the transformative power of the story, and by a strong belief that an understanding of systemic injustice is incomplete without deep listening and learning from people with firsthand experience. Through two key programs—our oral history book series and education program—we amplify these voices, teach ethics-driven storytelling, and partner with advocates to: support and build agency within marginalized communities; raise awareness and foster thoughtful, empathy-based critical inquiry and understanding of injustices; and inform long-term efforts to protect and advance human rights.
Society of American Archivists
Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America's oldest and largest national professional association dedicated to the needs and interests of archives and archivists. SAA represents more than 6,200 professional archivists employed by governments, universities, businesses, libraries, and historical organizations nationally.
International Oral History Association
The International Oral History Association is a professional association established to provide a forum for oral historians around the world, and a means for cooperation among those concerned with the documentation of human experience. IOHA seeks to stimulate research that uses the techniques of oral history and to promote the development of standards and principles for individuals, institutions and agencies (both public and private) who have the responsibility for the collection and preservation of historical information gathered through the techniques of oral histories, in all forms. Through international conferences, collaborative networks, and support for national oral history organizations, IOHA seeks to foster a better understanding of the democratic nature and value of oral history worldwide.

Stanislaus Region History and Culture Image Collection
The Stanislaus Region History and Culture Image Collection consists of two sets of photographic images and one commemorative scrapbook that depict in various ways the multifaceted history, geography, and culture of one specific region of the northern San Joaquin Valley. The images describe two differing but related perspectives on the Stanislaus County region of the Central Valley of California: 1. the early history of the village of Turlock (founded in 1871), illustrated by a collection of early photographs dating from the late 19th century through the 1930s; and 2. a more recent collection of photographs created by Modesto-based photojournalist and commercial photographer Manual Dias (1918-2005).
CSU Fullerton: The Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History
Established in 1968, the Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History is a teaching, training, research, publication, and public service archive located at CSU Fullerton's Pollak Library. It contains more than 6,000 oral histories covering a wide range of people and topics from California and beyond.
CSU Long Beach: Archival Collections
The Oral History Collections at California State University, Long Beach have been assembled from a number of sources. Some interviews were conducted by faculty as part of larger research projects. Others were done by students as part of their course work, including Masters of Art theses. Still others come from non-university related sources and have been deposited in the library because they are relevant to other materials available there.
CSU Long Beach / Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive
The CSULB oral history collections have been assembled from a number of sources and cover topics ranging from women's social history, labor and ethnic studies to Long Beach Area history and the musical developments in Southern California. Some of the interviews in the Asian American, Mexican American and women's history collections were recorded as early as 1972 and include interviews with narrators who were born in the mid to late 19th century. Presently, more than 1000 hours with 350 very diverse narrators are available online.
CSU Monterey Bay: Oral History and Community Memory Archive
The CSUMB Oral History and Community Memory Archive (OHCMA) promotes field oriented, project-based, archival and multimedia opportunities in oral history. Its goal is to encourage an integration of teaching, research, and ethical collaboration that involves students, faculty and community. The OHCMA promotes oral history projects that build understanding of the Central Coast's multicultural past, present and future. Projects are generated in collaboration with community interests and needs, and investigation results are returned to the communities and individuals involved, in ethical and collaborative ways. As a public research repository, the Archive welcomes use by students, scholars, and interested community members.
UC Berkeley Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library
Oral history dates to the beginnings of the University of California. Hubert Howe Bancroft conducted interviews in the 1860s in support of his 39-volume history of the West. In 1954, the Regional Oral History Office was established to conduct interviews with leading citizens of the West. In 2014 we became the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library. Over the decades, we have conducted 4,000 interviews on almost every topic imaginable. The vast majority of these interviews have been transcribed and made available online.
UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research
The UCLA Center for Oral History Research (COHR) conducts in-depth, multi-session oral history interviews with individuals who have been a part of the history of Los Angeles and its many communities. COHR has particularly strong collections in the history of social movements, communities of color, the arts, Los Angeles politics and government, and the history of UCLA.
UC Santa Cruz Regional History Project
The Regional History Project has been documenting the history of the Central Coast of California and the institutional history of UC Santa Cruz since 1963, through oral history. This website includes the complete catalog of our collection, oral history resources, and links to other oral history sites on the Internet.

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum Oral History Program
The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum's Oral History Program preserves Seminole history, memory, and culture by recording Tribal members telling their own story.
The collection is comprised of hundreds of VHS, DVD, CD, audio cassette tapes, DAT tapes, reel to reel, BETA, and other media formats. The program is currently in the process of digitizing all of the existing oral history interviews and conducting new interviews. While the Oral History Collection and Language Resources are available to Seminole Tribal Members only, there are a select number of non-Seminole interviews that are available to the public. As a service, we frequently assist Tribal members in acquiring Seminole recorded resources from outside institutions such as the University of Florida, the State Archives of Florida, and the Smithsonian.
Baylor University Institute for Oral History
Through dynamic, recorded interviews, oral history preserves the stories of individuals who helped create the fabric of history and whose lives, in turn, were shaped by the people, places, events, and ideas of their day. The Institute for Oral History has recorded and preserved oral histories since 1970, earning along the way a strong reputation for multidisciplinary outreach to both academic scholars and community historians by providing professional leadership, educational tools, and research opportunities.
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
Densho documents 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.
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
As part of the Museum's mission to collect and preserve the agricultural heritage of New Mexico, the Museum implemented an Oral History Program in the mid-1990s. This systematic collection of living people's recollections of their experiences with farming, ranching, and rural life is a major component in researching and interpreting these subjects.
Oral History Archives at Columbia University Libraries
The Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH) was founded by historian and journalist Allan Nevins in 1948 and is credited with launching the establishment of oral history archives internationally. At over 10,000 interviews, the Oral History Archives is one of the largest oral history collections in the United States. The Oral History Archives at Columbia is housed at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in Butler Library and is open to all.
Rutherfurd Living History Program, DeWitt Wallace Center, Duke University
The Living History program is an innovative interview platform, oral history archive and media lab. We’re researching and creating new ways to use recorded interviews as tools for investigating, understanding and narrating current events and issues. The program is part of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Smithsonian Institution Archives Oral and Videohistory Collections
The Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. Program staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives records and manuscript collections, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff.
Sophia Smith Collection of Oral Histories
The oral history projects cover such topics as the suffrage, feminist, civil rights and reproductive rights movements; women in social work and medical professions; grassroots activists; Italian immigrants; and women in war.
Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
The recordings of former slaves in Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine states. Twenty-two interviewees discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond.

Say It Forward by Cliff Mayotte (Editor); Claire Keifer (Editor)
Call Number: D16.14 .M28 2018
ISBN: 9781608469581
Publication Date: 2018-12-18
Oral history is a universal form of storytelling. For many years, Voice of Witness has shared powerful stories of people impacted by injustice with a broad audience of readers. Say It Forward extends this work, offering a DIY guide for social justice storytelling that outlines the critical methodology at the core of Voice of Witness's evocative oral history collections. Field reports candidly detail how to harness the power of personal narrative to expose larger issues of inequality. Cliff Mayotte is the education program director with Voice of Witness. He previously edited The Power of the Story: The Voice of Witness Teachers Guide to Oral History. Claire Kiefer is the author of Bear Witness. She was a Voice of Witness curriculum specialist and currently works at the Georgia Capital Defender.
The Oxford Handbook of Oral History by Donald A. Ritchie (Editor)
Call Number: D16.14 .O95 2011
ISBN: 9780195339550
Publication Date: 2010-11-10
In the past sixty years, oral history has moved from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies and is now employed as a research tool by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, medical therapists, documentary film makers, and educators at all levels. The Oxford Handbook of Oral History brings together forty authors on five continents to address the evolution of oral history, the impact of digital technology, the most recent methodological and archival issues, and the application of oral history to both scholarly research and public presentations. The volume is addressed to seasoned practitioners as well as to newcomers, offering diverse perspectives on the current state of the field and its likely future developments. Some of its chapters survey large areas of oral history research and examine how they developed; others offer case studies that deal with specific projects, issues, and applications of oral history. From the Holocaust, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Falklands War in Argentina, the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe, to memories of September 11, 2001 and of Hurricane Katrina, the creative and essential efforts of oral historians worldwide are examined and explained in this multipurpose handbook.
Doing Oral History by Donald A. Ritchie
Call Number: D16.14 .R57 2015
ISBN: 0199329338
Publication Date: 2014-10-17
Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide is considered the premier guidebook to oral history, used by professional oral historians, public historians, archivists, and genealogists as a core text in college courses and throughout the public history community. Over the past decades, the development of digital audio and video recording technology has continued to alter the practice of oral history, making it even easier to produce quality recordings and to disseminate them on the Internet. This basic manual offers detailed advice on setting up an oral history project, conducting interviews, making video recordings, preserving oral history collections in archives and libraries, and teaching and presenting oral history.
Oral History and Digital Humanities by Douglas A. Boyd; Mary A. Larson (Editor)
Call Number: D16.14 .O7326 2014
ISBN: 9781137322005
Publication Date: 2014-12-17
Exploring the developments that have occurred in the practice of oral history since digital audio and video became viable, this book explores various groundbreaking projects in the history of digital oral history, distilling the insights of pioneers in the field and applying them to the constantly changing electronic landscape of today.
Oral History off the Record by Anna Sheftel (Editor); Stacey Zembrzycki (Editor)
Call Number: D16.14 .O75 2013
ISBN: 9781137339638
Publication Date: 2013-10-07
Because oral history interviews are personal interactions between human beings, they rarely conform to a methodological ideal. These reflections from oral historians provide honest and rigorous analyses of actual oral history practice that address the complexities of a human-centered methodology.
Handbook of Oral History by Thomas L. Charlton (Editor); Lois E. Myers (Editor); Rebecca Sharpless (Editor, Contribution by)
Call Number: D16.14 .H36 2006
ISBN: 9780759102293
Publication Date: 2006-03-30
Originally intending to produce the first comprehensive scholarly reference guide to the antecedents, practices, and theory of oral history, the editors have gone even further, creating a highly readable and useful tool for scholars, students, and the general public. Covering the vast scope of this increasingly popular field, the eminent contributors discuss almost every aspect of a field that once was the province of historians but now has become increasingly democratized and available across numerous disciplines.
Oral History Projects in Your Classroom by Linda Wood
Call Number: D16.14 .W66x 2001
ISBN: 9780984594726
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
This guide, written for classroom teachers, includes sample forms, handouts, numerous examples, curriculum suggestions and discussion questions, taken directly from real-life classroom oral history projects around the country.