Oral history in the news
News stories pertaining to oral history
Survivor meets Oral History
So who were some of these people who witnessed amazing people and events?
- The last living soldier of the great war
- The last suffragette
- The last pitcher from whose pitch Babe Ruth hit a home run
- The last man to fly with Amelia Earhart
- The last three Civil War windows (one Union, two Confederate)
- The last survivor of the Lusitania sinking
- The last surviving employee of Thomas Edison
- The last man to live in the White House in the 1920s
And wouldn’t you know it? Lutz got his interest in history from stories he heard from his own family.
Lutz, a Maplewood [NJ] resident in his 30s, has always been fascinated with the nearness of the past. As a boy, he listened rapt as his great-grandparents told stories of growing up in Russia and coming to America by steamship, and their amazement the first time they saw a plane.
His great-grandmother... Read More
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Tonight on HBO - Studs Terkel: Listening to America
Just got word there’ll be a documentary tribute to Studs Terkel, 1 day before what would have been his 98th birthday. The documentary by Eric Simonson looks at the man behind the oral histories of everyday people.
“What he did for a living is hard to describe to somebody who doesn’t know his work,” says Simonson, who spent numerous hours with his subject at Terkel’s North Side home—a pack rat’s paradise by the lake. ” ‘He’s an oral historian.’ Well, what does that mean? ‘And he’s a radio man.’ Well, so what? What does that mean? It’s really the force of Studs’ personality that makes him who he was, so I was trying to sift through all this footage to find the most quintessential looks at Studs Terkel and who he was and why it is he meant so much to many people.”
Terkel appears in it (his last interview for the film was recorded six months before his death in October, 2008). The Chicago Sun Times calls it “Disappointingly Short”—a mere 40 minutes.
Simonson was affected by the process of interviewing Studs, and
“Before I worked with... Read More
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News Roundup
Recent news stories that caught my eye from Austin TX, Lewiston NY, San Diego CA, Washington DC. Capturing stories of aging Mexican-Americans, Archival treasure-trove at Odd Fellows lodge, call for Washington DC secretaries, and the dwindling number of holocaust survivors.
Austin, Texas: Austin history project aims to preserve voices of elders.
Mexican American Oral History Project held a workshop this last weekend to train people to conduct interviews. Interviews will be conducted throughout the month of May. The article opens with a nice description of “the problem” that these oral histories seek to solve:
Many of us have parents and family who are entering the twilight of their rich lives. They have stories to tell — tales of bedazzling beauty and joy, of profound loss and heartache, of the mundane moments that fill the in between. They bear witness to history.
Among Mexican Americans, that history usually gets passed along orally, says Gloria Espitia, a neighborhood liaison for the Austin History Center. The trouble is that most families don’t record the stories of their elders, leaving historians and researchers little or nothing to work with and leaving Mexican Americans missing from... Read More
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High School students interview WWII vets
Reliving History My hometown paper, Daily Pilot’s cover story on my rival high school’s project bringing sophomores and World War II veterans together to share stories of the past.
Today, I’m visiting at a hospital near the home where I grew up. I go downstairs to the hospital lobby to post an update to a private family-only blog post about a certain hospital patient’s progress. (No wi-fi in the rooms, yes wi-fi in the first floor lounge) There in the lobby are copies of today’s paper. Shouting at me on the front page is a story about how students from my rival high school—Corona del Mar—has a project where students interview World War II veterans.
“History comes alive for the students through this project,” [Corona del Mar community service specialist Denise] Weiland said. “For the veterans, tey get appreciation for their service and they realize that people want to hear their story.”
Sweet. The news story coincided with the end of the month-long project, where they held a Living History Luncheon for interviewers and interviewees. The WWII veterans were presented... Read More
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It’s our past coming back to life
Wow. 32-page typewritten transcript — from 100 years ago — provides a description of a pictoral history of Sioux nation. The Twin Cites (MN) family finds it in a trunk of Grandma’s old possessions (Great-Grandma typed it up), and gives a copy of it to members of the Lakota tribe.
Libby Holden [pictured with transcript, above] said her grandmother, who inherited the oral history, never spoke about it. It’s possible she never knew she had the document. When she died, her possessions were stored at the family’s printing company.
Last summer, Libby Holden and several other family members began sorting through the items. Holden says one big musty old trunk was especially interesting. [... It] contained the White Horse oral history. She said it’s possible the items were packed away by her great-grandmother and left untouched by her descendants.
Holden’s great grandparents had lots of contacts with Native Americans; their great grandfather was a lawyer representing members of the Lakota tribe, and their great-grandmother was the one who typed up the interview. (The trunk that held the oral history transcript also held many other artifacts).
The front page says ‘transcript of the pictorial history of the Sioux nation as kept by... Read More
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Rest In Peace, Studs Terkel
Curiosity did not kill this cat. Studs Terkel died this morning at the age of 96.
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StoryCorps for scientists
The PEW Scholars oral history program: “A rich history in the scientific process,” is run by the Chemical Heritage Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Scientist article (free site membership required to view entire article, fooey.) describes the project’s background — originally run by UCLA — and its current state (digitization, full speed ahead!). Oral history captures essential information about what it takes to make and be a scientist— the stuff and ephemera and process that does not get recorded in scientific journal articles.
David Caruso, the project’s director, has an office filled with cassette tapes.
[A] cassette player cabled to a digital recorder that runs almost continuously. [David] Caruso, who now runs the joint Pew-CHF oral history project, is digitizing the interviews sent from UCLA, but the recorder only works in real-time and each interview lasts from four to twelve hours. It is a monumental task, but Caruso believes it’s worthwhile. “Science is not just produced in papers,” he says. “There’s a rich history to the scientific process,” including the beliefs, personal experiences, and even misconceptions of the scientists, he notes. Oral histories let us capture those otherwise lost aspects, says Caruso.
What is it like to conduct the interviews, and what do they contain?
At the beginning of the interview process, says Caruso, “lots of scientists are initially a little worried. They don’t know what to expect.” But, he adds, those who believe... Read More
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Highschoolers and historical society combine effort to preserve history of blacks in Mesa, AZ
This is so cool. This Mesa, Arizona oral history project is a cooperative effort of Westwood High School and the Mesa Historical Society. Why is it cool? Because I know Sarah Moorehead, who’s named in the article. She’s the chairwoman of the oral history committee for the historical society. All the interviewees live in the Escobedo housing project, which was originally built to house WW2 soldiers, and then later became a public housing project. The city-owned property will be sold, and residents will move. But first, their stories and memories of the place will be preserved.
Here’s what Sarah Moorehead has to say about the oral history project:
Now that the city housing is closing, Moorehead said it’s become more urgent to preserve its history, because departing residents are taking their memories with them.
“When you have current history, there’s a limited number of ways to really save that history. Personal experiences are a very important part of that,” she said.
So often, documented city history focuses on leaders, often white males.
“But they have little to say about the average person and what the everyday life of an average person was like,” she said. “Our society is so much more than what our political leaders are doing.”
Other coolness:
Wardean Corder, 77, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1968, said she was happy to participate in the project.
“I love the idea of being heard and not seen,” she said.
Why’s that cool? In the... Read More
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Schenectady, NY: Feb 21 Intro to Oral History + Folklore
Schenectady Gazette: Feb 21, 2pm (Thurs) at the Schenectady County Historical Society, there’ll be a presentation on how to conduct oral histories. The presenter is Ellen McHale, executive director of the Folklore Society, located in Schenectady. The Folklore Society participates in the Veterans History Project, too. Oh, and she’s taught workshops at the Erie Museum, Apple. (tee hee!) Small world.
I’m very stoked to see this Schenectady mention. My Mom grew up in Schenectady; her parents both worked at the General Electric Co. I’d been aware of the Schenectady Museum (lots of GE archives there, including some of my grandfather’s papers), and I’ve seen the Schenectady History site run, in part, by the library.
Thanks to this story, I’ve found a couple of new, Schenectady-related links:
Folklore Society. Man oh man, their links page is mighty rich.
Schenectady County Historical Society
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News Roundup
Here’s a roundup of stories about oral history in the news. One is for an event that takes place in Syracuse, NY, tomorrow at the Erie Canal Museum. Wish I could be there.
Syracuse, NY, Saturday, January 19, 1pm: Erie Canal Museum’s speaker series starts off with a session I’d like to attend: “Robert Arnold kicks off the series with “Myth and History: Distilling the Truth.” Sometimes accidentally and sometimes purposefully we mythologize our family and community histories, offering the future no service by doing so.”
Daily Mail (UK) reviews Studs Terkel’s book, Touch and Go, and gives a bit of profile of the man, telling how interactions with the residents of his parents’ boarding house shaped him: “These waifs and strays were the making of Terkel, teaching him how to listen and how to feel empathy.”
Now there’s a forward-thinking Grandpa: Winchester Star (in Virginia)‘s news archives of 100, 75, 50, 25 years ago today uncovers this: “Harry Lovett’s grandson is only 2 1/2. When he gets a little older, he’s in for a treat. As a present, his grandfather is recording an... Read More
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Library’s digital storytelling station
Covina library has digital storytelling station to collect stories about city’s 125-year history. Cool. It’s local, very local. I’ll go and see. It’s from a grant award. If it goes well, more of these may pop up in libraries in the State of California.
After winning a competitive grant from the California State Library this summer, the Covina Public Library received a “digital storytelling station,” a massive cabinet full of digital equipment valued at about $3,000.
The equipment, which includes a new Apple iMac computer, a digital camera, a printer, a scanner, a tape deck, a record player and a DVD player, was awarded to the library with the hope of documenting Covina’s history through the eyes of those who lived it.
“We are very excited about this great library program that uses cutting-edge information technology to explore and preserve California’s untold history,” said Susan Hildreth, state librarian of California. “We look forward to seeing the results of the pilot program, and we’ll consider expanding the initiative in 2008 and 2009.”
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Two Companion Web Sites to Ken Burns’s The War
The Veterans History Project’s companion site features stories from its collection about the events described in each episode. Episode 1 covers Pearl Harbor, Bataan Death March, Guadalcanal and Japanese American internment camps. And I’ve linked to it before, the PBS Site for The War… the site got a revamp and facelift. Happy to see a prominent link from the PBS site to the Veterans History Project site.
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Veterans History Project Medal Controversy: Fraud or Clerical Error?
The Veterans History Project’s web sites posts stories from its collection. An independent Medal of Honor watchdog fact-checks the recipients listed on the Project’s web site against the official records. Watchdog finds discrepancies, notifies Project. Vets History Project scrubs the bad records. Investigates. Is this a case of Lie-induced Nausea or Unfortunate Clerical Error?
Test yourself. Quick: Which of these is the true Medal of Honor? the Vietnam Armed Forces Honor Medal or the Medal of Honor (Air Force)?
This week, MSNBC reported that the Veterans History Project (VHP) took down listings of veterans whose reports receiving the Medal of Honor were false. And here’s the tricky bit. Were those listings fraud? Exaggeration? Error? Doug Sterner, who operates an independent web site honoring those who have received the Medal of Honor, fact-checked the Veterans History Project‘s site and database and found the errors and reported it to the VHP. The Project notes that many of the false listings are due to clerical errors.
The accusation: “Gross Negligence”
Doug Sterner’s efforts are devoted to debunking false claims to receiving medals—and honoring the known recipients of the medals. He shared his findings with John Hoellworth, veteran Marine and writer for Marine Corps Times. Both Hoellworth and Sterner have worked to debunk false claims to military honors. Sterner tells MSNBC:
“Over the last 10 years, I’ve had to deal with hundreds of these... Read More
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Yessss! A Mention in the US News cover story!!!
US News: Making History, by Alex Kingsbury. “From World War II soldiers to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, more people are sharing their own memories to bring the past back to life.” I spoke with him back in June, the story mentions me and this site. Color me stoked. I’m planning to do a roundup of stories about Ken Burns and The War; I’m tickled that one of them will be slightly self-referential.
I discovered it this afternoon, immediately after posting Genealogy Carnival, after I took my broken-footed boyfriend to doctor’s office. So glad they subscribe to around 4 copies of US News & World Report. They said I could have a copy before I even said, “I’m in here. My name is right here.”
Ahem. Back to business. There are several related articles and sidebars in this issue. In addition to the main story talking about the phenomenon of oral history and personal memory projects, there are these stories:
A Ken Burns profile—An Intimate View of ‘The War’.
Tips for Recording Oral Histories. Emphasis on equipment and video, and the wisdom of Donald Ritchie, author of Doing Oral History and Senate Historian, and David Isay of the Storycorps project.
Oral History: War Stories (Video, Flash) Movie explaining what the Vetrans History Project is and how it works. You get to see an oral... Read More
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Double shot macchiato Oral History
Starbucks will sell oral history book. The David Isay StoryCorps history book, “Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Lives From the StoryCorps Project” It goes on sale Nov 8. (hooray hooray, I saw that David Isay is coming to my local independent bookstore this fall. Yay!)
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