Oral Histories

What is oral history?

Recorded interviews of spoken memories and personal commentaries of historical significance

Dialogue between interviewer and interviewee – a product of both people

Formats: audiorecording, video, or transcripts

Challenges of using oral histories

Conversations are nonlinear, there may be false starts, dead ends, rambling

Oral history is a mixture of fact and opinion, are inherently subjective and individualistic and reflect personal biases

Need to balance oral history with other evidence

Memory & oral history

Oral history is based on memory Memory is fallible Memory erodes over time Memories are selective Memories are condensed over time Memories produce a jigsaw of the

past, not necessarily and organized, coherent version

Strengths of oral history

Voice of the common person Provided sense of the times, a

direct life experience Provide information that isn’t

available in other historic sources Provides a personal angle on

historical events

Evaluating oral history

Who is saying what, to whom, for what purpose, and under what circumstances Interviewee/narrator Interviewer Content of interview Purpose of interview Location of interview

Sources of Oral history

UW Libraries Catalog (interviews or oral history) and world

war 1914 Imperial War Museum

http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/ Veteran’s History Project

http://www.loc.gov/vets/

Other Types of Sources

Records Enlistment forms

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020106_e.html

Questionnaires http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/F/?func=file&file_

name=find-b-clas13&local_base=CLAS13