Skip to Main Content

Oral Histories Special Collections Resources

Guide to resources related to Oral History projects in Smith College Special Collections

Overview

still from Loretta Ross' VOF oral history where she smiles warmly in front of a fireplace
Still from Loretta Ross' Voices of Feminism Oral History, interviewed by Joyce Follet, November 3-5, 2004, December 1-3, 2004, and February 4, 2005. Voices of Feminism Oral History Project oral histories, Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00535.

Oral history, a scholarly method of gathering historical information about and reflections on lived experience, takes the form of a taped conversation between a narrator and a well-informed interviewer. As an interactive performance, the oral history interview reflects the social and historical moment in which it occurs, including pressures to speak and to be silent. Not only does it record speech and thought patterns lost in written material, oral history also documents processes of memory and the creation of meaning.

still from Tammy Baldwin's oral history, smiling warmly in front of an office space
Still from Tammy Baldwin's (class of 1984) Alumnae Oral History, interviewed by Grace Ramsay, 2014 May 16. Alumnae Oral History Project collection, Smith College Archives, CA-MS-00301.

According to the Oral History Association, "Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. ... 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."

[This definition was adapted from OHA's "Oral History: Defined."]

Organizations

[This list was adapted from the UC Santa Cruz LibGuide on oral histories.] 

Principles and Best Practices

[This list was adapted from the UC Santa Cruz LibGuide on oral histories.] 

Journals

[This list was adapted from the UC Santa Cruz LibGuide on oral histories.]