Search for "oral history" in the archives and manuscript collections of the Five Colleges. The Columbia University Center for Oral History has made recordings of many of its oral history workshops available online. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Robin Potter Nolasco. Email Me. Local Collections Search for "oral history" in the archives and manuscript collections of the Five Colleges. Holyoke College Finding Aids f. Featured Resource The Columbia University Center for Oral History has made recordings of many of its oral history workshops available online.

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It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Examples of Oral History After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor Features a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes.
Graham Smith
Oral histories are accounts given by a person of events earlier in their life. Often, they are taken by family members, historians, archivists, or others who interview older people in an attempt to document events and lives that might otherwise be forgotten. Oral histories are valuable. But when using them as primary sources, it is important to consider that memory is fallible. In general with primary sources, the closer in time to the events that the account is given, the more reliable it is considered to be.
This handout will help you figure out how to use oral histories in essays. It will give you suggestions for how to prepare for and conduct oral history interviews and help you determine, based on your context and purpose, how to integrate raw material into your essay. However, we do know a great deal about everyday experience in our own time and culture, and a large part of that knowledge comes not from textbooks but from talking to others. We learn about the histories of our families through conversation with those who remember them and about what various cultures value by observing their celebrations and listening to their music, among other things.