Sample oral history consent form carefully edit for your individual project. Oral history interview guidebook national heritage board. Since that time the guide has been maintained solely as an online resource. The interviews are also searchable via the oral history section of the fhs research portal, which. Guidelines for oral history interviews the history channel student. At the time of the interview, be sure to explain again why you are interviewing this person. Assessment in couples therapy the gottman oral history. He remembers joining the national association for the advancement of colored people naacp, the differences in race relations between mobile and other southern cities, and helping to found the southern christian leadership conference sclc. As indicated above, in general, a life history interview should proceed chronologically. Recording an oral history should be fun, not hard work.
You can schedule another session at a later date if you want to continue recording the oral history. An explanation of the steps involved in doing oral. Oral history helps round out the story of the past. Jan 31, 2020 oral history interviews began in the summer of 1997, and since that time more than 1001 individuals have participated in the nasa oral history projects in more than 1,299 oral history sessions. Conducting an oral history offers students an opportunity to. By showing how national or international events affected the lives of individuals, oral history adds a personal dimension to the study of the past. Who is the oldest person you can remember in your family from when you were a child. Use of the oral history interview to assess communication.
The focus should be on the interviewee and they should do most of the talking, with occasional questions from you to guide the interview in directions you think are the most productive. Looking at old family photos may spark her grandparents memories, too. The interviewee shouldnt feel compelled to complete the entire form, but only those parts of it that are applicable and relevant. The oral history book is a oneonone interview with representative sommers. What is your full name and why were you named this. These interview information are basing on the experiences in the form of a testimony of a particular person or group of people. There are three ways to view the names of the various oral history project participants. For instance, you could check ives, the taperecorded interview, neuenschwander, oral history and the law, or sitton et al. Do you want to conduct an oral history interview yourself or participate in a larger oral history project.
A release usually includes the interviewees name and signature, the interviewers name, the date, a statement of permission to use the interview, the name of the person or. Students can also ask the interviewee if they have any letters, photographs, or objects. Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided by public records, statistical data, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, and other historical materials. Attorneys office, and running for congress against barry goldwater. Download sample questions to conduct an oral history interview. Why oral history is important it is a good idea to go into an interview with a few questions prepared, and especially highlight any that you want to make sure you ask. Make sure you record the interview for posterity and in case your daughter. Herodotus, if you recall, set down many of his stories from accounts he heard an his travels.
Joseph lowery recalls his position as pastor at the warren street church in mobile, alabama, in the 1950s. The smithsonian folklife and oral history interviewing guide. Anyone from any country is welcome to participate in the oral history project. Make the narrator as relaxed as possiblehave him or her sit in a. The literature about memory ranges across several academic disciplines and is daunting in size and scope. Picking an interview topic first, you must decide upon some event or period of history. Below are some sample topics and questions that you can use when you record oral histories. Joseph echols lowery oral history interview conducted by. Sample questions to conduct an oral history interview.
Whether conducting their own research or developing an institutional project, first time interviewers and others involved in oral history projects should seek training to prepare themselves for all stages of the oral history process. Feb 18, 20 expansiveness, or how expressive each partner was during the interview. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows. Oral history interviews produce an individuals account. Family history questions for kids to ask grandparents. The following is a brief synopsis of the steps and procedures involved in the interview process.
Oral history workshop page 3 but it can easily be adapted for use in anything from a single interview to a research project involving a number of subjects. Students seldom get the chance to act as historians who record and interpret history for themselves and for others. The vietnam center and sam johnson vietnam archive. The handout titled oral history interview questions worksheet may help guide this process. Regional oral history office 486 the bancroft library university of california berkeley, california 94720 the request should include information of the specific passages and identification of the user. Sample questions to conduct an oral history interview please tell me your name, your birthdate, our relationship, and where we are.
Preparation encompasses the practice of interviewing to include familiarization with the equipment to be used and learning the methodology of oral history, selecting individuals to be interviewed, setting the stage for interviews, acquiring the knowledge necessary to conduct an. Limit your own remarks to some small talk to make the narrator. Remember that for an oral history, the person whom you are interviewing must have lived through that event or time period and must be able to recall details and. It will help to understand the multifaceted dimensions and under currents of an event or situation.
Great interview questions tell your story with evalogue. Memory is not a passive depository of facts, but an active process of creation of meanings. A transcript of an oral history interview is, in the words of one style guide, at best an imperfect representation of an oral interview. You are there to record someone elses experiences, not to talk about yourself. Each hour of recorded interview requires an average of forty hours of preparation and processing. In 1976 the forest history society published barbara d. At the heart of every oral history encounter stands an interview with. Smithsonian folklife and oral history interview guide introduction in the presence of grandparent and grandchild, past and future merge in the present.
The semistructured interview process is a key tool in these methodologies. Oral history biographical sketch filling out this form before the interview may help the interviewer ask more appropriate and interesting questions. Family history questions do you remember hearing your grandparents describe their lives. As a potential participant in the sam johnson vietnam archive oral history project, you may be curious about what is involved with being interviewed. Weness versus separateness, or how much the spouses saw themselves as part of a team as opposed to emphasizing their independence. In addition to the workshops that we offer to community groups, we are happy to provide this manual as a resource and guide to oral history interviewing. Discovering oral history 1 oral history is a sound recording of historical information, obtained through an interview that preserves a persons life history or eyewitness account of a past experiencebut read on. Guide to oral history interviews forest history society. The focus should be on the interviewee and they should do most of the talking, with occasional questions from you to guide them in directions you think are the most productive.
Preparation encompasses the practice of interviewing to include familiarization with the equipment to be used and learning the methodology of oral history, selecting individuals to be interviewed, setting the stage for interviews, acquiring the. Interview summaries, g california secretary of state. Recording oral histories can be a very effective way of capturing information that is difficult to obtain by any other means. A variety of other circumstances also can affect the interview the setting, a personal difficulty, the weather. He discusses his time in a law practice and his developing interest in politics. An oral history interview is not about the interviewer. This approach is in keeping with the belief that oral history is a brokered discipline which draws its. In general, a chronological organization is usually the best structure for an oral history interview. The release form also states that the information or materials could be reproduce, edited, published, republished for any purposes such as. July 16, 2012 mountain view, california chm reference number. This wideranging 1979 interview in eight sessions with carl d. The oral history interview is a part of the gottman couples therapy method. Oral history interview questions worksheet oral history is an interview that records a persons recollection of experiences, thoughts, and feelings about a specific event or a period of time. This booklet presents some guidelines smithsonian folklorists have developed over the years for collecting folklife and oral history from family and community members.
What are the most important lessons youve learned in life. Some oral historians instruct their transcribers to record the interview word for word, while others allow for greater latitude. Transcribing and editing an oral history interview is a matter of personal style, but there are some important guidelines for basic transcript production. Regardless of the type of interview to be conducted, preparation is the key to a successful oral history interview. An oral history interview release form contains information that are released from the person who are connected historically or at least have such information regarding the past events. Here are a series of questions that you can use when interviewing a family member. Guidelines for oral history interviews the history channel student workbook adapted from michael gatto why do some students hate to study history. Preface this oral history is based on a series of about 25 hours of interview sessions with representative helen sommers on her 36year career representing the 36th legislative district in seattle from 19732009. A third approach is concerned with recording oral history interviews with family members about aspects of their lives and memories of other relatives and important events in the familys history.
Oral history interviews began in the summer of 1997, and since that time more than 1001 individuals have participated in the nasa oral history projects in more than 1,299 oral history sessions. Holmans descriptive guide to the societys oral history interview collection. Anderson, board of trustees professor of physics, emeritus and nobel laureate, begins with his recollections of his undergraduate years at caltech 19231927, and the influence of arthur amos noyes and ira sprague bowen. Oral history program california secretary of state. An oral history primer the nebraska state historical societys collections contain hundreds of oral history interviews, some conducted by society staff over the years. Heilbron, oral history interview, conducted 1991 and 1992 by carole hicke, regional oral history office, university of california at berkeley, for the california state archives state government oral history program. Honorable stanley mosk oral history interview, conducted 1998 by germaine. Clauser in may 20, while the remainder was transcribed by wendy l. Gender stereotypes, or how much like traditional men and women the spouses were in their emotional expressions and responses. Part of thefamily, life course, and society commons,gerontology commons, and thesocial psychology commons.
Preparing for an oral history interview is perhaps the most important step in the oral history process. We are completing a citywide oral history of the lives of worcester. This article also considers approaches to memory and remembering, which can enhance oral. The same or similar questions may produce different answers because of the particular bond between an interviewer and an interviewee. Written by linda shopes, this guide presents an overview of oral history and ways historians use it, tips on questions to ask when reading or listening to oral history interviews, a sample interpretation of an interview, an annotated bibliography, and a guide to finding and using oral history. Preparing for an oral history interview involves five basic steps. Margaret mead, american cultural anthropologist the significance of oral history rests with its potential to offer new knowledge, perspectives, and interpretations of the past. The oral history interview is a semistructured interview conducted in the couples home, in which the interviewer asks a set of openended. Adams lightly edited the transcript from 2015 to 2016. It features a general guide to conducting an interview, as well as a sample list of questions that may be adapted to your own needs and circumstances. In this interview, wendy also touches on her experiences as a young working mother and the changes that she witnessed in the main south neighborhood over the years. Use of the oral history interview to assess communication and marital satisfaction in laterlife couples daniel james harkness iowa state university follow this and additional works at. Oral histories in the classroom oral history interviews have been widely recognized by many historians as a unique and distinctive technique by which to document the history of a specific individual, family, organization or group, community, timeperiod, or event.
Also consider holding mock interviews between students to practice interview skills and questioning before the actual interview occurs. While this book prioritizes the documentation of folklife, by which we mean traditional culture and heritage, the guidelines offered here for interview. Oral history interview guidelines vii to different interviewers. Barbara smith, interview by loretta ross, transcript of video recording, may 7, 2003, voices of feminism oral history project, sophia smith collection, pp. Adams, ihss director of oral history as of april 2014, in 2014. Name of project andor organizations involved in this project informed consent form 1. My name is erin anderson and im here with wendy wheelerin leicester and it is october 24th, 2006. He talks about establishing a consulting engineers firm, then closing it and running for the assembly. Memory and remembering in oral history oxford handbooks. This article focuses on the importance of memory and remembering in oral history. Expansiveness, or how expressive each partner was during the interview. Use a question list as a guide, but its ok if the conversation leads your daughter to ask questions not on the list, or her grandparents to tell stories not related to a particular question. Immigration oral history assignment guiding questions for oral history interview oral history.
In ideal terms, oral history interviews infuse the past with new lifefrom the memories and mouths of living sources of history. Oral history project guidelines minnesota historical society. Russell, director santa barbara, california 931069010 805 8938215 oral history methodology, the art of interviewing oral history is as old as antiquity. The transcribers most important task is to render as close a replica to the actual event as possible. My second sister, louise, was a bit younger than ruth. Voices of feminism oral history project, sophia smith collection. Interview can also be conducted on a single event or a particular theme. An oral interview release from states that the person is granting the company and the authorized personnel of the rights and permission to use the materials from the oral history interviews conducted. Once you have decided upon a topic or event in history, you will need to locate a narrator also called the interviewee whose experiences are relevant to your topic.
The whole point of the interview is to make sure the narrator tells his or her own story. This oral history is based on a series of about 25 hours of interview sessions with representative helen sommers on her 36year career representing the 36th legislative district in seattle from 19732009. Italics indicate portions that require editing, but there may be other statements that do not apply, or need to be edited. History too often seems like the study of long lists of names, events and dates. Mar 06, 2020 preparing for an oral history interview is perhaps the most important step in the oral history process. In such cases, an interview can flash and reflect even an insight into a specific problem. Greene discusses his family and early life, career, and move to california. It was created to provide clinicians with a tool which explores the history and the philosophy of the couples relationship. History project and storycorps are leading the way in a new era of oral history collecting, and both of their collections are part of the american folklife center archive. Oral history office attachment iii oral history interview tips 1. This manual includes tips on designing an oral history project. Allow students three to four hours of class time and seven to eight hours of homework time to conduct and write up the oral history.
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