United States History: Primary Sources by Type: Oral history

Find published oral histories

Tips for finding oral history sources in UW Libraries Search:

Limit your search by year of publication.
Search for books written by key participants and organizations.
Use the subject headings "personal narratives," “oral history”, "diaries", "interviews", and/or "correspondence," in conjunction with your search. (Note that "oral histories" is a different subject heading than "oral history.")
Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area (DS 16.14 is the call number for books *about* oral history as a practice).

Examples of keyword searches:

Trade unions history "personal narratives"
"African Americans" interviews
"Japanese Americans" diaries

Digitized collections of oral histories

This is just a short selected list of digitized oral histories available on the web. For a longer list, see the Oral Histories page on the History research guide from UW Seattle.

Black Oral History Collection
From WSU: subset Civil Rights Oral History Collection includes interviews on civil rights experiences in Spokane from the 1960s
Densho
Japanese American oral histories from the Pacific Northwest, with a particular focus on the experience of incarceration during WWII
Pacific Northwest Labor History Project
From the UW: includes Communism in Washington State
StoryCorps - national oral history project
Since 2003, StoryCorps has given a quarter of a million Americans the chance to record interviews about their lives.
Voices from the Days of Slavery
From the Library of Congress American Memory Project
WPA Life Histories
Manuscripts from the Federal Writers Project, 1936-1940

Doing oral history

Interviewing Tips
From the UC Berkeley Oral History Center
Oral History Techniques
Practical tips from the Center for Documentary Research and Practice at Indiana University.
Oral History in the Digital Age: Getting Started
Though it hasn't been updated recently, the recommended standards and best practices for digital oral history from this site at Michigan State University are still very useful.
Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History
Part of the History Toolkit at the DoHistory site.

UW Libraries Oral History projects

Oral history projects from UW Libraries, UW Faculty and Departments, and organizations that have partnered with UW Libraries.

Bothell Campus Library Community Voices Collection
The Community Voices Collection is an archive of oral histories conducted by - and with - UW Bothell students, staff, faculty, and community members. Represented in the collection are histories of international students, students with disabilities, founders of UWave Radio, staff who maintain campus facilities, staff who work with students, and more. These histories expand the breadth and depth of the recorded history of the University of Washington Bothell and the surrounding community
South Asian Oral History Projects
One of the first attempts in the U.S. to record pan-South Asian immigrant experiences in the Pacific Northwest using the medium of oral history. Interviews with individuals who immigrated to the Seattle region in the 1950's through the 1970's, from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Tacoma Community History Project
Oral histories created by University of Washington Tacoma students, includes over fifty projects on churches, labor unions, military institutions, ethnic communities, neighborhoods, businesses, civic leaders, and prominent citizens in Tacoma and the South Puget Sound.
Women Who Rock Oral History Project
Women Who Rock brings together musicians, media-makers, performers, artists, scholars and activists to explore the role of women and popular music in the creation of cultural scenes that anchor social justice movements in the Americas.

More digitized collections of oral histories

After the Day of Infamy
Interviews following Pearl Harbor

This is just a selected list of digitized oral histories available on the web. Search In the First Person to find other oral history websites.

American Life Histories
More than 2500 Federal Writer's Project life histories done between 1936 and 1940
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
PNW Japanese American oral histories; note that registration is required and you will have to request access to the interviews
Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History
Transcripts of 100s of interviews
Frontline Diplomacy
Transcriptions of interviews with 20th century American diplomats
National Council of Jewish Women Oral History Project
500 oral history interviews focused on the Jewish community of Pittsburgh
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
150 interview transcripts with selected audio & video
Oral Histories of the American South
500 oral history interviews documenting the history of the south
Regional Oral History Office
University of California Berkeley collection
Rutgers Oral History Archive
Over 500 interviews many dealing with WWII
September 11, 2001 Documentary Project
Includes interviews, images, video and other material
University of Florida Oral History Collections
More than 2,000 interview transcripts with special emphasis on Florida and Native American history
University of Southern Mississippi Oral Histories - Civil Rights
Contains mostly text transcripts of oral history interviews about the Civil Rights movement. Some audio.
Veteran's History Project
In addition to interview transcripts, the project also includes correspondence and images
Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive
More than 50 interviews of survivors
Voices of Civil Rights
Library of Congress collection