What Is Oral History?
Information Sheet
1
What Is Oral History?
This sheet will explain
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The origins of modern
oral history
How to use oral history
The value of oral
history
Where you can find
out more about oral
history
Oral history can be defined as the recording, preservation and
interpretation of historical information, based on personal experiences.
Oral history is the recording of someone’s memories and experiences,
usually in the style of an interview. The interviewee, sometimes known as the
subject, might share memories of people, events, and/or experiences, as
well as opinions and emotions that they remember, witnessed, experienced
or felt a part of during their lifetime.
Oral histories act as a way to preserve the memories of older people who
were born and brought up in a time and era quite different from today. On
the other hand, the oral histories of younger people can also act as
valuable resources and be a way of capturing the whole of a subject.
Oral histories reflect both the past and the present because the histories
discuss the past in the terms of today: from the age of the interviewee and
how their memories have been shaped over time, to the style of the
interview, the questions they ask and the interviewer themselves. All these
factors shape the oral history that is produced.
It is important to remember there are different types of stories and memories
that can make up oral histories:
 Direct memories – memories of the interviewee derived directly from
their experience.
 Community memories – generalisations or groups’ experiences.
 Memories of stories and oral culture – stories that have been passed
down, usually by family members. The subject of the interview did not
experience the event, but has been told about it by someone else. For
example, “My Grandma said there were thousands of people there”
might mean there were indeed thousands of people at the event, or it
might be an exaggeration either by Grandma or by the interviewee to
make a point.
What is new about oral history?
Nothing in one sense. The spoken word was the only form of ‘history’ in preliterate societies – and we often forget how much history is based on story
telling. Many cultures and traditions rely on histories being passed down
verbally.
How did it start?
educationandoutreach
@wyjs.org.uk
www.wyjs.org.uk
Oral history in the modern form of audio recordings has its origins in the work
of Allan Nevins at the University of Columbia in the USA. He began to record
the memories of ‘persons significant in American life’ in 1948. There are
earlier examples of people collecting oral histories but Nevins set out with a
mission of recording, transcribing, and preserving oral history interviews.
By contrast to this ‘great men’ approach, the pioneer of oral history in
England, George Ewart Evans, collected memories of life and work in Suffolk
villages, where ‘the old survivors were walking books’. These were first
published in Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay in 1956. At much the same
time, oral history in Scotland developed within a broader focus on Scottish
culture and history. In their different ways, all three reflected the changing
political and social climate of the early post-war period – just as more recent oral history work has developed its
own distinctive forms in other areas of the world.
Can we believe it?
Another Greek historian, Herodotus, ranked ‘what you have been told’
(after what you have seen or what you have read) as the most unreliable
form of historical evidence. However, all historical sources have their
problems, and oral history is not necessarily any more biased or partial than
documentary evidence. It needs to be subjected to the same tests as we
would apply to other sources, and used in conjunction with them. The value we place on oral history will
depend on our own perceptions of what or who history is about, and what it is for but arguably it can offer
unique opportunities and insights.
What is the purpose of oral history?
For a long time, many professional historians rejected the idea of using oral history as a source for writing about
the past. It was felt that peoples’ memories were not as reliable or verifiable as official documents and
manuscripts.
However, oral history adds to the tapestry of historical capture and provides a new dimension and a valuable
insight. It is also often the type of history that is not recorded in any other way, such as everyday experiences
that are not detailed in ‘official records’. Oral history allows the recording of social history, giving versions of
events from a new angle as well as recording the everyday aspects of a culture, generation or class.
It can also include people who might otherwise be hidden from the history books, those on the margins of
society – the minorities in society as opposed to the famous figures and important events. The communal and
individual memories and the nature of them are as much a part of oral history as are the assumptions and
concerns of the time in which it is recorded.
How can oral history be used?
The information collected can be packaged in a variety of ways: for use in schools; with various historical
groups; slide shows in residential homes for senior citizens, which often generates more material; therapeutically
to stimulate the memories where the memory is failing. However, when it is used, the original recording remains
the primary source for historians especially the
social historian. It needs to be preserved as
much as any other historical document and
thought needs to be given to the cataloguing
and indexing of the material.
For more information
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The Oral History Society provides large amounts of information to follow, including the issues surrounding
Ethics and Copyright: http://www.ohs.org.uk/index.php
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The British Library Sound Archive offers advice and in-depth descriptions of current and past projects:
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/nsa.html
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This article from the BBC website by Stephen Caunce is a good starting point for any oral historian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/oral/recording_oral_hist_01.shtml
This information sheet is part of a series produced by the West Yorkshire Archive Service on Oral History. For a copy please visit www.wyjs.org.uk or
nowthen.org.
WYAS have also produced guides in other areas for a full list visit www.wyjs.org.uk