Teaching with Primary Sources:
The Oral History Component
July 2010
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
TEACHING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES
DEPARTMENT @ CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
MR. NIK ROBERTS
DR. DAVE LONICH
roberts_n@calu.edu
724.938.6022
Keystone 112
Session 1: Conceptual Framework
 What?
 Definition
 Demarcation
 Where?
 Historic scope
 Modern scope
 Why?
 Pedagogical justifications
Agenda for Session One
 A) Definition
A primary source?
 Demarcation (from other oral sources of information)
B) History
 Distinguished from written history
C) Pedagogy
 Unique knowledge available
 Trans-disciplinary uses
 Critical thinking
 Compatibility (student-centered, inquiry-based & project-based
learning)
D) Digital Collections Demonstration
E) Web-quest
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What is Oral History?
 Definition(s)
 Demarcation
A) Definition
What is Oral History? Four takes…
1. “The recording of personal testimony delivered in oral form” (Yow, 2005, p. 3).
2. “Memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded
interviews” (Ritchie, 2003, p. 19).
3. “A sound recording of historical information, obtained through an interview that
preserves a person's life history or eyewitness account of a past event" (“Discovering,”
2008, p. 1).
4. “A primary-source material created in an interview setting with a witness to or a
participant in an event or way of life for the purpose of preserving the information and
making it available to others” (Sommer & Quinlin, 2009, p. 1).
Some terms often used interchangeably with oral history: self-report, personal
narrative, life story, life testament, life biography, life review, recorded memories,
recorded memoir, etc.
Demarcation / Four Falsehoods:
 What oral history is not:
 Journalism
 Folklore
A
structured interview
 A sound byte
 Monologic
 Why is each of the above not oral history?
Scope
Where is Oral History Situated?
 Historical Scope
 Before the written word…
 Academic Scope
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Formal recognition of “oral history”
 Modern Scope
 Sample areas of practice
 Interview topics/themes
“Real” Oral History History
Where is oral history and why should I care?
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Academic Oral History History
 1948 – The first O.H. office was started by historian
Allan Nevins @ Columbia University
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The focus was on preserving diplomatic history from those
diplomats who did not leave behind memoirs.
 O.H. takes off during the 1960s & 1970s
 e.g. Alex Haley, Studs Terkel, Oscar Lewis
 OHA established
The Scope of Oral History Practice:
Topics from the 2009 OHA Conference
Oral History as Art and Advocacy frames panels that explore the full range of artistic dimensions of
oral history, recognizing that advocacy is embedded in many of these interpretive performances.
Oral History as Teaching and Service Learning provides a framework for panels that examine a range of
issues involved in student training, and has been deployed to build communities and knowledge through university and
school interaction.
Oral History as Film and Image provides a border for those panels that connect images to oral history, either
through photography or film.
Oral History and Folklife in Community is an umbrella for panels that consider the boundaries of community
or the ways that oral history and folklife contributes to the community-building process.
Oral History as Activism and Social Justice is a thread that borders and encompasses work with a strong
commitment to social, political, and/or economic change, recognizing the often implicit underpinnings of many oral
history projects.
Oral History in Museums, Archives, and Digital Environments provides a rubric through which to
consider two disparate, though often interconnected, trends: the development of digital tools and exhibit formats and
the expansion of oral history use in museums, as well as increased attention to the archiving of oral histories.
Oral History as Research Methodology provides a thematic structure for panels that use oral history
in service of a disciplinary research endeavor or take on oral history as a mode of understanding.
Topics/Themes in the
Oral History Landscape
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Specific historical events
Childhood
Teenage years
Family history & norms
Individual & community interests
Vocation & retirement
Military experiences
Marriage/ family history
Spiritual / religious life
Worldviews: attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, opinion
Folklore, superstitions, customs, myths
Cultural celebrations: holidays
Death and dying
Etc.
Why [study/practice/do] Oral History?
 The crisis
 Importance
 General
 Learning
Snapshot of the Crisis in Knowledge
In other words…
An event occurs
Donora Smog,
9/11 attacks, JFK
election, etc.
Evidence is left behind and created
Artifacts, diaries,
photographs, etc.
Environments threaten
survival
of records
Archives preserve what
exists &
provide access
Opportunities
to
Educe
Fires, floods,
hungry dogs
trash, etc.
Archives, libraries,
repositories, museums,
person collections
Possibility for
Learning
Why is Oral History Important, Generally?
 Historical documents and books can't tell us everything about our past.
 Written history often concentrates on famous people and big events,
and tend to miss the ordinary people living ordinary lives.
 Written history often neglects people on the fringes of society, e.g., the
poor, disabled, ethnic communities.
 Oral history fills the gaps and gives voice to history that includes
everyone. Gives “voice to the voiceless.”
Value of Oral Histories in Education
 “Oral history not only enriches our understanding of
the past, but also holds the potential to dramatically
enrich the classroom experience. Oral history
projects can help students from early primary grades
through the college level learn an amazing range of
content knowledge and skills.”
- Kathryn Walbert
Why Oral History in the Classroom?
 As a primary source, oral histories allow students to
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interact with the past (e.g., the “history makers”) in a direct
way
Empowers students with their own learning
Provides empathic sense of another’s life
Generates student experts
Provides information that isn’t available in other historic
sources
Authentic opportunity for students to function as historians
or social scientists
It’s fun!
Session One Wrap-up
Main Points
 Split focus: life history/ eyewitness accts (e.g., Dust Bowl)
 Preservation as end goal
 Trans-disciplinary in nature
 O.H. fills gaps in history and gives “voice to the voiceless”
 The historic “bad rap” of oral history has been reframed as
positives (e.g., insight into memory, attitudes, perspectives,
etc.)
 Oral history today often discloses the role of the researcher
by expounding on possible biases, interpretations
Session 2: Project Planning
 How [to prepare]?
Conducting background research
 Theme
 Selecting interviewees
 Interviewing
 Approaches
 Questioning
 Techniques
 Guidelines
 Interview Guide
 Where?
 Recording environment
 With?
 Technological considerations
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Preparation is the Key
 Conceptualize the project
What is it that you wish to accomplish? (This is the aim
of the Investigative Question).
 How do you intend to accomplish it?
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Equipment
 Questions/outline
 Directions
 Release forms
 Prompts
 Review your checklist
 Know your narrator
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Learning Oral History
 “The only way to learn how to do it [conduct an oral
history] is to do it” (Truesdell, 2007, p. 1).
 Oral history interviews are “learning events for the
interviewer” (Portelli, 2009).
Finding Participants
 Purposive Sampling:
 “Those interviewed are specific
individuals selected because of
their often unique relationship
to the topic at hand”
(Yow, 2005, p. 360).
Questioning Example #1:
The Holocaust
23
Q: Did you know anyone in the concentration camp?
A: Umm, yes.
This is a closed-ended question.
Questioning Example #2:
The Holocaust
 Q: How does it feel to know people who were in the
concentration camps?
 A: I lost 27 relatives in the Holocaust, a grandfather, many
uncles, aunts, and cousins. They were sent to Auschwitz,
sometime in June 1944. In 1935, when I was 10 years old, I
visited these relatives with my parents and sister in
Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine). All these years later I had a
remembrance of these relatives. Needless to say our family felt
the tragic effects of this news for these many years later.
 This is an open-ended question.
Process of Questioning
 Gain practice turning closed-ended questions into
open-ended questions…
 What do you remember about your grandparents?
 What was your grandfather’s name?
 What kind of reception did Italians immigrants receive
when they moved into town?
 Was there prejudice against Italians moving to your town?
Sample Questioning Structure
VHP
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“Six Segments” format
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1. For the Record
 Date and place of the interview
 Name and birth date of the person being interviewed
 War and branch of service
 What his or her rank was
2. Jogging Memory
 Were you drafted or did you enlist?
 Why did you pick the service branch you joined?
 Do you recall your first days in service?
 Tell me about your boot camp/training experience(s).
 How did you get through it?
3. Experiences
 Which war(s) did you serve in (WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf)?
 Where exactly did you go?
 Do you remember arriving and what it was like?
 What was your job/assignment?
 Did you see combat?
 Were there many casualties in your unit?
 Tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences.
Sample Questioning Structure
VHP
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4. Life
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5. After Service
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How did you stay in touch with your family?
Did you have plenty of supplies?
Did you feel pressure or stress?
Was there something special you did for "good luck"?
How did people entertain themselves?
Did you keep a personal diary?
Do you recall the day your service ended?
What did you do in the days and weeks afterward?
Did you make any close friendships while in the service?
Did you join a veterans organization?
6. Later Years and Closing
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Did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about
the military in general?
How did your service and experiences affect your life?
Technological Considerations
 Important to use best equipment available.
 If the quality is poor, the source may be unusable
 Digital equipment
 Audio or Video
 Non-compressed recording
Session Two: Main Points
 Oral history work involves practical skills. The art
of oral history is gained by way of “learning by
doing.”
 Technology?
 Environment?
Session 3: Post-interview Outcomes
 Now what?
 Thematic/topical time-log
 Transcription
 Outlets for oral history
Listening / Time-log Activity
Clip from an oral history with Howard Zinn, PhD.
Recorded by telephone in California, PA
on October 03, 2008
Sound-clip: Follow-up themes/questions
Other experiences regarding the trip to England across the Atlantic
More on the living conditions for enlisted men and officers
More on African-Americans living in the engine room
How strong did racism resonate with other officers/enlisted soldiers?
How did the black soldier react after you put the sergeant in his place?
What did your ‘political lecture’ entail?
When was this?
Food quality. Was food the same for the 4th shift?
How have you used this “very important lesson” (choosing between
principles) at other times in your life?
Is 16,000 accurate?
Triangulate “the first integration dining room in World War II”
Transcription Process
 The final product of most oral history interviews—
the published transcript—is but a monologic
representation of a dialogic “performance” (Portelli,
2009).
 Q: Is the interviewer involved or disinterested? Is it
evident in the process of doing the interview, timelog, or transcription that the interviewer is an active
part of the oral history?
Outlets: Post-Oral History
What can we do now?
 Teaching / education
 Exhibit / preservation
 Writing / publication
 Theatrical production
 Media projects
Methodological and Ethical Considerations
• Suffering presentism: Viewing the past through a
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lens in the present
Role of the interviewer as involved participant
Rights of the interviewee
Harm to interviewee (IRB)
Options for transcription
Factual errors preserved in memory (an event):
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Validation / triangulation
• Representation
Ethics and Privacy
 No taping without narrator’s knowledge
 Recording without narrator’s knowledge is invasion of privacy
 Doesn’t hurt to get narrator’s permission on tape
 Explain why and how oral histories will be used
 Don’t make promises you can’t keep
 Interviewers and transcribers must understand: this is
confidential until completed.
 Remind narrators that information will be made public
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Revealing too much about personal life
Revealing too much about ANOTHER person’s life
References
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Discovering oral history. (2008). Workshop on the Web, Introduction to Oral History. Waco, TX: Baylor
University Institute for Oral History. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from
http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66419.pdf
Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit. Los Angeles: Sage.
Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morrissey, C. T. (2006). Oral history interviews from inception to closure. In Charlton, T. L., Myers, L. E., and
Sharpless, R. (Eds.), Handbook of oral history (pp. 170-206). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Oral History Evaluation Guidelines. (2000). Pamphlet Number 3, Oral History Association. Retrieved
November 6, 2009, from http://www.oralhistory.org/do-oral-history/oral-history-evaluationguidelines/
Portelli, A. (2009, April 28).The oral history interview: The Methods Lab Annual Lecture. Department of
Sociology, University of London. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from
http://www.archive.org/details/Oral_History_Interview_Portelli
Ritchie, D. A. (2003). Doing oral history: A practical guide. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rubin, J. R., and Rubin, I. S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Sommer, B. W., and Quinlin, M. K. (2009). The oral history manual. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Shopes, L. (2006). Legal and ethical issues in oral history. In Charlton, T. L., Myers, L. E., and Sharpless, R.
(Eds.), Handbook of oral history (pp. 135-169). Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Truesdell, B. (2007). Oral history techniques: How to organize and conduct oral history interviews. Center
for the Study of Memory and History, Indiana University. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from
http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm/techniques.html
Understanding oral history. (2008). Workshop on the Web, Introduction to Oral History. Waco, TX: Baylor
University Institute for Oral History. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from
http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66420.pdf
Yow, V. R. (2005). Recording oral history: A guide for the humanities and social sciences.
Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
That’s it for today!
any questions?
TE ACHING W I TH P RI MA RY SOURCES
C O L L E G E O F E D U C AT I O N A N D H U M A N S E R V I C E S
C A L I F O R N I A U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y LVA N I A
roberts_n@calu.edu
724- 938-6022
Keystone 112