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April 7, 2010

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This week we add more online oral history projects to our series of recent roundups. Be sure to read parts one, two, three, and four and check back as we continue to highlight these projects.

Ball State University - Digital Media RepositoryBall State University’s Digital Media Repository
Not only does the Ball State University’s Digital Media Repository include oral histories, but users can also explore countless primary sources, such as architectural drawings, film and video recordings, publications, and sheet music. The oral histories from the digital media repository include (descriptions taken from the web site):

  • 376th Heavy Bombardment Group
    The 376th Heavy Bombardment Group Oral Histories collection includes audio and video oral histories with veterans who served in the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group during World War II.
  • Cantigny First Division
    The Cantigny First Division Oral Histories digital collection includes 40 high definition video oral history interviews with veterans of the U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division, commonly known as the ‘Big Red One.’
  • Middletown
    The Middletown Digital Oral History Collection consists of audio and accompanying transcriptions for oral history interviews conducted with African American, Jewish, and Catholic communities of Muncie, Indiana.
  • Vietnam War Era Veterans
    The Vietnam War Era Veterans Oral Histories digital collection includes 26 oral histories conducted by students from Michael W. Doyle’s HIST 499 Oral History Workshop course in fall 2009.

Conversations with History
Harry Kreisler is the mastermind behind Conversations with History (which we highlighted on the blog a year ago), featuring hundreds of interviews highlighting a spectrum of topics from the Cold War, to Peace Movement and the Nuclear Arms Race, to the Search for Peace in the Middle East. The site explains, “Guests include diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers; economists and political analysts; scientists and historians; writers and foreign correspondents; activists and artists. The interviews span the globe and include discussion of political, economic, military, legal, cultural, and social issues shaping our world. At the heart of each interview is a focus on individuals and ideas that make a difference.” Enjoy these interviews through podcasts, on YouTube, and on University of California Television.

The Flint Sit-Down Strike
The Labor History Project at the University of Michigan-Flint conducted interviews from 1978-84 that provide insight into American labor history. The site is divided into an introduction, the strike organization, the strike, and the aftermath, each of which has interviews spliced in to help tell the narrative. Make sure to check out the audio timeline, slideshow, and strike map.

Flint Sit-Down Strike

National Law Enforcement Museum
Experience nearly 200 stories from America’s law enforcement, particularly from the FBI.

Oral Histories at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives
This collection contains over 3,000 hours of interviews with over 1,000 scientists discussing topics from quantum physics, to laser science, to space scientists and geophysics, to science education. The site allows users to search through the interviews by author, subject, and title, similar to that of a library search. Users can also read transcripts, listen to selected sound clips, and review interview abstracts.

Niels Bohr Library and Archives

This post first appeared on AHA Today.

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