Oral History - guide to resources: A-C

AAH Oral Histories explores the establishment of the Association of Art Historians during the early 1970s. A series of interviews were conducted with art historians involved in the formation of the AAH. These examined the reasons behind the formation of the organisation, charted its institutional development and assessed its impact at a national and international level. The interviews further provide wider reflections on changes to higher education, culture and the arts within post-war Britain. The complete audio recordings of the interviews are available to researchers through the V&A’s Archive of Art & Design. Selected extracts from the interviews are accessible online, as is a three-part podcast programme Voices in Art History.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Education

Keywords: art history; education

Ambleside Oral History Group has been conducting oral history interviews since 1976 on a broad range of subjects relating to life in Ambleside and the Lake District area. They maintain an expanding archive, currently numbering over 450 interviews. The interview transcripts for the entire archive are available online and are fully searchable by keyword, or browsable by topic. Access to the online transcripts and search facility must be requested using the registration page on the website. The audio recordings themselves are not available online and only accessible by prior appointment at Ambleside Public Library.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; education; leisure; WWI; WWII

As part of a reconsideration of 1968 as a historic moment, this international project conducted oral history interviews with those involved as young activists. The project has a broad geographic scope, encompassing activists from across northern Europe, southern Europe, and the USSR. Oral recordings of the interviews, along with written transcripts, are available through an online password-protected database. A username and password will usually be issued on request to bone fide researchers with a research topic in mind.

Topics: Politics & Government

Keywords: 1968; protest; students; translations

The complete audio recordings of over 200 life story interviews with 20th century British artists have been made available online through British Library Sounds. The interviewees include architects, painters, sculptors, designers and photographers.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: architecture; art; art history; photography

ATS Remembered is a private research project that records the history of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British army from 1938 to 1949. The memories and service details of a range of former members of the ATS are available to access online, including those who served as cooks, drivers, gunners, military police and wireless operators.

Topics: People; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: military; women; WWII

This webpage showcases the Imperial War Museum Sound Archives’ collection of 120 interviews with veterans of the Battle of Britain. Short audio and transcript extracts of nine interviews are available online. The complete recordings are accessible to everyone at IWM London.

Topics: War & Conflict

Keywords: Battle of Britain; bombing; military history; RAF

From the late 1980s BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) has been interviewing veterans employed within the British film and related industries. Many of the over 500 interviews conducted so far are available to listen to at the BFI Library on application. Approximately 60 of these interviews are also accessible online. E-mail Keith Johnston or Melanie Williams to apply for a username and password to access the online interviews. Requests for access from all e-mails ending in ac.uk will be granted automatically.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Work

Keywords: engineering; film; theatre; union

Between 2004 and 2006, the Refugee Communities History Project conducted 160 in-depth life story interviews with individuals who came to London as refugees. The complete project archive is accessible to readers by appointment at the Museum of London. Extracts from the interviews have been arranged by theme and are available online.

Topics: People

Keywords: migration; refugees

This website includes recorded interviews and a video produced as part of a project, established in 1990, to record the memories of older generation black and asian migrants to Birmingham.

Topics: People

Keywords: family; migration; race; work

From 1999-2000 this project recorded the experiences of African-Caribbean and Asian migrants to Wolverhampton since the Second World War. Video clips from the interviews are accessible online. The archived clips are searchable by theme, and also by the respondent’s gender, ethnic origin, religion and country of origin.

Topics: People

Keywords: community; migration; race

This website provides online access to full written transcripts and audio extracts from 29 oral history interviews conducted with Bolton people about their memories of life in the town during the Second World War. The focus of the interviews is on the Home Front, but they also document some of the stories of those who were in Bolton for the beginning of the war and later joined the Services.

Topics: War & Conflict

Keywords: childhood; naval history; POW; RAF; women; WWII

This project conducted life narrative oral history interviews with individuals who remained in Ireland during the 1950s at a time when so many were emigrating. The purpose of the project was to consider the impact of emigration on those left behind. 50 of the 78 interviews conducted can be listened to online, either in their entirety or in sections. Relevant interview extracts can be located using a keyword or free text search facility.

Topics: People

Keywords: childhood; community; education; family; gender; migration; politics; religion; work

This website contains audio film clips and a list of oral interviews conducted from 1985 with those involved in British polar science, particularly Operation Tabarin, 1943–45, Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS), 1945–61, and British Antarctic Survey (BAS), 1962–present. Access to the full audio or video interviews, along with some interview transcripts, is available by appointment at the British Antarctic Survey. An online BAS Archives database is currently being developed which would allow researchers to access summaries of the interviews remotely.

Topics: Science & Medicine; Work

Keywords: exploration; science

This programme was established in 1995 to record the memories of former British diplomats or other officials who played a significant role in international relations. The collected transcripts of the oral interviews, which were themselves conducted by former diplomats or their wives, provide details and insights into the daily workings of diplomacy and Whitehall. Over 130 interview transcripts are available to download from the website. The original collection is held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge and a searchable indexed catalogue of the transcripts is available through Cambridge’s Janus webserver.

Topics: Politics & Government

Keywords: diplomacy; foreign policy; government; international relations

This research project was established by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in 2000 to record the experience of Hindus who migrated to Britain. The oral history interviews focussed on both the interviewee’s personal history and on his or her religious practices and beliefs. Interviews were conducted with members of Hindu communities from across Britain. The recordings and transcripts of 46 interviews are available online. The complete archive of over 300 interviews is accessible at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford.

Topics: People

Keywords: community; migration; race; religion

British Library Sounds provides online access to a selection of the British Library's extensive collections of sound recordings, including oral history resources on a wide range of subjects. The recordings are arranged by subject area and are keyword searchable.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; Arts & Culture; Education; People; Politics & Government; Science & Medicine; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: portal

This website contains written extracts from oral history interviews with British individuals regarding their experiences and reflections of British colonialism in India before Independence in 1947. The focus of the interviews is particularly on the social and cultural aspects of British life in India and with intercultural influences.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: colonialism; migration; race

Calum Iain Maclean was a Scottish folklorist, collector, ethnographer and author. A selection of transcriptions and English summaries of Scottish Gaelic folk tales, songs and autobiographical details recorded by Maclean have been made accessible through this online database. The database is searchable by title, location, name of reciter, recording date, classification and keyword. The database is password protected and researchers must apply directly through the site for access. Maclean’s entire collections are held between the National Folklore Archive, University College Dublin and the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore

Keywords: ethnology; folktales; Gaelic; songs; stories

The FEPOW (Far East prisoners of war) Oral History Project was established in 2007 with the aim of recording the memories and long-term perspectives of British FEPOW who spent time in Japanese captivity during the Second World War. The project was a partnership between the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), which has had a long-term interest in the health of FEPOW spanning the past six decades. Interviewees were drawn from a wide cross-section of services (Army, Navy, Air Force and Merchant Navy), ranks and areas of captivity. An audio clip from each of the 63 interviews is accessible online, alongside a brief biography of the interviewee. The clips are searchable by interviewee name, country, camp and ship (transportation and repatriation), or browsable by theme.

Topics: Science & Medicine; War & Conflict

Keywords: military history; POW; WWII

This site contains a number of short reminiscences from individuals who volunteered with the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance during the Second World War. The memories are arranged under six themed headings: Air raids, Fundraising, Voluntary Aid Detachments, Welfare work, Wounded & Missing and POWs, Youth and Cadets.

Topics: Science & Medicine; War & Conflict

Keywords: medicine; nursing; POW; WWII

Undergraduates at Aberystwyth University have been interviewing the people of Ceredigion about life and work in the county during the twentieth century as part of a project organised by the Centre for Historiography and Historical Cultures in the Department of History and Welsh History. The project aims to create a lasting record of the community, culture and language of Ceredigion and also forge links between the University and local community.

This link searches the National Library of Wales holdings for works on "Oral history -- Wales -- Ceredigion"

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: community; language; POW; tourism; WWII

Epping Forest District Museum conducted a series of oral history interviews about everyday life and work in the district. The collection also includes memories of historic events, such as the Second World War. Four audio clips on the themes of farming, housing, industry and transport are available online. The entire collection is accessible by appointment at the Museum.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; housing; industry; WWII

The Coal Mining Oral History Project set out to record the memories of miners and mining families in County Durham. The aim of the project was to both preserve knowledge about the disappearing working practices and tools used within the industry, whilst also capturing the dialects and terminology of mining communities. Short extracts from 32 of the 35 interviews originally conducted are accessible online.

Topics: Work

Keywords: mining; family; industry; union

This website provides online access to selected audio recordings of the Cork Folklore Project. Interview extracts can be accessed through an interactive map of the Cork area or are searchable by topic.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; Arts & Culture; People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; community; death; games; music; sport

The Corner Shop was a social history project to document Black Country shops from 1950-2010. Community volunteers were given training and asked to interview corner shop-owners, their families, and their customers. 31 interviews were recorded in total. Audio extracts from the interviews are available to listen to online.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: community; family

This project aimed to explore changing financial management practices in working class homes within the city of Belfast. A series of oral history interviews recorded individual experiences of credit, debt and money management. The interviews adopted a life history approach, which enables the gender, generation, neighbourhood, occupation, income and religion of individual respondents to be considered alongside their personal and familial experiences of financial decision-making. The transcripts of 26 interviews, including two with licensed money lenders, are available online through the UK Data Service. Researchers must first sign into the UK Data Service using their institutional login and state their intended use of any material accessed.

Topics: People

Keywords: community; family; finance; gender; religion

This website provides online access to short audio clips from oral history interviews with individuals involved with the sport of cricket in the West Yorkshire boroughs of Calderdale and Kirkless.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: community; cricket; family; sport