2000-2009 - Oral History - guide to resources - Oxford LibGuides at Oxford University

Timespan

2000-2009

Newly bookmarked websites

This box links to the Bodleian History Faculty Library's Diigo account, which bookmarks websites relevant to the study of History.

AAH Oral Histories

AAH Oral Histories
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 Archive

Ambleside Oral History Archive
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

Belonging: Voices of London's Refugees

Belonging: Voices of London's Refugees
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

British Library Sounds

British Library Sounds
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

The Corner Shop: A Social History Project

The Corner Shop: A Social History Project [archived on Wayback Machine]
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

Diabetes Stories

Diabetes Stories (archived at Wayback Machine)
Was at http://www.diabetes-stories.com/index.asp
This project conducted 100 oral history interviews with individuals with diabetes, members of their families, and healthcare professionals. The interviews record experiences of life with diabetes dating back to the 1920s, including information on changing treatments and the impact of diabetes on individual life history and identity. This resource provides online access to unedited audio recordings, short audio extracts, written summaries and full transcripts. The interviews are either browsable by section (People with Diabetes; Family Members; Healthcare Professionals) and within this by decade and topic, or are searchable by keyword, phrase or subject.

Topics: Science & Medicine

Keywords: family; healthcare; medicine

Dialect & Oral History: The East Midlands

Dialect & Oral History: The East Midlands
This British Academy project aimed to identify variation and changes in the East Midlands dialect which have taken place over the last century. It examined a number of recently recorded oral history interviews and compared them with those conducted in the latter half of the last century. Between six and eight speakers were selected as a representative sample for both male/female, younger/older and urban/rural speakers from each of four East Midlands counties: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Audio extracts from each of the interviews, many of them collected specifically for this project, are available to listen to online. The accompanying linguistic notes for each extract are also available to read online. These made note of any particularly interesting features of non-standard pronunciation (phonology), grammar and lexis (region-specific dialect words).

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore

Keywords: childhood; community; language

The dialects of Welsh

The dialects of Welsh
A collection of audio examples of dialect speech in the Welsh language, together with distribution maps of some dialect features. The recordings come from the archives of St Fagans: National History Museum and the Department of Welsh, Cardiff University, two institutions which have been collecting and recording oral testimonies since the 1950s.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore

Keywords: language; Welsh

East West Festive Cultures

East West Festive Cultures - Oral History Archives
This project set out to consider the differences between Chinese and British festivals. Three different groups of people were interviewed, including those who moved to the UK a long time ago, mixed marriage Chinese who share and celebrate both East and West festivals, and finally Chinese or half-Chinese individuals born or brought up in the UK. 11 audio recordings are available online, in both a short and full version, along with complete interview transcripts.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: community; festivals; migration

ESDS Qualidata

ESDS Qualidata
The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) Qualidata provides online access to the data collections of a number of oral history projects, including interview transcripts. Researchers need to register and state their intended purpose for any data accessed. The collections are keyword searchable. Their introduction to Oral History resources provides links to key oral history project data deposited with ESDS and also to other key national resources for oral history.

ESDS Qualidata has recently been taken over by the UK Data Service but much of the website content remains accessible.

Topics: Education; People; Politics & Government; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: portal

Feminist Webs

Feminist Webs
Feminist Webs is an online archive and resource for practitioners, volunteers and women involved in youth and community work with young women. Volunteers in the North West of England interviewed feminist women about their lives and the work of young women and girls. A number of the interviews and some three to four minute samples of longer interviews are available online. If you are interested in hearing more contact the North West Sound Archive.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: community; feminism; women

Gaelic Athletic Association Oral History Project

Gaelic Athletic Association Oral History Project
This oral history project was commissioned to commemorate the 125th Anniversary of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Oral history interviews were conducted with Irish people about their experiences of the GAA and its impact on their lives. A number of these interviews are available to read on the project website.

Topic: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: family; migration; religion; sport; women

Harveststories

Harveststories
This site contains audio files and transcripts of complete oral history interviews that were contributed by the public about their everyday experiences of life in the South West of England. The interviews are searchable by location or browsable under six subject areas, which are further divided by sub-topic. The subject areas are farming, the war, social activities, places, local matters and rural industries.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; music; WWII

History in Education

History in Education
This project, based at the Institute of Historical Research from 2009-2011, aimed to create a ‘history of school history’ from 1900 to the present day. The project explored both curriculum changes and their impact at ground level in English state schools. At the centre of the project was a series of 68 oral history interviews conducted with former secretaries of state, school inspectors, teacher trainers, former members of the History Working Group which devised the first National Curriculum, textbook writers, teachers and pupils. Some of the interviews were conducted in pairs or groups and the total number of interviewees was 80. The complete recorded interviews and associated transcripts are available to search and download from the website, along with other data collected in the course of the project.

Topics: Education

Keywords: government

The History of Parliament Oral History Project

The History of Parliament Oral History Project
The History of Parliament's Oral History project aims to create a record of people involved in post-Second World War British politics at both the national and constituency level. The project began in November 2011 and is ongoing. The recordings are currently only available to listen to onsite at the British Library, St Pancras. Detailed summary descriptions of deposited interviews are accessible online from the British Library Sound & Moving Image Catalogue. To access the relevant records enter the search term 'The History of Parliament Oral History Project’.

Topics: Politics & Government

Keywords: government; politics

ICBH Witness Seminar Programme

ICBH Witness Seminar Programme
The Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH) has organised over 100 oral history ‘witness seminars’ since 1986. Witness seminars are group interviews that bring key participants to a particular event or policy together in front of an audience of expert academics and interested parties. The agreed transcripts from the majority of past seminars are now available to download from the site, along with expert introductions and additional background information. The past seminars are listed under five subject areas: Defence History, Diplomatic History, Economic History, Political History, and Science and Technology History. If a transcript is not yet currently available for download, please email Dr Michael Kandiah or Dr Virginia Preston.

Topics: Politics & Government; Science & Medicine; War & Conflict

Keywords: diplomacy; foreign policy; politics; science

Immigrant Lives

Immigrant Lives
From 2001 to 2002, the Irish Centre for Migration Studies at the National University of Ireland in Cork conducted 11 life narrative interviews with recent immigrants to Ireland. Traditionally a country of emigration, the economic boom during the 1990s encouraged a wave of immigration into Ireland in the latter years of the decade. This project sought to record the experiences of some of these immigrants within their individual and collective life stories. The complete audio recording of six interviews with individuals from Nigeria and the Phillipines are currently available to listen to online.

Topics: People

Keywords: migration; refugees

The Immigrants Project

The Immigrants Project [archived on the Wayback Machine]
This oral history project established in 2006 recorded the stories and experiences of people from all over the world who came to settle in Reading. 22 interview transcripts are available to read online and extracts from the interviews can also be searched by selected themes, including Childhood, Children’s Identity, Community, Economic Situation, Education & Training, Family Values, Food, Jobs, Old Reading, Political Situation, Racism, Self Sufficiency, and Where Home Is.

Topics: People

Keywords: childhood; community; education; family; migration; race; refugees; work

In the First Person

In the First Person [archived on the Wayback Machine]
[no longer freely available.] In the First Person is an in-depth index of thousands of collections of English language personal narratives from around the world. Along with diary entries and letters, the index contains approximately 17,00 entries for oral history. The index is searchable by keyword.

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

Keywords: portal

King's Cross Voices

King's Cross Voices
Between 2004 and 2008, King’s Cross Voices captured the memories and experiences of a large variety of men and women who lived, worked and studied in King’s Cross before its physical landscape and communities became transformed by the redevelopment of the area. Oral history interviews were collected with those who worked in the railway industry, as well as with students, teachers, shopkeepers, market traders, police officers, artists, office workers, campaigners, squatters, politicians, prostitutes, factory workers, builders and many more. Written extracts from nine of the interviews are available to read online, as is an audio sound trail of Argyle Square in the King’s Cross area, which includes audio extracts from the original interviews. The recordings and transcripts are archived at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre and are available to access in full on public computers in all Camden Libraries.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: community

Kiveton Park and Wales Community History Project

Kiveton Park and Wales Community History Project
In 2007 Kiveton Park and Wales History Society interviewed residents about their lives and experiences in the area. Audio extracts from 12 interviews are available to listen to online. Many of these relate to coal mining.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: childhood; education; football; mining; industry; sport; union; WWII

Lap of Honour

Lap of Honour
This project conducted oral history interviews with people from Suffolk who had either taken part in the Olympic or Paralympic Games since 1948 or were then preparing to compete in London 2012. Short films, audio recordings and transcripts of 21 interviews are available to access through the website.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: sport

The listening project

The listening project
The Listening Project is an ongoing project run in partnership by the BBC and the British Library. The project has requested people from across the country to submit an audio recording of a short, meaningful conversation held between two individuals. The recordings are being broadcast across BBC radio and archived by the British Library. A significant number, currently over 300, are also available to listen to through the BBC Radio 4 website. The conversations cover a wide range of topics including education, family, health, religion and war.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Education; People; War & Culture; Work

Keywords: education; family; healthcare; religion; sexuality; sport

Living Stories: Experiences of People Living with Haemophilia and HIV

Living Stories: Experiences of People Living with Haemophilia and HIV
This project recorded the experiences of people in the UK living with haemophilia and HIV by means of life story interviews. Audio and transcript extracts from eight interviews with individuals with haemophilia and HIV are available online, as are seven interviews with members of their families. Extracts from the interviews have also been arranged into a number of browsable key themes.

Topics: People; Science & Medicine

Keywords: death; family; healthcare; medicine

Migration Stories

Migration Stories
This website provides access to a number of videos created as part of a project to record stories of migration into the East Midlands from the UK and further afield since 1945. The project, which was managed by the East Midlands Oral History Archive, trained a number of local groups to conduct and edit the oral history interviews into a number of short videos about their communities. The videos can be accessed by clicking on an interactive map of the East Midlands area on the website homepage. It is worth noting that this map does not seem to load correctly when using Firefox web browser but works fine when using Internet Explorer.

Topics: People

Keywords: migration; refugees

The Peace Process: Layers of Meaning

The Peace Process: Layers of Meaning
The aim of this ongoing oral history project is to collect 100 interviews recording the memories and views of key figures in the Irish peace process since the 1960s. The decision was taken to embargo these interviews for up to 40 years in order to encourage frankness. A number of edited interviews with representatives from the women’s movement and education are, however, shortly to be made available through the website. The project website also provides an extensive list of links to previously conducted interviews regarding the peace process, which are now available online, under the Layers of Meaning Online Directory section.

Topics: Politics & Government; War & Conflict

Keywords: art; community; education; politics; sport; union; women

Plunging into History: Stories from Ironmonger Row Baths and Beyond

Plunging into History: Stories from Ironmonger Row Baths and Beyond [archived on the Wayback Machine]
This project, produced by Rowan Arts and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Islington Council, used oral history to explore the social and cultural importance of Ironmonger Row Baths and its surrounding area in south Islington. The project website, produced in 2012, provides online access to 65 short audio and transcribed extracts from the interviews.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: community; leisure; sport

Recollection: an Oral History of Kettle's Yard

Recollection: an Oral History of Kettle's Yard
This oral history project, conducted from 2008 to 2010, interviewed 42 individuals about their memories of Kettle’s Yard over its 50 year history, from its time as the private home of art collector Jim Ede and his wife Helen, to its present status as a University of Cambridge collection and temporary exhibition space. Audio and transcript extracts from the interviews are available online and are keyword searchable. To access the complete interviews, consisting of over 100 hours of audio, contact Kettle’s Yard Education Officer.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: art; art_history; music

Sea Your History

Sea Your History
This website was created by The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth along with a number of supporting partners. It makes accessible online a number of audio extracts from oral history interviews with those who have lived and worked with the sea in the twentieth century. The audio extracts have been divided into five key themes: Women at Sea; Diving into the Past (about the effort to find, excavate and raise the Mary Rose); Naval Medicine; People and Changing Technology; and Family Matters.

Topics: Science & Medicine; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: family; medicine; Navy; technology; women

Somerset Voices Oral History Archive

Somerset Voices Oral History Archive
This archive consists of over 500 recordings of Somerset Life made since the 1970s by local historian Ann Heeley and a variety of other individuals and local history groups. A short audio clip from each recording is available to download from the website. The complete recordings are available to listen to at the Somerset Heritage Centre in Taunton or the Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; community; WWI; WWII

Strand Lines Oral History and Life Writing Project

Strand Lines Oral History and Life Writing Project
This was part of a broader project to create a digital archive of experiences, memories and reflections about one of London’s most famous streets, the Strand. For the oral history strand of this project students and staff in the English Department at King’s College London conducted interviews with Strand workers and residents. They then turned these interviews into life writing. Some examples of their efforts, which include audio recordings from the interviews, are available on the Strandlines digital community website.

Topics: Education; People; Work

Keywords: community

Through the Generations: Collecting and archiving stories, memories and experiences of Sri Lankan Tamils in London

Through the Generations: Collecting and archiving stories, memories and experiences of Sri Lankan Tamils in London
This one-year project conducted in 2012 worked closely with the Tamil Community Centre in Hounslow to record the memories of Sri Lankan Tamils living in London, particularly those with links to West London and the Hounslow area. 15 life story interviews, along with 30 shorter interviews were collected as part of the project. Edited videos of 13 of the interviews are available to view online and transcribed extracts from all the interviews can be read online or in a downloadable book created as part of the project. The interview extracts are arranged under seven key themes: Early Life in Sri Lanka, Layers of Belonging, Politics & the Nation-State, Troubles, Leaving & Arrival, Transitions, and Home.

Topics: People

Keywords: community; migration

Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches

Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches: The Sound of Scotland's Traditions
This website is the result of a collaborative project to preserve, digitise, catalogue and make available online thousands of Gaelic and Scots recordings held by the School of Scottish Studies (University of Edinburgh), BBC Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland. Over 30,000 oral recordings of stories, songs, music, poetry, history, traditions and other information are available to listen to online. It is possible to search the recordings by keyword or browse them by Scottish county.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; People

Keywords: folktales; Gaelic; music; poetry; songs; stories

UK Data Service

UK Data Service
The UK Data Service provides online access to a wide range of qualitative data sets, including oral history resources. The collections are searchable by keyword. Researchers must register with the UK Data Service and state their intended purpose for any data accessed.

Topics: Education; People; Politics & Government; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: portal

University of York Oral History Project

University of York Oral History Project
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation in 1963, the University of York has begun recording the recollections of alumni, current staff members, and those involved in the creation of the University. The interview recordings are archived at the Borthwick Institute for Archives and are available to listen to online through York Digital Library.

Topics: Education

Keywords: architecture; students; university

Up and Under: The Rugby League Oral History Project

Up and Under: The Rugby League Oral History Project
This project, funded by the University of Huddersfield, has recorded oral reminiscences relating to the Rugby League community in West Yorkshire. Audio extracts from 26 interviews with players, officials and spectators of Rugby League are available to listen to online. The website also makes accessible online a number of oral history interviews conducted as part of the ‘Black and Minority Ethnic Involvement in Rugby League Project’. This project saw pupils at the Huddersfield Giant Study Centre interview Huddersfield Giants players and staff from black and minority ethnic backgrounds about their lives and rugby league careers.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: rugby; sport

VMR: Voices of Migration and Return

VMR: Voices of Migration and Return
This resource provides online access to audio recordings from 87 life narrative oral history interviews with migrants and returnees from Ulster. The interviews were gathered during the course of two recent academic studies into migration: ‘Narratives of Migration and Return’, conducted from 2004 to 2006, and a follow on study ‘Northern Ireland Emigrant Narratives’ conducted from 2006 to 2008. The emphasis of the collection is on migration that took place during the 1970s, as this was the decade Ulster experienced its highest emigration rate, but migration from the 1930s through to the 1980s is also covered. The interviews are fully keyword searchable or browsable by interviewee gender, age group, religious denomination, birthplace, childhood residence, current residence, emigration destination, decade of emigration or decade of return.

Topics: People

Keywords: migration

Voices in the Visual Arts (VIVA)

Voices in the Visual Arts (VIVA) [archived on the Wayback Machine]
The VIVA oral history project, launched in 2004 by Camberwell College of Arts, has conducted life history and thematic interviews with fine artists, designers, craftspeople, curators, and individuals who attended art college but pursued other career paths. The website also hosts the collections of the Design History Society oral history project begun in 2007, which interviewed key figures in the emergence of design history as a discipline during the 1970s. The project is ongoing, but the audio recordings of 7 VIVA interviews and 8 Design History Society interviews are available to listen to online.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Education

Keywords: art; design; education; students

World Bank Group Archives’ Oral History Program

World Bank Group Archives’ Oral History Program: The interviews recorded by the World Bank Group Archives’ Oral History Program present a powerful picture of the World Bank Group from its post-Bretton Woods beginnings to the present day. Its history, its evolution, and its staff are all vividly portrayed in these transcripts. The program, which began in 1960, was restarted in 1981, and has continued from 1990 to the present day, in four distinct phases. These Bank oral history interviews are supplemented by interviews conducted for three separate projects: a history of Bank President George Woods; the 50th anniversary history of the Bank; and a history of the Staff Association. Some persons were interviewed for more than one project.

These interview transcripts serve as learning and knowledge tools for Bank staff, its partners, clients and researchers who are interested in learning more about the Bank’s development practices and policies.

YouTube

YouTube
YouTube provides access to a large quantity of resources, both oral history interviews and information videos on the conduct and practice of oral history. Some organisations, archives and oral history projects have their own YouTube channels.

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

Keywords: portal

Oral History - guide to resources: 2000-2009