Oral History - guide to resources: D-H

This website contains extracts from oral history interviews conducted with the inhabitants of the North Buckinghamshire towns of Wolverton and New Bradwell about their experiences of WWI. The interviews were conducted in the course of research for a new musical documentary play about the First World War called Days of Pride. The extracts are arranged under five themes which explore the experiences of those who joined the army as well as those who stayed behind.

Topics: War & Conflict

Keywords: military history; WWI

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

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

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

The complete oral recordings and transcripts of 98 interviews that chart the experiences of disabled people have been made freely available through British Library Sounds. The interviews are listed under four sub-headed sections which relate to the particular disability or theme discussed: Cerebral Palsy (31), Disability Athletics (2), Hearing Loss (64) and Polio (1). The entry for polio is a self-recorded reminiscence but the other three sets of recordings are the result of organised oral history projects conducted by the British Library: ‘Speaking for ourselves: an oral history of people with cerebral palsy’ (conducted in partnership with Scope), 'An Oral History of British Athletics', and 'Unheard Voices: Interviews With Deafened People' (conducted in partnership with Hearing Link).

Topics: People; Science & Medicine

Keywords: disability; healthcare; medicine; sport

British Library Sounds has made a large number of early spoken word recordings available online. They are arranged by decade and alphabetically by name. Many of these recordings are not oral history.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Politics & Government

Keywords: language; literature; monarchy; politics; sport; theatre

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

This website aims to improve accessibility to a collection of 444 oral history interviews conducted by Professor Paul Thompson in the 1970s as part of his study of Edwardian society. An online searchable catalogue of the interview transcripts has been created, which provides summary descriptions for each interview. Five full electronic transcripts and a number of audio extracts from the interviews are also available online. The complete set of paper/microfiche transcripts are held at the National Social Policy and Social Change Archive, University of Essex, and the audio recordings are held by the British Library.

Topics: Education; People; Work

Keywords: childhood; community; education; family; leisure; politics; religion

This archive hold the audio and transcript collections for three oral history projects conducted by Elizabeth Roberts during the 1970s and 1980s on the social and family life of Barrow, Lancaster and Preston from 1890 to 1970. Sets of transcript extracts from the interviews are available to read online on five different subjects: The Lancashire Way of Death, Health, Childbirth, Neighbours, and Working Class Marriage 1890-1940. The subject indexes for the archival interview collections are also available to download from the website.

Topics: People

Keywords: community, death; family

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

The Exmoor Oral History Archive holds the complete audio recordings of 78 life story interviews conducted with a wide variety of individuals who have lived and worked on the moor. The website is intended as an introduction to this collection, which is housed at the Somerset Heritage Centre. Short audio extracts from each of the interviews are available online, and are searchable by person, place or via a thematic index.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; education

Also known as ‘100 families’, this project examined the connections between family life and social mobility by means of in-depth life story interviews, where possible with different generations of the same family. The collection consists of 170 complete interview transcripts. The transcripts have been anonymised and fully digitised. They are available to download in searchable Word and RTF formats. It is further possible to carry out keyword searches of all the transcripts and also to filter search results by sex, year of birth, geographical region and occupational class on the ESDS website. In order to download the interviews it is first necessary to sign into the UK Data Service, using your institutional login, and state your intended use of any data accessed.

Topics: People; Work

Keywords: childhood; education; family; leisure, politics

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

Finest Hour is a project to record the memories and experiences of those who lived through the period of the sustained bombing of Liverpool during May 1941. A selection of audio extracts from the interviews is available to listen to online. In order to access the complete collection of interviews, which amounts to over 100 hours of audio recordings, researchers should contact the project organisers directly.

Topics: War & Conflict

Keywords: bombing; WWII

This website provides online access to approximately 150 audio extracts from oral history interviews conducted with First World War veterans, their families, and those who served on the home front. The full recordings are held by the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.

Topics: Science & Medicine; War & Conflict; Work

Keywords: medicine; military history; propaganda; science; WWI

This resource provides online access to 50 audio extracts from the Imperial War Museum's collection of oral history interviews with veterans and individuals who lived through the First World War. The sound clips cover the experiences of those stationed in various global theatres of the war as well as those who remained on the home front. The website also provides online access to an array of written primary source documents offering insight into the personal experiences of men and women during WWI. To access this resource from outside the Oxford University network, follow the link through SOLO.

Topics: Science & Medicine; War & Conflict

Keywords: bombing; medicine; military history; Navy; POW; RAF; WWI

Foundling Voices, established in 2008, has recorded 78 life story interviews with individuals who grew up in the care of the Foundling Hospital during the first half of the twentieth century. The project website provides access to audio extracts from the interviews. London Metropolitan archives hold the complete audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews.

Topics: Education; People

Keywords: childhood; education; family; school

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

This website presents peoples’ memories of the former Gravesend Airport (RAF Gravesend) during the 1940s, and also of the construction of the new estates of Westcourt and Riverview which replaced it. Four short audio extracts are currently accessible online but more may be added.

Topics: People; War & Conflict

Keywords: bombing; children; community; housing; RAF; WWI

TUC History Online has provided online access to four audio clips from an interview with an East End striker during the 1926 General Strike. More audio clips are due to be added to the website over the coming year.

Topics: Politics & Government; Work

Keywords: union

This website provides access to transcriptions of interviews conducted with elderly residents of the Glens abut their early memories of the area.

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

Keywords: agriculture; childhood; community; sport; WWI; WWII

Recordings of interviews and songs made by oral history pioneer George Ewart Evans are now available for anyone to listen to online through British Library Sounds. The recordings were produced from 1956 and 1977 and were primarily made in Suffolk, with a smaller number also made in Wales, Ireland and Scotland. They document rural life, agricultural work, folk beliefs about animals, medicine and witchcraft, and songs. 254 recorded items and available in total, which include approximately 140 interviews with individuals.

Topics: Anthropology & Folklore; Work

Keywords: agriculture; medicine; music; songs; witchcraft

Since the early 1990s the Imperial War Museum has conducted interviews with both protestors and military personnel stationed at Greenham Common Air Base. The Cruise Missiles sited at the base made it the target of an anti-nuclear protest lasting 19 years, from 1981-2000. This webpage contains 14 audio extracts and accompanying transcripts from the collected interviews. The complete interviews are available to listen to at the IWM Sound Archive, alongside a larger number collected as part of a project on the Anti-War Movement from 1914 to the present day.

Topics: Politics & Government; War & Conflict

Keywords: anti-war; military history; politics; protest

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

Healthtalkonline provides online access to over 2000 video and audio clips of people sharing their experiences of health-related conditions and illnesses. The collection of these personal stories was designed to help patients, families, carers and healthcare professionals, rather than explicitly provide a resource for academic researchers. They offer, however, to provide an insight into social attitudes towards health and illness, and allow an examination of the social impact of health-related issues.

Topics: Science & Medicine; People

Keywords: death; health; family; medicine

This website provides links to a number of community oral history projects recording life in the East End of London. Several of these have online access to audio files or transcripts of interviews conducted in the course of the projects.

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

Keywords: community

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'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

British Library Sound has made available online the complete audio recordings of 34 interviews conducted from 1994 to 1997 by Dr David Tyrrell with those who worked at the Common Cold Unit in Salisbury from 1957 to 1990. They are accessible to all Higher and Further Education institutions.

Topics: Science & Medicine; Work

Keywords: medicine; science