Oral History - guide to resources: Arts & Culture

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

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

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 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

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

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 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 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

[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

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 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

This database of the digitised Mass Observation archive is available to University members. As well as providing online access to top level file reports produced by Mass Observation from 1937 to 1972, this resource also provides access to the raw data used to produce them for a series of topic collections, including Juvenile Delinquency; Korea, 1950; and Radio Listening, 1939-1948. This raw material consists of interviews as well as questionnaires, observations and ephemera. To access this resource from outside the Oxford University network, follow the link through SOLO.

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

Keywords: cinema; family; music; politics; radio; television

Amongst other sources related to the history of the area, this website provides online access to approximately 150 complete audio recordings held by the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA). The interviews primarily relate to life in Leicestershire from the turn of the century to the 1930s and cover a wide variety of topics from WWI to influenza, education and work. A number of recordings also relate to the interviewees experiences abroad, particularly in India. The interviews are all summarised and categorised and available to search by keyword.

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

Keywords: agriculture; community; engineering; family; religion; WW1

Extensive summaries of a number of oral history interviews from the British Library Sound Archive’s ‘Leaders of National Life’ Collection are available through their online catalogue (catalogue reference number: C408) The collection covers politics, industry, the arts, sports, religion, the professions, administration and communications. The audio recordings of these interviews, along with many more items from the British Library’s National Life Stories collections, are available to listen to in full at the British Library, St Pancras.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Politics & Government; Work

Keywords: industry; politics; religion; sports

The complete recordings of 107 oral history interviews with individuals involved in the UK jazz scene are available to listen to through British Library Sounds. The online recordings are only accessible to Higher and Further Education institutions.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: music

The complete audio recordings of 102 interviews with individuals involved in the recording industry are available to Higher and Further Education institutions through British Library Sounds. Interviewees include artists, engineers, managers, producers, musicians, record company personnel, wildlife recordists, journalists and broadcasters.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Science & Medicine; Work

Keywords: engineering; journalism; music; radio

In 2012 a series of oral history interviews were conducted with staff members who worked for the Science Museum Group during the period 1973-2000. This was a period of important institutional change for the Museum, encompassing the tenures of two very different Directors: Dame Margaret Weston (1973-1986) and Sir Neil Cossons (1986-2000). Video extracts of these interviews are available online.

Topics: Arts & Culture; Science & Medicine

Keywords: museum

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

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

This project recorded oral history interviews with women at the forefront of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Extracts from the interviews have been arranged by theme and are available to read or listen to through the project website. The chosen themes are: Family and Children; Bodies, Minds and Spirits; Sex, Love and Friendship; Race, Place and Nation; Education; Equality and Work; Activism; Politics and Legislation; Changing Cultures and the Arts; and Who We Were, Who We Are. The complete 60 audio interviews and verbatim transcripts are only accessible onsite at the British Library, but extensive content summaries of many of the interviews are available through the British Library Sound & Moving Image Catalogue.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People; Politics & Government; Work

Keywords: education; feminism; politics; race; women

This resource provides online access to large portions of oral history and other sound recordings held by The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. The list of interviews is arranged alphabetically by interviewee name. The interview transcripts have also been indexed making them keyword searchable. The collection of interviews, captured in India, the U.K. and the USA, is very wide ranging and includes details of the lives and careers of members of the British Army based in India. A small collection of recordings of music and unusual languages is also accessible online.

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

Keywords: colonialism; education; industry; journalism; language; missionary; music; politics; women

The complete audio recordings of 61 oral history interviews with twentieth-century British sportsmen and women are available for anyone to listen to online through British Library Sounds. The collection includes interviews with tennis players, swimmers, and athletes, as well as with individuals involved in the coaching and teaching of sport.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: sport

The complete audio recordings of approximately 260 oral history interviews conducted with individuals involved in British theatre from 1945-1968 are available to access online through British Library Sounds. The interviews were collected as part of a collaborative project between the British Library and De Montfort University. There are interviews with actors, dancers, directors, managers, producers, stage designers, theatre-goers, variety performers, writers and critics.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Keywords: theatre

This project sought to record the experiences of those involved in British Alternative Theatre, from 1968 to 1988, within the context of their life histories. Some of the companies involved were among the first Black, Asian, lesbian, gay, women’s, disabled, political, experimental, TIE and community-based theatre groups seen in Britain. Short audio and video extracts from the interviews are accessible online, alongside a short biography of each interviewee. DVDs of the full recordings have been deposited with the British Library Sound Archive, the V&A Theatre Collections and Sheffield University. Contact the depositories directly if you wish to view or listen to the complete interviews.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People

Keywords: community; disability; homosexuality; politics; theatre

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

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

This project, launched in 2011, documents feminist music-making from the 1970s and 1980s, which formed part of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Information about individual bands and musicians is gathered under their names and listed alphabetically. Oral history interviews are included for some entries alongside photographs, videos, recordings, gig lists, lyrics and musical scores, press clippings, flyers, posters, weblinks and manifestos.

Topics: Arts & Culture; People; Politics & Government

Keywords: feminism; gender; music; women

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