Under the direction of Monk Rowe, Hamilton College has built an amazing collection of interviews with jazz musicians, arrangers, writers, and critics. The college started collecting all of these interviews back in 1995, and since that time they have interviewed over 300 people. First-time visitors will note that each interview includes an audio file of the conversation, a photograph of the...

There's a great deal of history in and around Houston, and this website provides access to the rich collections of the Houston Public Library and other community archives. (The oldest known photograph of Houston is front and center on the homepage.) Visitors can look through thematic collections, including the "Houston Oral History Project," "African American Collections," and "Houston Area...

This intriguing collection from the University of Miami Libraries brings together videos, outlines, and selected transcripts of oral history interviews conducted with first-generation Cubans exiled since the Cuban Revolution. The project began in 2008 and its stated goal is "to document the Cuban experience on the island and in the diaspora." Currently, the project contains over 40 interviews with...

The rich oral history of the House of Representatives of the United States was finally authorized to be preserved in 2004. This website of the Office of History and Preservation in the Office of the Clerk has much to recommend it. Visitors interested in getting a scope of the project should click on the link "Interviewees", in the middle of the page. The range of sessions of Congress included...

This fascinating program is administered by the American Polar Society and the Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the program works to document the early years of American polar exploration by "interviewing those who were in the polar regions since the 1930s." Here visitors will find 92 interviews with a range of...

The folks at Missouri State University have interviewed a range of business owners along the celebrated Route 66 to tell the amazing story of what life was like living along this American landmark. Visitors can read through interviews with a variety of people, including the long-time owner of the Boots Motel in Carthage, Missouri and Sheldon and Julia Chaney, owner of a popular gas station. It's...

The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College was made possible under the guidance of its first director, Margaret Storrs Grierson. In 1946, it was named in honor of the founder of Smith College and it has grown to include over 650 different thematic collections. On this page, visitors can browse through their online image collections, oral histories, and exhibits. The oral histories are quite a...

Since the rise of interest in social history in the United States, a number of academics and public citizens have remained committed to preserving the voices and perspectives of everyday people. The Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a rather fine example of such a commitment. Founded in 1973, the SOHP has recorded over 2900 interviews with...

This remarkable project includes digital audio recorded interviews with 52 current and former employees of the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. These persons were interviewed as part of an oral history project undertaken by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Oral History Program in cooperation with the Forest Products Laboratory. It's worth noting that the facility was the...