Reading List: Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Third Edition

One of my favorite types of projects for museums is transcribing oral histories and interviewing people about their lives. Mostly I do transcription, but for a while I was also interviewing a certain group of people. Between hearing over and over one particular interviewer whose style I didn't particularly care for, and wanting to maybe do more interviews myself (while not wanting to sound like the interviewer whose style I didn't care for), I decided to expand my library to include books about oral histories. 

Valerie Raleigh Yow's book is a really great overview of oral histories, and possibly answers every question you might have about preparing for an interview, conducting the interview, what to do after the interview, and how to use the quotes and information you get. 

Yow starts at the very beginning of the history of oral interviews and passing down information orally, which made it seem like the book was going to be dry and boring. (A good portion of each chapter is bibliography/other reading and notes/citations, which also made it seem like the book was going to be super long. This is a good-sized book, but when you take into account how much of it is reference material, it's much less daunting.) But then she gets into what we really came here for. 

Yow starts at the beginning of the interviewing process: asking what the purpose of your project is, who you need to talk to, what you want to ask them about, and whether they can give you names of other people to talk about. (You thought the beginning of the interviewing process was when you showed up at the interviewee's house? Wrong!) She also discusses interviewing techniques and strategies, legal issues and ethics, fact-checking, and getting a range of voices for your project.

Other chapters include topics like how to choose a recorder, work-for-hire (ethics, warnings, scope of work), chapters for those specifically doing family histories or community (not necessarily geographic) histories, and where to store your final product (accessible archives!).

The upsides:

• Yow covers everything about an oral history project, from figuring out who to talk to, how to get additional people to talk to you, how to act around the interviewee, having an informal meeting with the interviewee to get to know each other before the real interview, cultural differences, ethics, having the interviewee read the transcript or your finished product, how to choose your audio recorder, transcribing, finding a repository, ... everything from your first "I have to do an interview" to your very final "It's done, has been used, and has been stored somewhere safe but accessible."
• The bibliography and suggested reading at the end of each chapter. Yow breaks them down by topic, and tells why each resource is a good resource. 
• Sample forms, questionnaires, and instructions.

The downsides:

• Since Yow is writing for different audiences (the family historian, the public historian, the work-for-hire for a company project, etc.), she sometimes repeats information from other chapters. If you're reading the book straight through, you'll start to feel the repetition. But if you're only reading chapters that are relevant to your type of project, this is actually an upside: no matter why you're reading the book, you're going to get all the information you need.

Overall:

This is a great one-stop reference for all aspects of an oral history project. If you're spearheading an oral history project or the only one involved in one -- for a museum, community, school, or company -- I'd recommend reading this whole book; if you have others helping you, such as students or volunteers who will be less involved in the whole process, I'd recommend giving them portions to read, but not necessarily the whole thing. There's definitely something for everyone involved in an oral history/interviewing project! 

Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Third Edition, 2015

Valerie Raleigh Yow

406 pages, including sample documents and recommended reading

Oral History Detective

(Note: a version of this originally appeared on the blog I wrote for the historical association I volunteered at long ago, so I never put it on my own blog. However, I was pretty proud of it, and it was one of the “A-ha!” moments I was most proud of, so I’m revising the post and putting it here.)

In April 2014, I was working on transcribing a 2009 oral history interview with a woman I’ll call JAR. In JAR’s interview, she mentions a class picture she brought in to donate to the historical association*. As I was transcribing the interview, I thought of all the boxes we had in our collections room -- boxes not yet processed, boxes not properly processed, boxes processed but lost -- and wondered where in the world that picture might be, where it could have been put in the past five years. I thought about all the different class pictures we had -- all the many, many class pictures we had -- and I thought about how much I’d love to find the picture and include it with the interview transcript on-site, as well as use it as a visual aid on the web version of the transcript. Now, if only I could find that picture…

The next time I was working on organizing our collections and entering them into our database, I reminded myself I needed to find that picture. I had been planning how to try to find it: I could search our database for JAR’s name, to see if it was donated under her name (But was it an actual donation? And was it donated in her name? Would she have donated it under her maiden name or her married name? And would her name have been recorded as JAR or as J A R [Think about half the duo who played Michelle Tanner on Full House: would the cataloger have recorded her name as Mary Kate, or properly as Mary-Kate?]?); I could search our database by the school name (But everyone seemed to have a different way of calling the school, so was it cataloged as “Alderwood School,” “Alderwood Grade School,” “Alderwood Manor School,”…?); I could search by the grade level or year (But was that information included with the picture when it was cataloged? And did she say what grade/year it was in the interview?). So I had a few possible routes to search, but wasn’t sure any of them would lead to results. I was already disheartened without even starting my search!

As I was working in our database, reminding myself of all the ways I wanted to look for the picture, thinking of all the potential roadblocks, and reminding myself of the names JAR had mentioned as being in the picture (KS, MS, AN), I just happened to go through our collection of class photos, completely unrelated to looking for that picture. And then… there… My eye was caught by the name MS. “Wait!” I thought to myself. “Could it be… ?” Then I saw KS’s name listed with that same picture. “Could it…?” And then AN’s name! “No… This is too good to be true!” But there it was: a class picture, third grade, 1941-1942.

It was a beautiful, glorious moment. The clouds parted, the sun came out (Okay, I was in the basement of our building, so I don’t really know if the clouds parted and the sun came out), angels sang! “I think I’ve found it!”

The true test, though, was something that I hadn’t planned on looking for, but that popped into my head as I was investigating this picture: JAR had mentioned a little boy with holes in the knees of his pants. I checked the front row, like I remember JAR saying in her interview, and squinted hard. Sure enough, front and center, there’s a little boy with what looks to be a hole in the knee of his pants. Eureka! I’d found the picture!

Doing the history of a place from before you were there is always tricky. No matter how much studying you’ve done on the subject, you’re at some amount of a disadvantage not having lived through it first hand. For this particular organization, I was seen as a newcomer, being much younger than everyone else and living in the city after it incorporated so many other nearby parts, rather than coming from one of those country parts that was incorporated. As a result, I didn’t know a lot of the history and people that our members all seemed to know, and a lot of my knowledge about the area’s past came from research: reading books, listening to others, transcribing oral histories, entering donations. Because I didn’t have that first-hand knowledge, I wouldn’t have automatically known that this picture was JAR’s class, or known by looking at the faces that these were the same kids she was talking about. So when I could research (or, to some extent, just get lucky) and find something specific to a project, or to a story I’d heard, it was a huge deal for me. And when I miraculously found the exact picture that someone referred to in an interview, and when I stumbled over that picture without even searching for it, that’s one of those Eureka moments I just love!

2010.FIC.059A

*Because I find it so charming, here are the relevant passages of the oral history:

JAR: But you know, I do have a picture here, a photograph of our third grade. A lot of kids in this class, and there are at least nine now that are still alive and come to our school reunions or to special events here... . And these boys, like for instance, well, KS, I’ve known him since the first or second grade. ... and then there’s AN. I see AN, who is in business still to this day, at an automotive agency. And of course MS, who was my friend. And MS2; her mother was a teacher at Alderwood Grade School. And she’s also in this picture. Just cute kids. RD, ... and she just lives down the street from me, believe it or not. I didn’t know it for a long time. And then there’s AS. Now, these people I see at various events, and I’m sure that there are many others, too, but I haven’t—I’ve lost contact with them. But this picture is wonderful, and I want you to have a copy of this to show with this interview, because the children all look—they’re so innocent [laughs], and they’re so cute. They’re in third grade. Some of the boys are kind of hamming it up, and mimicking, and doing little things. And the girls just sit there and smile, with their hands folded. It’s just priceless.

CR: Very innocent time.

JAR: Very innocent time.
CR: Did you have a different feel for when you moved in to the city and had to go to the city school—
JAR: Oh, yes—
CR: —after you’d gone to the country school for so long?
JAR: Oh, yes. I remember sometimes kids would come to school here in Alderwood in bare feet. I remember one time the principal sent them home, probably for their own safety, you know. But they would— There they were. If you look at this picture, you’ll see a little boy here in the front row, and his pants, he’s got holes in his knees. His pants are kind of torn, you know. And it’s just— It’s a whole different time, and a whole different lifestyle. When I went in to northern Seattle, everybody was dressed, dressed well. It was a more serious life there. More organized. Out here, it was just free.

How does one historian enjoy a winter day?

How does this particular historian enjoy a lightly snowy, wintery day?

Make some peppermint hot chocolate, sit near a window where I can see the snow dusting the ground, get comfortable, and transcribe an oral history. Enjoy the cocoa, the snow, and the stories :)

Oral Historian/Detective

One thing I enjoy about transcribing oral histories is that I feel like a detective at times. The interviewees talk, telling stories about their lives, naming people and places they remember. Sometimes, though, it's hard to understand what they say. Or even if I can understand what they say, sometimes I'm not sure of spelling. This is especially true for someone like me, who doesn't know a lot of the people and places that most of the speakers talk about. Was that family the Hoffs, or the Houghs? The Andersons, or the Andersens? Bartlett or Bartlet? Or maybe the interviewee doesn't remember a particular name ("What was the name of that one family...The father was a mechanic...The Ro-somethings"). That's when I put on my detective's cap.

Since I know where most of the interviewees were living at the time their stories take place (and since I know when most of the stories take place), I can jump right to the census* for that location. (Luckily, it was a small area at the time!) From there, I start scrolling through the pages, especially if I'm looking for a close neighbor of the interviewee. When I find the name, ya-hoo! I do a little victory dance. (Sometimes, though, the victory dance is delayed a bit, as I pull out more detective skills -- the art of deciphering handwriting!)

Sometimes I have really big victories. There have been quite a few times that an interviewee has talked about a particular person and an occupation or business, but either I couldn't understand the name that was given, or I wasn't sure of spelling. But when I found Elizabeth Beam, for example, who was listed on the census as "Proprietor, Beauty Shop" when the speaker was talking about where she got her hair done as a young woman, I was pretty sure I had the right person. Victory dance! Another time was when a speaker mentioned a family that had a garage, and, using other clues from the interview, I was able to find the father on the census, listed as "mechanic." Victory dance!

Other times require more computer-based detective work: the Soundex. No idea how to spell a name, or can't find anything on your own? Soundex finds names (in theory) that sound like what you're looking for. I've had a couple of wins that were generated by Soundex. Victory dance!

I love playing detective while transcribing the oral histories. It's a lot of work, especially when you don't have the connection to the people and area like some others do (I know there are other people who just know, right off the bat, whether the speaker was talking about the Hoffs or the Houghs, for example. Or knew that Elizabeth Beam was the one who did hair, or knew that that particular family's name was Romano, or that that family was Terhune, not Terhuen, or whatever other spelling I was looking for, or would know if the one family I still can't figure out was Bertelson, Bertelsen, or Bertleson.). But when you get all of the questionable names and places accounted for, boy, you feel like you've won. Victory dance!

*Yes, I do realize that the census isn't always 100% accurate. I'll double- or triple-check with other censuses to see if the spelling stayed consistent throughout the decades; other times, or if the spelling varies, I'll look for other documents--an obituary, a family tree online, a newspaper article, a birth announcement, a yearbook--to try to figure out what was most likely the correct spelling. For example, the Romanos, who at times look like Romaros; or the Ballous, who sometimes look like Ballons. I keep cross-checking until I'm pretty sure I have the correct spelling, or until I hit it lucky, like I did with the Ballous, and found a family tree online that even had a note that one of the "Ballon" transcriptions should have read "Ballou." Thank you, genealogists!  (Victory dance!)

Oral histories

Oral histories are fascinating things. Stories of people who lived through history, even if "history" is just a city emerging from homesteads.

I've lived in this area all my life, yet I still feel like a newcomer in the Heritage Association, since, well, most of the people there are old enough to be my grandparents. It's really interesting to me, then, when I get to transcribe some of the oral histories that people have done for our group. I've been learning so much about what our city was like when it was just five-acre plots and lots of tree stumps. And the little personal stories make the oral histories even better -- like that someone's father couldn't dance (You could almost hear her blush as she described it), or a crush someone had in elementary school, or the neighborhood's first car, or troubles with cows. Plus, when you start listening to a number of the interviews, it's fascinating to hear how they all connect to each other -- one person's father was the school bus driver who drove another interviewee to school, which is the same school yet another interviewee went to a few years earlier. The history of the area is great; the family stories are greater.

It's also fun to hear the real-life accounts of historical events. Rather than the history book version of places and dates, you get to hear the personal details, personal names, and how events affected real people. Our region had an electric trolley in the 1920s and 1930s, and it's fine to read about it, but to get to hear people reminisce about the trips to school via the trolley and a particular resident bringing apples to the conductor when the trains stopped... that's when history gets fun.

And the really amazing things is that people are just reminiscing. Things that they took for granted as they lived their lives are now the same things that I, decades later, get so giddy hearing about. When people were living through the Depression, did they ever think that in 2012, someone whose parents hadn't even been born yet would listen to their stories and think, "Wow, that really puts everything in context"? When they were riding the train in the '20s, did they think that one day it wouldn't be there and that some silly little girl would long for a train of her own? When they went to school every day, talking with their friends, doing their tedious classwork, did they think that someone would one day listen to their stories and think they were sweet and quaint, and want to time-travel back to that one-room school?

What stories would you tell if you did an oral history interview? What things do you take for granted now as normal, everyday chores or events that someone might find fascinating and telling of the times?