Oral historians
Number of items in collection: 307
Short description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
British Library-funded programme of interviews started in 2003 with the aim of recording the pioneers and leaders of oral history in the UK dating from the 1950s onwards. Whilst work undertaken at the University of Essex in the 1960s is often seen as the beginning of the modern movement in the UK, recordings were being made in Scotland as far back as the 1930s on cylinders, and later wire recorders. Recordings were also being made on the Isle of Man, at Leeds University, and in Wales capturing folklore and fast disappearing dialects and languages. In England George Ewart Evans ploughed a lonely furrow in East Anglia in the 1950s and 1960s recording farm labourer families using open reel recorders borrowed from BBC Norwich. At the BBC, Charles Parker was breaking the mould of radio programme-making with the ‘Radio Ballads’. The ‘Oral History Journal’ was founded in 1969, followed by the Oral History Society in 1973. From these early developments there was an explosion of oral history activity in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, much of it community-based. Graham Smith's The Making of Oral History is a useful introduction to the history of the discipline.
This project aims to find out more about the evolution of oral history methodology in the UK including interview techniques, equipment, organisational developments (including the formation of the Oral History Society), the challenges faced and details about those pioneers no longer alive. The interviews take a life story approach.
Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
Long description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
British Library-funded programme of interviews started in 2003 with the aim of recording the pioneers and leaders of oral history in the UK dating from the 1950s onwards. Whilst work undertaken at the University of Essex in the 1960s is often seen as the beginning of the modern movement in the UK, recordings were being made in Scotland as far back as the 1930s on cylinders, and later wire recorders. Recordings were also being made on the Isle of Man, at Leeds University, and in Wales capturing folklore and fast disappearing dialects and languages. In England George Ewart Evans ploughed a lonely furrow in East Anglia in the 1950s and 1960s recording farm labourer families using open reel recorders borrowed from BBC Norwich. At the BBC, Charles Parker was breaking the mould of radio programme-making with the ‘Radio Ballads’. The ‘Oral History Journal’ was founded in 1969, followed by the Oral History Society in 1973. From these early developments there was an explosion of oral history activity in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, much of it community-based. Graham Smith's The Making of Oral History is a useful introduction to the history of the discipline.
This project aims to find out more about the evolution of oral history methodology in the UK including interview techniques, equipment, organisational developments (including the formation of the Oral History Society), the challenges faced and details about those pioneers no longer alive. The interviews take a life story approach.
Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
What the interviews tell us
One-to-one oral history interviews explore memories and recount narratives rarely found elsewhere. Personal testimony fills knowledge gaps, provides new insights, challenges stereotypical views, and overturns orthodoxies. These recordings reveal collective memory, individual agency, gender, skill, influence and intentionality.
Ethical use of oral history
The interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories - often traumatic, confidential and intimate - and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity. Recordings should be analysed and presented in context, so that the interviewee’s meaning is not misconstrued. Quotations and audio clips should be referenced as, for example: “Interview with Margaret Brooks by Robert Wilkinson, 2013, Oral History of oral history in the UK, reference C1149/30 part x, © The British Library”. Each interviewee whose recording appears on this site has assigned copyright to The British Library Board and given their consent for the recording to be used for educational study. We have made every effort to contact all the interviewees and inform them about this project. However should any participant wish to discuss their involvement they should contact the Lead Curator, Oral History at the British Library (oralhistory@bl.uk)Oral history at the British Library
The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain. Many interviews were gathered through National Life Stories, an externally-funded unit within the Library established in 1987 to “record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible”.All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.