Oral History Projects

 

Oral history projects are a collection and study of historical information about individuals, groups, families, political, and social events, and even everyday life captured in audio or video recordings or transcriptions of planned and organized interviews.

The purpose of collecting the first-hand accounts, or experiences or eye-witnesses is to obtain and preserve information gathered in electronic media or written work of different perspectives that cannot be found in written sources and protect them in archives in libraries.

Story Map of Camp Susupe

Click on the link above to experience an interactive map that tells the stories of the indigenous peoples of Saipan during the two years they spent in internment camps, until they were finally free to move around the island on 4 July 1946. It is a detailed account of the Battle for Saipan using oral histories from survivors and their family members, as well as military documentation.

This is a project done by Jennifer McKinnon and Stephanie Soder, grantees of the Council’s Community Grant Program.

How To Conduct Oral History Interviews

This helpful how-to was written and e-published by ethnographer and oral historian  Rlene Steffy in collaboration with the Northern Marianas Humanities Council.