The Oral History Center is part of

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. The office was founded in 1954. OHC conducts, analyzes, teaches about, and preserves

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

interviews on a wide range of topics related to the history of California and the United States. OHC staff also conduct research on a wide range of historical topics, utilizing oral history as a central primary source to their scholarship.

History

OHC's original name was the Regional Cultural History Office. It was the second oral history office founded in the country, following only

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. The first interview conducted at the office, before it was officially recognized as a unit on campus, was with

Alice B. Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was born in San F ...

, the long-time partner of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and ...

. Since its founding in 1954, the OHC has conducted thousands of interviews in a wide variety of subject areas ranging from law and jurisprudence to food and wine. ROHO features especially strong collections on the development of the arts and letters, science and technology, and labor, social, political, and community history in California. The OHC has also conducted numerous interviews on the history of the University of California. Interviews with scientists include

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winners such as

Arthur Kornberg Arthur Kornberg (March 3, 1918 – October 26, 2007) was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 for the discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic a ...

Paul Berg Paul Berg (June 30, 1926 – February 15, 2023) was an American biochemist and professor at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recogniz ...

, Donald A. Glaser, and

Charles Townes Charles Hard Townes (July 28, 1915 – January 27, 2015) was an American physicist. Townes worked on the theory and application of the maser, for which he obtained the fundamental patent, and other work in quantum electronics associated with b ...

. Other notable interviews with scientists include

Herbert Boyer Herbert Wayne "Herb" Boyer (born July 10, 1936) is an American biotechnologist, researcher and entrepreneur in biotechnology. Along with Stanley N. Cohen and Paul Berg, he discovered recombinant DNA, a method to coax bacteria into producing for ...

and Stanley N. Cohen. The OHC has also conducted significant oral histories with well-known artists and authors, such as

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange' ...

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Monochrome photography, black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association ...

, and

Carl Rakosi Carl Rakosi (November 6, 1903 – June 25, 2004) was the last surviving member of the Objectivist poets, still publishing and performing poetry well into his 90s. Early life Rakosi was born in Berlin and lived there and in Hungary until 191 ...

. The OHC houses collections of oral histories related to

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

and the

home front Home front is an English language term with analogues in other languages. It is commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system for their military. Civilians are traditionally uninvolved in com ...

during World War II. The interviews conducted by staff are deposited in over 700 manuscript libraries worldwide. Many of the interviews are accessible online. The

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

also houses the original tapes for all of the interviews conducted by the center. Once completed, the oral histories are referenced by both scholars and students around the world. The group's first director was Corinne Gilb, who led the program from 1954 to 1958. Between 1958 and 2000, Willa Baum directed the center, then called the Regional Oral History Office. Under her tenure, the group amassed over 1,600 oral histories on a wide variety of subjects. Richard Cándida Smith, who was also a professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, directed the office until spring of 2012. During Cándida Smith's tenure, the number of oral history transcripts made available online expanded dramatically. Whether institutional or community oral history, the center's emphasis is on placing information and viewpoints in the historical record that might otherwise be lost. The OHC has conducted 5,000 oral histories, which totals tens of thousands of interview hours. Nearly every interview that has been transcribed is available for the public to read on th
OHC website

References

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External links

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Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library
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About the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library
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Program in Bioscience and Biotechnology Studies
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Suffragists Oral History Project
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Rosie the Riveter / WWII American Home Front oral history project
' University of California, Berkeley Oral history Libraries in California 1954 establishments in California