OHO historians develop source material through a program
of recorded interviews, a valuable research technique
which provides access to historical sources which would
otherwise remain untapped. Interviews are subsequently
transcribed to allow easy use of the material. Recordings,
transcripts and related materials are serviced at the
Reference Desk of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
These archives are open to students and professional researchers
and photocopying is available.
OHO at UConn was established as the Oral History Project
in 1968 and began to expand in the late seventies in response
to a growing professional interest in this research technique.
It was designated a Center by the University's Board of
Trustees in 1981, and continues to increase both the number
of research projects coming under its umbrella and the
services it provides. In 2007, the Center's name was changed to Oral History Office.
Center-based activites have been supported by funding
from such agencies as the National Endowment for the Humanities,
the Connecticut Humanities Council and the U.S. Office
of Education, as well as by private sources and the University
of Connecticut.
Publications originating from OHO at UConn include: Mills
and Meadows: A Pictoral History of Northeastern Connecticut,
From the Old Country: An Oral History of European Migration
to America, Connecticut Workers and Technological Change,
Witnesses to Nuremberg: Americal Participants at the
War Crime Trials, and Red Brick in the Land of
Steady Habits: Creating the University of Connecticut,
1881-2006.
