The Oklahoma Oral History Research Program (OOHRP) was founded in 2007 as part of the Oklahoma State University Library, with the goal of documenting and making accessible the history of Oklahoma and OSU through oral history interviews. In addition to conducting interviews staff members speak to classes, offer instruction and lead workshops. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to meet with staff also in regards to oral history methodology, design or technical considerations.

The narratives recorded in our collections help to fill gaps in the written cultural and intellectual history by preserving the experiences of both ordinary and extraordinary Oklahomans. Projects focus on various topics including women, farm families, Cooperative Extension educators, Oklahoma native artists and gallery owners, Germans from Russia, African American heritage, circus operators and performers, OSU alumni and supporters, and figures in Oklahoma history such as Angie Debo, Henry Bellmon, and Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel.

Interviews are transcribed and made accessible online through the OOHRP’s website: www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/

Founded in 1964, the American West Center is the oldest regional studies center of its type. Oral history has been at the core of the Center’s work from the beginning. The University of Utah was one of only six institutions to receive a grant from the tobacco heiress Doris Duke to record the oral histories of Native peoples. Over a five-year period beginning in 1966, AWC staff conducted interviews in six western states. Ultimately the Doris Duke Indian Oral History collection totaled 1,458 interviews and as of today the AWC has conducted 2,000 total interviews with Native peoples. The center has also recorded the experiences of other ethnic groups beginning with Japanese Americans and Utah’s Latino/a citizens. In 1999, the AWC launched a major Veterans oral history initiative that now includes interviews with veterans of World War II, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In July 2014 the Center will launch a new Veterans Vietnam-specific collection. Other oral history programs included the University of Utah history project, Utah Outdoor Recreation Oral Histories, Pacific Worlds, Utah Environmentalism, Polio survivors, and the Center’s newest project, Saline Stories: An Oral History of Great Salt Lake. All told, the American West Center has recorded, processed, and preserved over 7,000 oral history interviews over the past half century.

Visit their website: http://awc.utah.edu/