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Oral History—Its Nature and Uses for Educational History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

William W. Cutler III
William W. Cutler III*
Affiliation:
Temple University
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Extract

To scholars in pursuit of Africa's past, the written record is a scarce and treasured resource. Among the primitive black cultures on this continent most history is oral history in the truest sense. Knowledge about the past passes by word of mouth from generation to generation, and not only must the scholar capture it but he must also try somehow to filter the significant from the inconsequential as well as the truth from the exaggerated. And yet historians in modern technological societies often face the same problem. In America today events of great importance are more and more receiving less and less documentation. Men can use the telephone or even the airplane to speedily carry their messages or themselves to desired correspondents, and frequently that revealing letter so important to the historian never gets written.

Type
Notes and Documents II
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Summer 1971 , pp. 184 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 History of Education Quarterly 

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References

Notes

1. Nevins, Allan, “The Uses of Oral History,” Oral History at Arrowhead: Proceedings of the First National Colloquium on Oral History, ed. Dixon, Elizabeth I. and Mink, James V. (Los Angeles, 1967), pp. 36–37; Nevins, “Oral History: How and Why It Was Born,” Wilson Library Bulletin XL (March 1966), 601; Starr, Louis M., “History, Warm,” Columbia University Forum V (Fall 1962), 4.Google Scholar

2. Colman, Gould P., “Oral History–-An Appeal for More Systematic Procedures,” American Archivist XXVIII (January 1965), 80; Baum, Willa K., “Oral History: A Revived Tradition of the Bancroft Library,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly LVIII (April 1967), 63; Baum, “Definitions of Oral History,” Oral History at Arrowhead, pp. 20, 25–26; Benison, Saul, “Reflections on Oral History,” American Archivist XXVIII (January 1965), 73.Google Scholar

3. Oral History Research Office (hereafter cited as OHRO): Columbia University, Oral History in the United States (1965), pp. 11–22; “The Scene at Asilomar: News in Brief,” Oral History Association Newsletter V (January 1971), 2; OHRO: Columbia University, Oral History –-The First Twenty Years (1968), pp. 9–18, 28. As of 1968, the peak year for research in Columbia's oral history holdings had been 1964–1965 with 2,039 volumes used (ibid., p. 28).Google Scholar

4. Colman, Gould P., “Oral History Problems and Procedures,” unpublished essay distributed to interviewers by the Cornell University Program in Oral History (1965), p. 7; Morrissey, Charles T., “Truman and the Presidency–-Records and Oral Recollections,” American Archivist XXVIII (January 1965), 56; Swain, Donald C., “Problems for Practitioners of Oral History,” American Archivist XXVIII (January 1965), 68.Google Scholar

5. OHRO: Columbia University, The Oral History Collection (New York, 1964), pp. 36, 72, 74, 83, 90, 100, 122; OHRO: Columbia University, Oral History–-The First Twenty Years, p. 23; Regional Oral History Office: University of California at Berkeley, “Interviews Completed or in Process,” 1965, nos. 92, 120.Google Scholar

6. OHRO: Columbia University, Oral History–-The First Twenty Years, p. 3. Bulletin of Cornell Program in Oral History II (December 1968), 1–2. Colman, Gould P. to William, W. Cutler, III, Ithaca, N. Y., January 27, 1969, in the possession of the receiver.Google Scholar

7. Tusler, Adelaide to Cutler, William B. [sic], Los Angeles, Calif., January 22, 1969, in the possession of the receiver. OHRO: Columbia University, Oral History–-The First Twenty Years, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

8. Jansen, William, Columbia Oral History Collection, pp. 21–22. Time, October 19, 1953. New York Times, January 9, 10, 18, and 22, February 10, March 7, 9, 10, 12, and 17, April 22, 25, and 26, May 4 and 5, June 6, October 5, 6, 10, 17, 19, 21, 25, and 26, 1950; February 9 and 10, June 1, July 13, October 31, November 16, December 7, 1951; January 23, February 1, November 21, 1952; March 26, 1953. Subversive Influence in the Educational Process, March 25, 1953, Testimony of William Jansen, Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, pt. 5, pp. 645–59. Iversen, Robert W., The Communists and the Schools (New York, 1959), pp. 264–66.Google Scholar

9. Hutchins, Robert M., Columbia Oral History Collection, pp. 49–50. His articles included “New Frontiers in the University Area,” School and Society, 37 (April 22, 1933), pp. 505–11; “The Confusion in Higher Education,” Harpers Magazine, 173 (October 1936), pp. 449–58; and with Neilson, William A. Dr., “What is the Job of Our Colleges?” New York Times Magazine, March 7, 1937.Google Scholar

10. Taylor, Katharine, Cornell University Oral History Collection, pp. 159–61.Google Scholar

11. Colman, “Oral History Problems and Procedures,” pp. 4–6, 20–21; “Reports of Group Meetings,” The Second National Colloquium on Oral History, ed. Starr, Louis M. (New York, 1968), p. 64. Morrissey, “Truman and the Presidency,” American Archivist, pp. 54, 60–61. Nevins, , “The Uses of Oral History,” Oral History at Arrowhead, pp. 45–46, 49.Google Scholar

12. Colman, , “Oral History,” American Archivist, pp. 80–81. Some oral history programs, like the one at Berkeley, rearrange their transcripts to be topically consistent and retype them so that the respondent's editing is not evident. Berkeley's memoirs describe this in their prefaces, but the practice robs the researcher of important information. Baum, “Oral History,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly, p. 58. See also Bombard, Owen W., “A New Measure of Things Past,” American Archivist XVIII (April 1955), 130.Google Scholar

13. “Definitions of Oral History,” Oral History at Arrowhead, pp. 32–34; Benison, , “Reflections,” American Archivist, pp. 75–76.Google Scholar

14. Colman, , “Oral History Problems and Procedures,” pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

15. Kursh, Harry to Cutler, William W. III, Peekskill, New York, February 1, 1969, in the possession of the receiver. Edward Ferro, Columbia Oral History Collection, passim. On the whole Mr. Kursh asked about as many questions in the Ferro interview as did all seventeen of his students put together. Some of the students questions were perceptive like: “What were the requirements for an immigrant to be admitted to the country?” or “Did immigrants ever bribe the inspectors?” See also Gould P. Colman, “Taped Interviews and Community Studies,” Social Education XXIX (December 1965), 537; The Yorktowner, April 18, 1968.Google Scholar

16. Morrissey, Charles T., “Oral History as a Classroom Tool,” Social Education XXXII (October 1968), 548–49.Google Scholar