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If you are daunted by those boxes of cassette tapes in your collection, read about the project  of the Sharon (Connecticut) Historical Society.  They have followed a roadmap that brought them from a situation in which they were not sure what was in those boxes of tapes to making those very interviews available online at… Read more

At the end of our first story circle about story circles, in February,  participants wanted to talk about logistics.  We agreed that our next session would be devoted to this:  The logistics of story circles.  Friday, March 10, 12-1, via zoom. We will talk about workflow, including setting up the room, in person or virtual,… Read more

Happy New Year We are experimenting with an idea:  hosting a story circle for oral history practitioners who want to: •talk about story circles, or •learn about them, or •share their own experiences with story circles. Join us for an informal lunchtime gathering to chat about story circles in a story circle format, on zoom…. Read more

Congratulations to Berkshire Historical Society Originally a Mass Humanities-funded project, with Barbara Allen, then Berkshire Historical Society Director as lead, and Frances Jones Sneed, Mass Humanities Scholar, this collection of  20 interviews of African American elders was initiated in the late 1990’s. A few years ago, we were able to act as stewards as the… Read more

Archives 101 When: Tuesday, October 04, 2022 10:00 AM, EDT Where: Zoom Will you be attending?   Register Not attending     EVENT DETAILS: A free, five-part webinar series running Tuesdays from 10 to 11 a.m., October 4 through November 4 This series of five, one-hour webinars provides information and instruction in the basics of… Read more

We are working on our paper making collection, which documents paper making in the region, and in Lee, Mass, primarily.   Making sure the digital files were safe was task number one.   We are fortunate to be working with an archivist, Schuyler Fohrhaltz-Burbank, a recent graduate of the Simmons University MS Library and Information Science/ Archives… Read more

Incarceration, Oral History, Documentary & ‘Suave’  SIGN UP NOW  Where: Zoom – Sign up to receive the link here When: Thursday, September 22, 2022, 6:00pm-7:30pm EST Maria Hinojosa spent nearly 20 years documenting with David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, who was incarcerated for a crime he was convicted of at the age of 17. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning… Read more

Dear Subscriber, We are re-posting this information because we learned that many of you had not received the original post.  We are trying to troubleshoot our blog post problems.  Thanks for your patience! Judith Monachina Director, Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu The first two of these workshops is offered via… Read more

The first two of these workshops is offered via Zoom; the third is in person only. Family Oral History with Kelly Elaine NaviesDate: Thursday, September 15, 2022Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PMRegistration RequiredThis online event is hosted on Zoom.Kelly Elaine Navies, Museum Specialist in Oral History at the National Museum of African American History and… Read more

Input from History Organizations Wanted: The Arts, Culture and Tourism Funding Roadmap Project In December 2021, representatives of the arts, culture and tourism sectors met in Hartford to discuss their priorities. Now, Connecticut Arts Alliance, Connecticut Humanities, and Connecticut Tourism Coalition are working together to follow up on that convening to advocate for meaningful, reliable, and equitable state funding for… Read more

We are about to plan a series of discussions about story circles. If you are interested, read on! We participated in one that the West Side Legends organized back in the spring.  The theme of that story circle was living on the West Side of Pittsfield during the 1950’s and 1960’s, before the Urban Renewal… Read more

Hello Oral History Center blog subscriber, You may receive a few email messages with invitations to open old posts.  We have been working on the site, and this seems to have happened as a result of a plug in. We apologize if this has caused any inconvenience. Thanks! Judith Monachina jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu  

About My Story: It Takes Many Lives to Make an Indian Trustees of Reservations, Mission House, Stockbridge, MA Registration required:  https://thetrustees.org/event/78743/ Hear from Stockbridge-Munsee Community Member in Residence, Jeff Vele, as he shares personal reflections and lessons from his life– from his time as a Native American living in the city to moving back to… Read more

The group hoped to host an actual, in-person event at the Lichtenstein Arts Center in Pittsfield, but concern about the Covid numbers led to a change of mind. They decided to host their first story circle on Zoom.  They will host a series of circles, with different sub topics (Red Lining, Urban Renewal and more)… Read more

Our students are creating this year’s exhibit in a moment of cautious venturing out. In New York City, spring is coming, and withdrawing, and coming back. We are now allowed to take our masks off in class, but many are keeping them on. We noticed that, in this moment, our work engages with the dynamics… Read more

Registration is OPEN! The Massachusetts History Alliance invites you to the 2022 Mass History Conference: Embracing the New or Unexpected, to be held June 6 and 7, 2022.In the spirit of this year’s conference theme, we’ll be trying something new. We’ll gather Monday, June 6 at Historic Beverly’s Hale Farm and Tuesday, June 7 online for two… Read more

The Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (MA SHRAB) is excited to announce, through funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), that a second round of grants up to $500 are now available to cultural institutions in Massachusetts for the purchase of archival supplies. Any institution or organization that maintains archival collections… Read more

Music in Common, a local nonprofit that strengthens, empowers and connects communities through the universal language of music, launched The Black Legacy Project (LP), a groundbreaking musical collaboration that celebrates Black history and builds solidarity to advance racial equity and belonging. The Black LP spotlights songs that reflect significant eras of the Black American experience,… Read more

At the Oral History Center, we have the pleasure of learning about many projects, and we hear lots questions. We try to find the answers and connect people who are asking the questions with those who know the answers. A question recently came our way that had to do with interviewing a person with a… Read more

The Berkshire area was at one time home to more than 50 paper mills, 26 of which were in the town of Lee. Paper Town Projects was established as a 401 c (3)  in 2008 to document the work of remaining six Lee mills at a time when it seemed they might all close.  The… Read more

Conversations on the Commons invites you to:Community History: What is it, and what can it do for you?February 3, 2022, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. With Lee Blake, President of the New Bedford Historical Society and Penni Martorell, curator of collections at Wistariahurst Museum and Holyoke’s City HistorianWhat is Community History? What formats does it take? What is… Read more

February 3 | Lessons in Relationship Building from a Participatory Oral History Project   February 3, 2022/  7-8:30 p.m.  Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at rlm2203@columbia.edu with specific access requests or questions.  SIGN UP NOW  Where: Zoom – Sign up to receive the link here When: Thursday, February 3, 2022, 7:00pm-8:30pm EST Oral history is the… Read more

Conversations on the Commons: Community History February 4 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Details Date: February 4 Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Event Category: Conversations on the Commons (events) Event Tags: Conversations Venue Online MA United States View Venue Website

        (Photo Margaret Cherin, former archivist at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.  She recommended that oral history project coordinators consider the archive where their work will go even before they begin to do interviews.  We pass that advice along.)       This post is a grant announcement from the Mass SCHRAB… Read more

The  podcasts we are making are now listed on Spotify and a few other places. https://open.spotify.com/show/5ELmGlhFiIo1hVxINQO4Fw Of course, they are here on this site, too. (Podcasts and other Inspirations)   We are fairly new at this podcasting thing, but we are learning, thanks to a few people, including Circle Round podcast (WBUR) creators Rebecca Sheir… Read more

Planning and getting started on your oral history project …or, picking up a paused project November/December 2021 Workshop Series:  From planning, to interview, to archive: An informal series to get you started or re-started     Session 1, November 16, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Plan your oral history project:  We will walk through the early planning to… Read more

Archives Hour with the State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB): Veterans’ Heritage Grants and more October 28, 2021, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Join representatives from the State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) to learn more about resources available to you and your organization for managing historical records. We’ll go over this year’s round of Veterans’… Read more

The Bronx Community College Archives is pleased to announce that we are co-hosting an online panel next Tuesday that will be highlighting our latest oral history project, thanks to our collaboration with Mutual Aid NYC! Community Care during COVID Oral History Project  documents stories of mutual aid, food justice and public health equity in the Bronx. We hope… Read more

When: Friday, October 29, 2021 12:00 PM, EDT Where: Zoom Will you be attending?   Yes Maybe No     EVENT DETAILS: CT Humanities’ SHARP Capacity Grants are now live and accepting applications! These grants will provide a total of $640,000 to help humanities organizations and other cultural institutions respond to and recover from the coronavirus… Read more

What’s Your Climate Story?   A Hunters Point Environmental Education Center Program   Registration is required to join this event. If you have not registered, please do so. English : New York Time Event status: (Register) Date and time: Thursday, October 14, 2021 6:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00) Change time zone Duration:… Read more