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Story Gathering We are so pleased to offer these cards when we work with our oral history partners.  With pop up type events, or even longer term oral history projects, the cards can help people without much interviewing experience get the conversation started. We had help with the Spanish translation from the English.  And, already… Read more

We remember Barbara Allen A no-nonsense local historian, who had a lively sense of humor and who brought oral history to several organizations in the region, Barbara Allen of Pittsfield, MA, passed away at the end of 2024. She and her husband Gary had previously lived in Lee for 45 years, and they were active… Read more

As we mark the passing of the 39th U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, we want to point out an interview (two interviews) that refer directly to him and his work.  In one of these interviews, Kit Dobelle, his Chief of Protocol during the Camp David Summit, in 1978, with Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt’s… Read more

Memoir Workshop Presenting the Past: Berkshire Memoirs of Work In this 4-part series, you can be part of a Berkshire writing project on the subject of work, the year-long theme of the Oral History Center of Housatonic Heritage. Using memoirs from writers past and present, (Dickens to Turkel) professional storyteller Mary Jo Maichack gives you… Read more

We are happy to announce the Great Mountain Forest Work in the Working Forest podcast.   Great Mountain Forest’s Work in the Working Forest Oral History Project is made possible through a grant and technical support from the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College. GMF is also grateful to Main Street Moxie podcast… Read more

For Connecticut history organizations conducting oral history projects, the University of Connecticut, CT Humanities, and CT Museum funded the purchase of a number of  licenses for the recording platform, Their Story. If you are one of the Oral History Center’s partners in NW Connecticut, send an email message to me and I refer you to… Read more

As we begin to work with Manos Unidas, we look at other projects that can help us create a project that makes sense to them.   They have a grant from Mass Humanities to do the project, and we at the Oral History Center will be the “Humanities Advisor” on the project. One project, by Reinout… Read more

Housatonic Heritage Walk with OLLI, History of Indian Town, Stockbridge, MA, this  Saturday, Sept. 21 10 AM – 12 NOON   and   1 PM – 3 PM THE HISTORY OF INDIAN TOWN, STOCKBRIDGE Indian Town was chartered in 1737 as a mission to the Mohican tribe to teach them English, about Christianity and about English agricultural… Read more

In Voices from the Fields: the Family Farms of Sheffield project, the Sheffield Land Trust launched an effort to interview farmers and their families about their histories and memories of working the land and caring for their livestock. The interviews were recorded on cassette tapes. Last year with a small grant from Housatonic Heritage, they… Read more

The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College and Community Television for the Southern Berkshires (CTSB) have started a collaborative project that will highlight stories about people and the work they do. We will begin with 10 interviews.  With those 10 people, we will talk with people who work more or less behind… Read more

Mary O’Neill is interviewing 5 people who have dedicated their work lives to studying, caring for, stewarding, and educating us about 6,000 acres in NW Connecticut, an area known as the Great Mountain Forest. https://greatmountainforest.org/ This project is part of the Center’s Oral History of Work initiative, in which we hope to shine light on… Read more

  Years ago, StoryCorps visited Great Barrington, Mass, and we collaborated with them to set up a day long interview schedule at Berkshire Community College South County Center.  Neighbors came with neighbors, colleagues with co-workers and mentors, elders with their children. The interviews were not available to us, but eventually, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, the… Read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 14, 2024 Contact:  Judith Monachina Director, Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College 413-236-1025 judithmonachina@berkshirecc.edu www.theoralhistorycenter.org Oral History Center symposium leaders announced Experts on project design, interviewing, digital storytelling, bilingual projects, oral history theater, and other subjects will share their expertise STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.—The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge will… Read more

Join us for an Oral History Symposium Thursday, May 9, 2024 ‘ At the Red Lion Inn, Stockbridge, Mass. Speakers and workshop leaders will walk us through •Oral History Project Design and Planning •Interviewing skills for oral history •Archiving your work with Digital Commonwealth •Making a beautiful – or compelling, or impactful, etc. – oral… Read more

We are resuming a tradition The annual spring Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College Oral History Symposium May 9, 2024, 9-4 Red Lion Inn, Stockbridge, Massachusetts  We will invite guests and friends to give workshops, share insights, and talk about what they know, with subjects ranging from Project Design, to Technology, to… Read more

Last week, we lost a 102-year-old Stockbridge resident, David Resnik.  In 2016, a BCC student interviewed him. In 2016, Berkshire Community College student Dave Wasielewski was studying history with Chris Laney and wanted to interview a veteran.  World War II veteran David Resnik agreed to be interviewed. Paul O’Brien, a retired teacher in Sheffield who… Read more

Oral history collections often include more than recordings of oral history interviews. When you open boxes and look into hard drives, you might find various documents, including photographs.  Or, you might plan an oral history project that includes photographs. In an upcoming Conversation on the Commons, panelists Martha Mahard (Simmons University) and Ron Polito (UMass… Read more

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College is hosting a  Shared Interest Group (SIG) open house. One of those SIGs is led by someone who began his project with the Oral History Center, Mark Rosenman: History of Music in The Berkshires – The Road House EraUncover the rich history of music in the Berkshires,… Read more

Last week, we participated in a community event for the completion of an oral history project of the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, a program of New England Historic Geneological Society (now American Ancestors), which is based in Boston.  Hundreds (though I did not count) of people showed up to celebrate. Rachel King and Sarah… Read more

Sheffield Land Trust oral history interviews with farmers are now getting digital copies as we prepare them for the Digital Commonwealth, where they will safely archived and available to the public.   Katherine Abbott is doing the work for us.  We are working in collaboration with the Sheffield Historical Society and the Local History Department… Read more

We are so pleased to announce that the oral history collection from Tyringham is now online and available for you to listen. There are many people to thank for this, but let’s start with Ann Gallo, who saw a box of tapes and wondered what they were.  She set out to digital copy each one… Read more

Thank you to Erica Spizz and Steven Borns at Community Television for the Southern Berkshires (CTSB). They are helping us tell our stories, including this one. Tom Wojtkowski was co-sponsor of the bill in the Massachusetts legislature that created the state’s community college system.  Berkshire Community College was the first. CTSB aired the interview we… Read more

Housatonic Heritage offers Heritage Walks every year.  And each year, the list of participating sites grows. The walks (cycles, paddles, etc.) are free, guided interpretive tours to off-the-beaten-path  (or hidden in plain site)  historic, cultural, industrial, and natural sites in Berkshire County, MA, & Litchfield County, CT. All happening over five weekends in September and… Read more

Vermont Folklife Center gives us a model to emulate. At this time, as they continue their work on various projects, they respond to the flooding, the natural disaster, in the state. Here is a link to the resources they are sharing for recording, interviewing, and documentation in the wake of a natural disaster. (Of course,… Read more

We are exploring memory maps, and we ran across one that we like a lot. Click here: https://jewishmanchestermemorymap.org/   This visual is a cropped version, but just go to the site, linked above, to click on place names and listen to stories. We are exploring ways to make our own memory maps.     This… Read more

  Paid Position/Internship in the Oral History Center, in person and hybrid All training is provided. Digital archive assistant One of the most important parts of the work of the Oral History Center is safe keeping of the interviews we and our partners conduct. We have conducted and audio/video recorded interviews with alumni, former faculty,… Read more

The Connecticut Storytelling Center strives to provide the means for people of all ages to experience stories as a means of expression and communication, as a tool for thinking, reflecting, teaching and learning, and as a catalyst for change. This spring, the League is proud to promote: 42nd Annual Connecticut Storytelling Festival & Conference Friday, April… Read more

  The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College is offering a paid internship in the Summer, 2023, which may continue into Fall semester of 2023. We are a community oral history center, which means we help community organizations in the region to create, organize, and safely archive the stories of people who… Read more

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