Research Guides: Oral History Archives at Columbia Research Guide: Oral History Collections & Databases

Columbia Center for Oral History Digital Collections

The Columbia Center for Oral History and the Oral History Archives at Columbia offer oral history projects covering the arts, law, Columbia University history, business, social activism and a host of other topics.

Browse a few select projects below, as well as the oral history project list.

Columbia University Libraries currently has a large-scale, Mellon Foundation-funded digitization project underway. Through this grant, newly available oral history interviews are added to the Digital Library Collection regularly.

Find other Columbia Center for Oral History Research and INCITE projects on their website.

The Rule of Law Oral History Project
The Rule of Law Oral History Project was initiated in 2008 to explore and document the state of human and civil rights in the post-9/11 world. In its first year, the project conducted a series of interviews with attorneys in order to document legal challenges against capital punishment in the United States. Recognizing important intersections between litigation challenging the administration of capital punishment and the legal architecture of post-9/11 detention policies and practices, the Rule of Law Oral History Project expanded in 2010 to study the statutory and constitutional challenges of the use of the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.

Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project
In an effort to preserve the legacy of Rauschenberg’s life and work, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, in collaboration with INCITE/Columbia Center for Oral History Research, has undertaken the Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project. This collection of firsthand accounts, as told by the artist’s family, friends, and many collaborators, is housed on the foundation website. Upon completion of the project in 2017, transcripts will also be available on the Columbia University website and in its Rare Books and Manuscript Library.

The IRWGS Oral History Project
In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality (IRWGS) sought a way to trace its contributions to feminist scholarship and its role within the larger context of Columbia University as a source of intellectual leadership. The IRWGS Oral History Project interviews were conducted between 2014-2015 with current and past directors of IRWGS, affiliated and allied faculty, administrators, and students. Interviewers conducted 68 sessions with 36 individuals—over 90 hours of recordings—including 9 sessions recorded on video.
more...less...
The IRWGS Oral History Project was guided by a set of research questions, which emphasized the role of IRWGS as an political actor within the broader context of Columbia University, agitating for the inclusion of feminist analysis and practice, and working to do so, in its early years, without much institutional support from the university. As the project progressed, questions expanded to explore issues of generation, activism, the developments within feminism(s), evidence of increasing support of IRWGS by the university, and the challenge of addressing diversity, sexuality and other forms of social difference theoretically and as professional practice.

Columbia Accessible Oral History Resources

Oral History Online
This release of Oral History Online provides in-depth indexing to more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. The collection also provides keyword searching of more than 329,400 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life. It also contains pointers to over 4,200 audio and video files and almost 19,000 bibliographic records.

HistoryMakers. This link opens in a new window
"The HistoryMakers is a national 501 (c)(3) non-profit video oral history archive headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The HistoryMakers is dedicated to preserving African American history as the missing link in American history. Focused on American history, oral history and education in general and more specifically on African American history, education, music, law, the arts, science, technology, media, medicine, entertainment, fashion&beauty, business, the military, politics and sports, The History Makers is a combination archive, library, museum, stock footage collection, on-line educator and educational PBS/TV programming. Its topics include but are not limited to African American organizations and associations, slavery, reconstruction, the labor movement, the civil rights movement and black authors."
HistoryMakers.
North American immigrant letters, diaries, and oral histories . This link opens in a new window
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines. In selected cases, users will be able to hear the actual audio voices of the immigrants.
North American immigrant letters, diaries, and oral histories .
Sixties : primary documents and personal narratives 1960-1974. This link opens in a new window
This searchable database brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. The database covers subjects in arts, music, and leisure, civil rights, counter-culture, law and government, mass media, new left and emerging neo-conservative movement, student activism, Vietnam War, women's movement, etc.
Sixties : primary documents and personal narratives 1960-1974.