Creative Writing

"Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) is one of the few cultural institutions in Brooklyn that maintains an oral history program. Begun in 1973, BHS’s oral history collections now include over 1,200 interviews. These interviews bring the voices of history to broad audiences through exhibitions, digital humanities projects, K-12 and post-secondary curricula, public programs, and via the BHS blog and Flatbush + Main podcast.
The collections provide a wealth of historical evidence about the lives of twentieth-century and twenty-first-century Brooklyn residents, and reveal how diverse individuals and communities have sought to preserve vital social, political, religious, and cultural traditions as Brooklynites, New Yorkers, and Americans. The collections contain interviews conducted in English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin, with narrators born as early as 1880."

"We seek to not only witness the change taking place all around us, but also to record and preserve the history of our neighborhoods before that history is forgotten."

"Since Centro’s founding in 1973, it has been capturing the stories and experiences of Puerto Ricans stateside through oral history interviews. The collections and projects listed here represent the work of Centro staff along with material donated to the archives. Many of the collections are available to view or listen to through Centro’s Digital Collections portal, others are available in digital or audio cassette format for listening within the Centro Library & Archives reading room. See the audio indices for each collection to determine the type of availability."

"The Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH) was founded by historian and journalist Allan Nevins in 1948 and is credited with launching the establishment of oral history archives internationally. At over 10,000 interviews, the Oral History Archives is one of the largest oral history collections in the United States. The Oral History Archives at Columbia is housed at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in Butler Library and is open to all."

"GVSHP began its Oral History Project in the mid-nineties to help preserve memories of the preservation movement in Greenwich Village. The collection currently contains four Oral History Collections: East Village, Preservation Pioneers, South Village, and Westbeth, as well as newly released Oral Histories. The Oral History Collection includes 42 entries, each of which contain a short interview description, transcript, and several audio clips. An abstract is available at the beginning of each transcript."

"The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust houses eight oral history collections containing over 3,800 oral history interviews. Each collection has different conditions governing access."

"The New York Public Library's Community Oral History Project is an initiative taking place at NYPL branches that aims to document, preserve, and celebrate the rich history of the city's unique communities by collecting the stories of people who have experienced it firsthand."

"a community archive devoted to the collection, preservation and sharing of trans histories, organized in collaboration with the New York Public Library"

"The Archives of American Art has one of the oldest and most respected oral history collections in the country. Since 1958, our Oral History Program has preserved the distinct voices and human memory of the American art world in more than 2,300 interviews. The purpose of the Archives’ Oral History Program is to create unique, lengthy exchanges between interviewers and narrators, conversations that yield a richness of detail and a sense of character not available in other primary sources. These recordings chronicle the great diversity of the American art scene, augmenting and refining our perception of individual artists, dealers, critics, and curators and their social and professional worlds. Common themes, such as artists' educational backgrounds, working methods, sources of inspiration, technical innovations, and issues of patronage emerge across artistic mediums and across generations."