Oral History: Resources and Archives

Brooklyn Historical Society’s Oral History Collections

Brooklyn Historical Society’s oral history collections includes over 1,200 interviews whose audio, and in some cases transcripts, can be accessed online.

The Columbia Center for Oral History

"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. "

Digital Taminent  - Oral Histories

"The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University form a unique, internationally-known center for scholarly research on Labor and the Left. 

The primary focus of our collections is the complex relationship between trade unionism and progressive politics, and how this shifted over time.  Tamiment has one of the finest research collections in the country documenting the history of radical politics: socialism, communism, anarchism, the cultural left, the New Left and the struggle for civil rights and liberties."

East New York Oral History Project

"The East New York Oral History Project was designed to capture the personal experiences of people who lived in East New York from 1960 - 1970, during the time in which East New York rapidly changed from a primarily White to primarily Black and Latino community."

Ellis Island Oral History Project

"Since 1973, the Ellis Island Oral History project has been dedicated to preserving the first-hand recollections of immigrants who passed through the Ellis Island immigration station between 1892 and 1954 and the employees who worked there.

Over the years, the project has grown to include approximately 1900 interviews. The interviews include people from dozens of countries, former Immigration and Public Health Service employees, military personnel stationed at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as well as people detained at Ellis Island during World War II until it closed in 1954.

Each person interviewed receives a tape of the interview which describes their daily life in the country of origin, family history, reasons for emigration, journey to New York arrival and processing at Ellis Island and the immigrants' adjustment to life in the United States."

Fordham's Bronx African American History Project

"Fordham's Bronx African American History Project is regarded as one of the premier community based oral history projects in the United States. Founded in the spring of 2002 in collaboration with the Bronx County Historical Society, the BAAHP has conducted over 300 full length interviews with African American political leaders, educators, musicians, social workers, business people, clergy. athletes and leaders of community based organizations who have lived and worked in the Bronx since the late 1930s, along with a small number of their Latino and white neighbors and co-workers."

The New York Public Library's Community Oral History Project

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

"Beginning in 2013 at Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village and building momentum, oral histories are now being collected in neighborhoods throughout the city. Visible Lives, an oral history project on the disability experience is another large scale collection effort, based out of Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. To date, more than one thousand stories have been collected by close to three hundred community volunteers. All recordings are available on this site and will be archived in the Library's Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy research collection."