There is an old man in your town or your neighborhood or your family who remembers things that no book records.
He remembers what the main street looked like sixty years ago. What businesses were there and who ran them. Which buildings got torn down and what replaced them. Which families were prominent and which ones struggled. What the big events were that shaped the community and how people felt about them at the time.
She remembers what it was like to be a young woman in this country before certain rights existed. What work was available to her and what was closed off. What she had to do to raise her kids. What the hardest years felt like from the inside.
They remember names. Faces. Stories. Details about how life actually worked that never made it into any official record.
And when they die all of that goes with them.
This Is the Most Urgent Preservation Problem There Is
Books can be reprinted. Photographs can be scanned from originals. Documents can be digitized. But once a person who carries living memory of a time and place is gone there is no recovery. No second chance. No way to go back and ask the questions you forgot to ask.
Every day that passes without someone recording these stories is a day of irreplaceable history lost.
How to Do an Oral History Interview
You do not need professional equipment or formal training. You need a phone with a voice recording app and a list of questions.
Start with basic biographical information. Where were you born. What were your parents like. Where did you grow up. What was your neighborhood like when you were young.
Move into specific memories. What do you remember about this town when you were a kid. What did you do for work. What were the big events that happened in your lifetime that you remember most clearly.
Ask about the community specifically. Who were the important people in this community when you were young. What businesses were here. What has changed the most. What do you wish young people knew about how things used to be.
Let them talk. The best oral history interviews follow the person's memory rather than sticking rigidly to a script.
Record the whole thing. Let them know you are recording. Save the file somewhere it will not get lost. And if possible transcribe it or have it transcribed so the information is searchable.
Where to Put What You Collect
StoryCorps at storycorps.org accepts oral history recordings and deposits them in the Library of Congress. Your recording could become part of the permanent national historical record.
Your local library's local history collection will often accept transcripts and recordings from community oral history projects.
Archive.org accepts audio uploads and preserves them permanently for free.
You can also publish excerpts or summaries on a blog with the person's permission. Making the knowledge public is what transforms a personal recording into a historical document.
Pick up the phone today. Call the oldest person you know. Tell them you want to hear their stories. You are running out of time and so are they.
Robert Lee Beers III is a writer and digital preservation advocate based in North Charleston South Carolina.
