The following write up on the project appeared in the Regional Roar, The Newsletter of the Committee on Regional Associations, in the Late Fall 2011 edition.
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The Oral History Project sponsored by the Princetoniana Committee was started in 2006 and consists of oral history interviews undertaken by alumni to capture Princeton’s history from Old Guard alumni, early alumnae, and others with significant Princeton connections and perspectives.
The interviews are free-form but do use a topic guide of questions that focuses on the interviewee’s experiences at Princeton, and they typically last about an hour and are audio-recorded. They are then transcribed, and the transcripts and recordings are entered into the University Archives at Mudd Library (and can generally be found online). To date, approximately 40 interviews have entered the archive.
The Princetoniana Committee is looking for volunteer interviewers to support this wonderful initiative in capturing histories of Princeton and its historical intersections.
The committee has found that regions conducting an “Interview Fest” in a central location can be quite successful. By offering refreshments and providing recording equipment and interview guides in a wheelchair-accessible location, local alumni (both interviewers and interviewees) are more likely to volunteer, and great progress can be made. To that end, the Princeton Area Alumni Association (PA3) has built a process to find and train volunteer interviewers, and they have acquired a pool of ten recorders that can be made available to any region wanting to conduct local interviews.
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Excerpts from interviews can be found here.