Read: Oral History Transcripts

NPS Harpers Ferry Center Collection

Browse oral history transcripts of recordings held at the Harpers Ferry Center Archives. Note that the albums below show the cover pages, offering a preview of the interview subjects and dates. To read the full transcripts, use the download option or visit the collection at NPGallery:

• Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR) Oral History Project
• National Heritage Areas Oral History Transcripts

• Harpers Ferry Center (HFC) Staff Oral History Transcripts

People at Healy River, Alaska, circa 1905.

Photo courtesy of Lee Saylor/Jeany Healy; accessed via Project Jukebox.

Oral History in Parks

Alaska Parks

Five Alaska parks—Denali, Katmai, Lake Clark, Sitka, and Yukon-Charley Rivers—have collaborated with the digital branch of the oral history program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Find interviews, photographs, and other resources at Project Jukebox.

Cane River Creole National Historical Park

A 2015 project, Oral History and Ethnographic Interviews with Traditionally Associated People of Cane River Creole National Historical Park, aimed to document contemporary populations and traditions with direct relationships to Magnolia and Oakland Plantations, as well as to the larger region. The study concentrates primarily on the twentieth century and the social, political, and economic changes that began especially after World War I and which continue into the twenty-first century.

Canal workers working hard to remove ice from the Western Canal so that factory operations could run in the winter (February 21, 1918).

NPS / Lowell National Historical Park

Gateway National Recreation Area

Gateway National Recreation Area features interviews with those who remember living or working at or near Sandy Hook Lighthouse and Fort Hancock from World War I to the Cold War.

Harry S. Truman National Historic Site

Read the memories of Truman family friends, neighbors, and associates at Harry S. Truman National Historic Site.

Lowell National Historical Park

Lowell National Historical Park and the Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts—Lowell have posted hundreds of transcribed interviews about the history of education, industry, and everyday life in the city of Lowell.

Velma Briggs Moore (at right) with a coworker at Marinship in Sausalito, California.

NPS / Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park (RORI 3636)

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Interviews with missileers, security and maintenance team members, peace activists, and local citizens offer multiple perspectives on Minuteman Missile National Historic Site's Cold War history.

Pearl Harbor National Memorial

The Pearl Harbor oral history interviews document and preserve the experiences and memories of those who witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack. The collection includes interviews with civilians and military personnel from both the United States and Japan. Audio from these interviews is also available on the park website.

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, in collaboration with Regional Oral History Office at the University of California at Berkeley, has conducted interviews with residents of the San Francisco Bay Area about their experiences during World War II.

Shenandoah National Park

Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built trails, graded roads, and built facilities in Shenandoah National Park.

National Park Service Personnel

Association of National Park Rangers

Since 2013, the Association of National Park Rangers has partnered with the Park History Program to conduct a Centennial-inspired oral history project. Interviews document how veteran Park Service personnel built careers, put policies into practice, and combined work and family life. The interviews are also contributing to leadership development among younger ANPR members.

Director Robert Stanton and Bill Clinton

NPS

Interview with George B. Hartzog

Janet A. McDonnell and William C. Everhard, Oral History Interview with George B. Hartzog Jr., Director, National Park Service, 1964-1972 (Washington, DC: National Park Service, Department of the Interior, 2007). [PDF]

Interview with Robert G. Stanton

Janet A. McDonnell, Oral History Interview with Robert G. Stanton, Director, National Park Service, 1997-2001 (Washington, DC: National Park Service, Department of the Interior, 2007). [PDF]

Interview with Robert M. Utley

Richard W. Sellars and Melody Webb, An Interview with Robert M. Utley on the History of Historic Preservation in the National Park Service, 1947-1980, Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 16 (Santa Fe, 1988).