An A-to-Z of Oral History at Columbia | A is for…the Addicts Who Survived Collection by David Courtwright

  An A-to-Z of Oral History at Columbia is a monthly posting featuring the people, events, and organizations in the Oral History Archive at Columbia’s collections, as well as behind-the-scenes info about oral history methodology.   Collection title: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection, 1978-1984 Interview contents: Narrators typically discuss their family history, their introduction […]

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Spring Curatorial Shorts

This spring, join RBML’s curators for another full slate of short talks! We began on February 6 with Kimberly Springer (Curator for Oral History) in conversation with New York City poet and author Kurt Boone about the oral histories he conducted with family members experiencing mass incarceration. On March 27, Michelle Margolis and Dani Rabner will talk […]

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Event | Intoxicating the Archive – Preserving Narcotic Heritage and including Marginalized Voices in Collections and Libraries

  “Intoxicating the Archive” critically explores how the memories and struggles of people who use drugs and those of other marginalized and/or activist groups in history are represented in archives, museums, and collective memory at large. While often being invisible at first, drug cultures have left traces in many archives and collections. However, finding and […]

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Collection Highlight | Meddlesome Practices in the Continental Group Project

  by Kimberly Springer, Curator for Oral History Spanning seventy years of the Continental Can Company, oral histories with 226 employees illustrate the type of research and practice the Oral History Research Office (OHRO) conducted for many of its own formative years. Major companies would contract with the OHRO to conduct interviews about its history […]

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Collection Highlight | Meddlesome Practices: Oral Histories of Good Troublemaking in Business

A decade earlier, in his book The Gateway to History (1962), Nevins proposed reinvigorating historical study by making, To this end, Nevins conducted scores of interviews. A particularly illuminating example of both the oral history process and historical sources created would be the experience he and Frank Ernest Hill had creating an oral history project […]

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