I took eight history majors into Philadelphia today for Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Fall Workshop: “Conducting and Preserving Oral Histories.” We pulled out of Grantham at 5:45, fought traffic on the Schuykill Expressway, and got into the city around 8:15.
I parked our van much too far away from the Chemical Heritage Foundation, which meant that we had to walk several city blocks in the rain. When we all arrived we were soaked. A few students did not have umbrellas, so they were REALLY soaked. I must have been splashed by about three cars in the frantic walk through the city. My pants were wet all morning.
We did, however, manage to get to 315 Chestnut on time. The presentation by David Caruso, program manager for oral history at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, was excellent. We learned about how to prepare for an oral history interview, how to conduct an oral history interview, how to handle the legal issues involved in oral history, how to purchase oral history equipment, and how to preserve oral history interviews.
Some of my students already had some oral history experience, while others wanted to get some training in this field so that they could conduct research for their honors theses or supplement their studies in public history. Two of the students on the trip work for the Greenwich Tea Burning Project. With this training they are ready to take on new responsibilities in this area.
Senior Messiah College history major Christine Kelly summed up the day quite well with this Facebook post:
today proved a worthwhile adventure. Waking up at 4:45 am + sloshing through a wet Philadelphia after a determined Dr. Fea + history major friends + good stuff on oral history + Chinese food = awesome. We might have been able to skip the 4:45 am part, but feeling slightly jet lagged all day was part of the experience.
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