History Primary Resources

World's largest collection of US diplomatic oral histories. Since 1986, the Foreign Affairs Oral History Program of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) has recorded more than 2500 interviews with former participants in the U.S. foreign affairs process. Collectively, these oral histories span over 80 years. About 60 new interviews are added annually. The series also contains some significant oral histories dealing with American diplomacy, which were provided by universities and presidential libraries.

Project by UNC Chapel Hill, collection of over 500 interviews. Racial integration, environmental issues, industrialization, politics, and women's rights are all collections within project.

Since 1973, the Ellis Island Oral History project has been dedicated to preserving the first-hand recollections of immigrants who passed through the Ellis Island immigration station between 1892 and 1954 and the employees who worked there.

A list of oral history collections from historical societies, university archives, museums, etc.

The oral history program provides a vivid picture of the inner workings of Congress during some of the most influential times in our country’s modern history. Divided into four categories, these interviews discuss the people, events, institutions, and objects of the ever-evolving House of Representatives.

The Rutgers Oral History Archives records the personal narratives of: Men and women (either New Jersey residents and/or Rutgers University alumni, faculty or staff) who served on the home front and overseas during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the nation's most recent conflicts; People with a story to tell about some aspect of New Jersey's proud history, its towns and cities, its diverse populations, organizations within the Garden State and/or social/cultural movements and events.

The Oral History Collection includes approximately 1000 hours of interviews with Smithsonian administrators, scholars, craftsmen and craftswomen, and technical staff, volunteers and visitors. Oral History Program staff provide expert advice on oral history techniques and methods.

Former Slaves Tell Their Stories: almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom.