Oral History Collection

Oral histories are stories that living individuals tell about their past, or about the past of other people. Gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events is oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.

The Lawrence History Center began conducting oral histories in 1978 using tape recorders. Our collection currently includes approximately 700 audio tapes that have now been digitally mastered, some with eyewitness accounts going as far back as the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike. Interviews cover a variety of subjects (e.g., military services, immigration, schools, churches, neighborhoods, labor, clubs & organizations, social services, family and civic life, and urban renewal).

• Access to our Oral History Collection

  • The entire collection is available to researchers online HERE.
     
    • Subset of interviews with Latinos
       
    • Explorations in Oral History: Post Second World War Immigrant Voices Lawrence, Massachusetts
       

  Please contact Amita Kiley, amita@lawrencehistory.org, with questions.
   

• Remote Oral History: Physically Distanced. Socially Connected.  
  • Lawrence Community Diary (COVID-19 Pandemic 2020)
     
• Nosotros, el pueblo: Voces de la Ciudad de Inmigrantes / We, the People: Voices of the Immigrant City: The blog "We, the People: Voices of the Immigrant City" is the result of a complex but vibrant collaboration between youths and adults who are committed to community development and to the idea that one, single story does not define a place.
   
• 100 Stories for 100 Years: Collecting Centennial Memories of the Feast of the Three Saints