HOW AND WHERE TO LOOK IT UP
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. ©2001
William D. Theriault, Ph.D.
17434 Virginia Ave.
Hagerstown, MD 21740
WMTheriault@myactv.net
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18. Oral History
Using oral history as a research tool is more complicated than you might think. At its simplest level, an “oral history” is an interview in which the informant relates something about his or her past. The interview can be recorded in any format, with audio and video recordings being the most popular media. Although oral history has become quite popular among practitioners of local history, many of the efforts are flawed by poor interview techniques, inadequate transcription, and lack of concern for legal and ethical issues.

Interviewers should have enough background about the informant and the events that will be discussed to avoid asking naive questions. The questions posed should be neutral, avoiding any bias. Variables such as race, sex, and age can create bonds or barriers between interviewers and informants, slanting an interview in a number of ways. All of these factors will affect the historical value of an interview and should be evaluated when these materials are used for research.

Interviews are good for providing context. By showing how people felt about an event, they can provide the flesh which covers the skeleton of historical fact. They are often unreliable sources for dates, although informants may be able to associate their experiences with datable events. Interviewing other informants that experienced the same events provides additional perspective. In the end, an interview is only a record of what the informant currently remembers about the past. Transformed by time, the informant's recollection of an experience may bear little resemblance to the original event.

In general, hearsay or second-hand information gathered from interviews is of limited research value because it is outside the direct experience of the informant. Folklore research is an exception, and archeologists often use this type of information as the basis for further investigation. An aged informant may tell you that“grandaddy saw the remains of the fort when he was a boy. It was next to that stone wall...” Such information may prove to be extremely valuable when pursued.

Several excellent publications provide information on interviewing techniques, transcription, and legal issues, including:

Baum, Willa K. Transcribing and Editing Oral History. Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1987.

Brown, Cynthia Stokes. Like It Was: a Complete Guide to Writing Oral History. New York: Teachers & Writers Collaborative,1988.

Dunaway, David K. and Willa K. Baum eds. Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History in cooperation with the Oral History Association,1984.

Gluck, Sherna Berger and Daphne Patai. Women's Words: the Feminist Practice of Oral History. New York: Routledge, 1991.

Humphries, Stephen. The Handbook of Oral History: Recording Life Stories. London: Inter-Action Inprint, 1984.

Ives, Dr. Edward (Sandy). An Oral Historian's Work. The nation's first oral history instructional videotape. Available from Northeast Historic Film. P.O. Box 900, Bucksport, ME 04416. Also available at the Shepherdstown Public Library.

Jeffrey, Jaclyn and Glenace Edwall eds. Memory and History: Essays on Recalling and Interpreting Experience [essays by] Paul Thompson. [et al.]. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994. Papers presented at a conference sponsored by the Baylor University Institue for Oral History in 1988. Includes bibliographical references.

Lanman, Barry Allen and George L. Mehaffy. Oral History in the Secondary School Classroom. [Provo, UT]: Oral History Association, 1988.

Mercier, Laurie and Madeline Buckendorf. Using Oral History in Community History Projects. Oral History Association, 1992.

Neuenschwander, John A. Oral history and the Law. Oral History Association, 1993.

Oral History Association. Guidelines and Principles of the Oral History Association. Los Angeles, CA: Oral History Association, 1992.

Schorzman, Terri A (ed.) A Practical Introduction to Videohistory: The Smithsonian Institution and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Experiment. Original ed. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Pub. Co., 1993.

Shumway, Gary L. An Oral history Primer. William G. Hartley. Salt Lake City: Primer Publications, 1973.

Stephenson, Shirley E. Editing & Indexing: Guidelines for Oral History. 2nd printing (with revisions). [Fullerton]: Oral History Program, California State University, Fullerton, 1983.

Yow, Valerie Raleigh. Recording Oral History: A Practical Guide for Social Scientists. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994.

The Oral History Review: Journal of the Oral History Association. For membership information contact Jan Dodson Barhart, Executive Secretary, Oral History Association, P.O. Box 3968, Albuquerque, NM, 87190-3968.

Oral History Association Newsletter. Published by the Oral History Association. International Journal of Oral History, Westport, CT, Meckler Publishing.

Researchers who are serious about conducting oral history interviews should become familiar with these sources.

Interviews captured on audio or video media should be transcribed so that they can be easily accessed and to ensure that valuable information is preserved if the recording medium becomes unusable. Transcription can be a tedious process, requiring several hours of typing for each hour of interviewing. Informants often need to be consulted to clarify items that are non intelligible to the transcriber. Many interviews are inaccessible to researchers because transcription was never attempted.
Legal issues can prevent interviews from being used. Although the interviewer may own the medium (e.g., audio cassette or typescript) on which the interview was recorded, the informant owns the content of the interview. It is illegal to use oral history interviews without the consent of the informant, and consent forms should be completed at the end of every interviewing session.

Interviewers need to be ethical and humane when posing questions. Elderly informants may fall victim to the “just between the two of us...” approach, revealing personal information that can be devastating to relatives or associates still living. If possible, informants should have the opportunity to examine interview transcripts and make additions or corrections. Because they are interviewers, persons collecting oral history are often lumped with nosy newspaper reporters or manipulative lawyers. Letting informants read interview transcripts helps ensure that the text provides an accurate record that can be useful to future generations of historians.

Finally, the recording medium and equipment should be chosen with an eye to the interview's end use. Interviews made on many tape recorders or camcorders will not capture the fidelity needed for professional media productions. For many researchers, this is not a problem. Others may find themselves making substantial investments in equipment.

Jefferson County Oral Histories

There are three major resources for oral history in Jefferson County:

The Harpers Ferry Center Library, administered by the National Park Service at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia;

The Shepherd College Oral History Project in the Ruth Scarboro Library in Shepherdstown, West Virginia; and

The collections of the Jefferson County Oral & Visual History Association (JCOVHA), available on the Explorer Database.

The collection at the Harpers Ferry Center Library includes more than 450 interviews with long-time National Park Service employees and 130 relating to history of women in the National Park Service. Interviews with Storer College graduates also form part of the collection.

The Shepherd College Oral History Project includes interviews conducted primarily in 1990 and 1991 as part of a research effort on African American history as well as interviews related to the history of Shepherd College.

The JCOVHA materials include approximately 20 oral histories (transcribed and indexed) by William Theriault concerning Bakerton dating back to 1915, an interview with jockey Patsy Grant, and a series of interviews with West Virginia author Julia Davis. Informants include: David B. Baker, Jr., September 15, 1986; Samuel Jackson Donley, March 1, 1987, March 28, 1987; George W. Dozier, May 19, 1986; James W. Flanagan, July 23, 1985; David Gageby, March 31, 1987; Patsy Grant, July 27, 1988; Lowell Hetzel, September 1980, January 1985, June 1, 1985; Charles R. Knott, September 23, 1986, December 18, 1986; Guy M. Moler, July 8, 1985; Christine Geary Shade, May 1985; Martin Stevens, December 27, 1987; Julia Davis,
February 4, 1992, February 15, 1992, February 26, 1992, March 4, 1992, March 18, 1992, April 7, 1992, May 7, 1992; Frances Millard, April 13, 1986. The subjects included in these interviews are described in the Bibliography.

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