Early on in the development of the LVEHC, it became clear that there was a convergence of interest regarding oral history projects. The energy around oral history projects was reinforced throughout Year 1 of the grant across several events, including a 40-person Oral History Workshop hosted by Lafayette College. In order to better understand the scope of existing oral history projects in the Lehigh Valley, the LVEHC collaborated with the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) and the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium (LVRC). The LVEHC, LVAIC, and LVRC enlisted the help of a research team, featuring Kim Carrell-Smith (Lehigh University), Brian Alnutt (Northampton Community College), Susan Clemens (Muhlenberg College), and led by Cory Fischer-Hoffman (Lafayette College) to conduct a survey of existing and ongoing oral history projects across the greater Lehigh Valley area, culminating in the Lehigh Valley Oral History Directory.
For the purposes of this project, the researchers defined Oral Histories as long-form interviews with open-ended questions in which the narrator willingly gave consent to be interviewed.
The directory itself is separated into five sections:
- Oral History Collections
- Interviews of Individuals
- Possible Interviews & Collections (including missing, undocumented and unknown collections)
- Oral History projects in progress
- Findings and Recommendations based on their research
You can view the culmination of their research here: Lehigh Valley Oral History Directory
If you have any additions to the directory or questions about the directory, please contact LVEHC Coordinator Kate Pitts at pittsk@lafayette.edu.