Browse by Category
Tips & How-To's
The gift of a lifetime
Oral histories and family histories allow future generations to know their ancestors
By Don Ray | October,2008
Pauline Clark had been waiting, alone and anxious, for this moment. Her new gas stove had just been installed. She reached down for the porcelain-covered handle and gave it a cautious turn to the right. First nothing happened. Then she heard a low rumble that grew louder and louder—as if a freight train were rounding the corner from the living room and heading straight for the kitchen. Things began to shake. Knickknacks and cooking utensils jumped from the wall and crashed down onto the counter. Pauline tried to run but couldn’t. The whole room was shifting back and forth.
It was March 10, 1933
Meanwhile, Pauline’s Husband, Lee, was trapped in another room, unable to open the door. When the shaking finally stopped, Lee and his son went outside—where they saw the damage done by a major earthquake that was centered 20 miles away in Long Beach. Moments later his wife ran outside and said to the, “Boy! That’s some stove!”
That’s how the late Lee Clark told the story of the Long Beach earthquake to his grandson, David L. Clark. The younger Clark, a Los Angeles historian and author, uses recollections like those of his grandfather to piece together the history of common people—a history that would otherwise vanish with each passing generation. The process is rapidly finding its place alongside conventional historical methods.
“History is generally written for, by and about winners,” says Clark. “Seldom is there a different perspective. But oral histories shift interest to non-elite groups.” In his book Los Angeles: A City Apart, he uses information obtained from dozens of oral-history projects his students at UCLA have done over the past eight years. The result is a rare glimpse at the lifestyles, goals and crises of the people who assembled in what would one day become a leading metropolis.
Oral histories, of course, are as old a method of record keeping as history itself. But it wasn’t until the late 1940s that they became a part of academia—first at Columbia University and later at Berkeley. Today there are oral-history programs of some sort at most colleges and universities.
But after more than 30 years of consistent use, there are still historians who criticize the whole concept. Why? The main argument concerns the reliability of the human memory. The critics say you just can’t trust the information.
“That’s balderdash,” says Clark, who is quick to point out that traditional written documents are just as likely to be flawed as the verbal account. He went through written mountains of personal correspondence, minutes of meetings and other documents relating to the early history of UCLA—and says he found a number of cases of intentional misinformation. “People,” in short, “were lying,” he says.
Those in the oral-history field agree that spoken accounts compiled with conventional methods provide a complete and accurate history. Dr. Lawrence de Graas, one-time director of the oral-history program at Cal State Fullerton, points out that although modern technology has provided us with the tape recorder to preserve the spoken word, it has also done its part in eliminating much of the written word. “The average person doesn’t keep the sort of written records that historians have traditionally used—be they diaries, estate papers or minutes,” he says. “You just don’t find Joe Dokes neatly keeping those as a general rule. Either you don’t write that man’s history at all or you have to go to the oral interview.”
Years ago, personal experiences were recorded in longhand and sent to friends and relative. Today, the telephone delivers the stories so efficiently that personal letter writing is becoming a lost art. Modern transportation has also had a effect: Travelers of the past had the time to write lengthy trail journals—diaries that would paint a vivid picture of a lengthy westward movement or an Atlantic crossing. Today’s travelers have time only to jot a few notes on the back of their airline tickets or they jot things down for electronic transmissions -- things that will vanish into Cyberspace.
For those reasons, academic historians began systematically interviewing members of previous generations. At UCLA, a team of professional interviewers began in 1959 recording biographies of prominent scholars, artists, politicians, moviemakers and the people who were involved with bringing water to Los Angeles. The UCLA Special Collections Library houses hundreds interviews ranging in length from 12 to 70 hours; the tapes are all transcribed and edited for accuracy before being indexed and bound.
The oral-history program at Cal State Fullerton serves another purpose. Rather than simply gather and store material, it uses oral histories as an instructional tool. Students are trained in oral-history techniques and are then sent out to interview selected people for projects focusing on such subjects as Indian urbanization, the uranium industry, Japanese relocation during World War II, acquaintances of Richard Nixon and community histories.
With today's technology, just about anyone can use a consumer-grade, mini-DV camera to record an oral history interview with a loved one. Most people, however, lack the skills to create the kind of quality videos that will stand up to the test of time. Also, it's usually better to have an outsider -- a stranger -- conduct the interview. Grandpa is more likely to tell detailed stories to someone he knows has never heard the story before. And, many times there are skeletons in a family closet that some seniors are reluctant to tell a family member -- camera or no camera.
People will spend tens of thousands of dollars for a loved-one's funeral services. More and more family members are deciding to invest some of that money -- before they lose the loved one -- by hiring a professional oral historian to conduct an interview that the person's great, great, great-grandchildren will one day be able to pass onto their own great-grandchildren
Everybody has recollections and memories that are of value to future generations, but it’s easy to put off collecting them. As David Clark explains it to his students; “In oral history, you’re working in a library that’s burning down. You have to work fast, because when these people go, the memories go with them.”
Aside from surviving the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, Clark’s grandfather had ridden on a horse with Buffalo Bill and had traded oil wells for used-car lots, says the younger Clark. But back when his grandfather was in his 90s, Clark had still not sat down to conduct an interview. “N,. I haven’t done that yet—which I obviously should do," he told a reporter. Everybody says that—because everybody always assumes that people will live forever.”
Don Ray is a multimedia producer/writer/reporter/author who has interviewed thousands of people throughout his 35 years in the profession. He has worked for NBC, CBS, PBS and other networks as a producer, reporter, camera operator and researcher.
