Whitman College oral history collection

Collection

Identifier: WCA-023

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The majority of the materials in this collection are cassette tapes and accompanying transcripts and release forms. The tapes contain interviews that date primarily between 1990 and 1998. Those interviewed range from college administrators and faculty to alumni and friends of the college

Oral histories conducted for Professor King’s class focus on Walla Walla during the Great Depression. Interviewees for Dodd’s and Edwards’s projects are asked about their individual background, their Whitman experience, and important events which occurred while they were involved with the College.

Dates

Creation: 1960-1999

Biographical / Historical

The Oral History Collection consists primarily of interviews conducted for the two Whitman College oral history projects. The first oral history project was started in the early 1970s by Professor Donald King of the history department as a means of teachings students a different historical method. The project was carried out by students in oral history classes. The class, taught primarily by Professor King, was offered until 1976. The main topic of the class was Walla Walla during the Great Depression. Some students continued to work independently on oral histories into the early 1980s.

In 1990, College Archivist Larry Dodd oversaw a second major oral history project. This project was initiated to gather information for a general history of the college and supported research for a the two-volume history of the college authored by Professor G. Thomas Edwards. This project received $12,000 from the Board of Overseers to purchase tape recorders and tapes; interviews were conducted by alumni volunteers. Before beginning their interviews, volunteers received training from Professor King on conducting oral history interviews and were given an orientation to the history of the college by Professor Edwards. The program ended in 1999.

In addition to material from these two projects, the collection contains additional interviews conducted by Professor Edwards for his history of the college and a few other contemporary college-related oral histories.