Amelia Fry interviews Helen Gahagan; both are seated at a table piled with papers, teacups, and a microphone.

Oral History Center

Recording and preserving the history of California and our interconnected world

The practice of transmitting history through oral storytelling is a feature of every culture and is as old as language itself. In the 20th century, institutions and individuals began to use recording devices to preserve and archive narratives in both recordings and transcriptions of interviews. In 1953, the Regional Oral History Office was established to conduct interviews with residents of the West. In 2014, we became the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley. Over the decades, we have conducted thousands of interviews on almost every topic imaginable. The vast majority of these interview transcripts have been made available online.

Search the Oral History Center

Search the Oral History Center collection of interview transcripts using interviewee name, interviewer name, project title, interview title, or general subject terms.

Contact

Location

Bancroft exterior
Oral History Center
The Bancroft Library
University of California MS 6000
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
510-643-2074 (fax)

This location is wheelchair accessible.