The Oral History Archive

Muriel Godbout, Director of the Long Library from 2008 to 2013, introduced the first oral history course to the Wells College curriculum in 2012. Since that time, students across the disciplines have had the opportunity to learn oral history theory and methods and to gain hands-on experience collecting oral histories out in the field. The Oral History Archive was established in 2022 to preserve oral history research conducted by faculty, staff, and students of the College and to make this work available to other scholars and the general public. Wells College officially closed in 2024, but this archive endures.

Oral history centers the memories of everyday people and involves them in the process of writing history. This approach preserves memories of significance in the lives of people and their communities while allowing individuals to narrate the story in their own words. Individually, such memories capture one person’s sense of self and lived experience; in totality, however, an oral history collection can reveal shared understandings of identity, culture, and everyday life.