Introduction and Overview: Oral history, popular culture, and community memory

"Popular History", largely technology-indifferent (text, images, audio and video are all natural media), is defined by its subject matter: histories told by ordinary people rather than by professional historians, collections of cultural ephemera that tell the story of popular culture. In this unit, I shall understand the term rather broadly to include:

• oral histories / personal narratives (whether as text, as audio, as video, or some combination): highlights the first-person accounts of lived experience. These will paradigmatically be narratives that capture the memories of people still living; but might also include collections of written narratives (in diaries, letters, etc) from the remoter past. The defining criterion for inclusion is that they be personal narratives, eye-witness accounts, etc, rather than the work of professional historians.
  
• cultural ephemera (for example, old newspapers or magazines, postcards, cigarette cards, tea cards, bubblegum cards, matchbox labels, beer bottle labels, posters, theatre or concert programmes and tickets, hand-written recipes, handbills, etc)
• intangible heritage (oral traditions and expressions including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage; performing arts such as traditional music, dance and theatre; social practices, rituals and festive events; indigenous knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; traditional craftsmanship; cuisine; political, legal, moral and ethical codes and structures; traditional medicine and healing; popular beliefs, superstitions, and myths communicated orally from generation to generation).
• Finally, I'm also including under this heading instances and uses of digital storytelling in education, whether or not the stories are either eye-witness accounts or traditional tales in the ways described above. Digital storytelling can play a potent role, particularly among young learners, in building a sense of identity and belonging; consequently it can be a powerful vehicle for the representation and communication of cultural heritage.

Oral history

Who 'owns' history? Popular history, oral histories, and community memory

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What is 'oral history'? 'community memory'? and how do these differ from 'local history'?

The International Oral History Association
Based in Brazil, the International Oral History Association (IOHA), "a worldwide network of oral history scholars, professionals, and researchers", "was formally constituted in June 1996 at the Eleventh International Oral History Conference in Goteborg, Sweden. The Association provides a forum for oral historians around the world, in order to foster international communication and cooperation and a better understanding of the nature and value of oral history. The Association meets every two years in a different region or continent". It publishes an oral history journal, Words and Silences, and continues to organise the International Oral History Conference every two years.
» http://www.ioha.fgv.br/ioha/english/index.html


The Oral History Society (UK).
From its web site:

• "The Oral History Society is a national and international organisation dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral history.
• It encourages people of all ages to tape, video or write down their own and other people's life stories.
• It offers practical support and advice about how to get started, what equipment to use, what techniques are best, how to look after tapes, and how to make use of what you have collected.
• In conjunction with the British Library National Sound Archive, it also holds one-day oral history training courses.
• The Society's members come from all backgrounds with different occupations and interests but share a common love of the past.
• Through twice-yearly journals and conferences it brings together a network of individuals and local groups from all over Britain and Europe to share ideas, problems and solutions.Recent successful oral history conferences have examined topics such as cinema, health, sport, religion, broadcasting, politics, migration and the lives of women."

Making Sense of Oral History

How are oral histories collected?

The Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History

US Army Guide to Oral History

A guide to editing videos

• software
• Linux:Jahshaka, Kino, Lives, Cinelerra
  
• Mac OS X: iMovie, Final Cut (Pro and Express), Jahshaka, Cinelerra
  
• Windows XP/Vista: Windows Movie Maker, Jahshaka

Examples of 'popular history' and oral histories.

Telling Lives (BBC)
The BBC claims to have "created the world's biggest archive of digital stories". Very slick; but with the professionalism comes a loss of spontaneity. From the web site:
"A digital story is a short film made from a script that tells a personal story illustrated with pictures from your photo album. The films are produced in workshops in which all the skills are taught. Everybody has a story to tell and anyone can learn the techniques. Discover how to write a script and use new technology to turn it into a short piece of television.
Each workshop begins with storytelling. Exploring ways of telling stories is an exciting and engaging process. Up to ten people in each workshop participate in games to discover words and how to put them into a script. Inside your collection of photos and memorabilia are pictures that hold fascinating stories. Put the pictures and script together in a laptop computer with editing software and you have a film."
» http://www.bbc.co.uk/tellinglives/


Moving here: 200 years of migration in England
"Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It offers free access, for personal and educational use, to an online catalogue of versions of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums. Moving Here gives visitors to the site the opportunity to publish their own experience of migration."
» http://www.movinghere.org.uk

Refugee Stories.
"The Refugee Community History Project has collected the previously untold stories of refugees who have settled in London since 1951 in order to highlight the enormous contributions they make to the city. Refugees flee to foreign countries, like the UK, because of persecution in their home country, or because of a well-founded fear of persecution. This may be because of a refugee's race, religion, nationality, social group, political opinion, or as a result of war. This major initiative to record refugees' first hand experiences for current and future generations to explore ran from June 2004 to April 2007. Over 150 refugees from 15 different groups have taken part. This web site contains sections--both audio and text--of those refugees' stories." Listen, for example, to Zaim Pasic's story.
» http://www.refugeestories.org

The Immigrants Project
"An Oral History Project that tells the stories of people from all over the world who came to settle in Reading. The stories and experiences of people who came to settle in Reading were collected in a series of interviews which took place in 2006. Those interviewed gave their time freely and generously so that we can hear them talking about their lives and how and why they came to Reading, UK."Themes include: childhood and children's identity, community, family values, racism, self sufficiency, and 'where home is'.
» http://www.theimmigrantsproject.org




Sam the Wheels
"Sam the Wheels is a participatory video and web project, which explores the heritage of Brixton, inspired by unique film footage of Brixton shot between the 1960's and 1980's by Clovis Salmon, a first generation Jamaican immigrant who arrived in London in 1950. Clovis is a 78 year old ex Pentecostal minister, locally known as 'Sam The Wheels', due to to his work building wheels at Holdsworth Cycles."
» http://www.samthewheels.co.uk
» http://www.theanthillsocial.co.uk/projects/sam-wheels

Angel Radio
Angel Radio is first and foremost a nostalia "radio for old people, by old people", playing music from the years 1900 to 1959. Select Oral History from the left sidebar menu.
"Angel Radio's oral history archive is not just the memories of local people spoken into a microphone. Our oral history programmes are educational, memory jogging, and entertaining. The conversation takes the form of a fireside chat in the home of an Angel Radio listener. The conversation is basically a chronological tour of the subject's life, starting with a memory tour of their grandparent's house and the local area. Shops, schools, dance halls, churches, factories, working conditions, entertainment and recreation, the war, courtship, marriage and housing conditions, may all crop up during the chat.
The music of the day is added during the editing process."
» http://angelradio.co.uk


Belonging: voices of London’s refugees
A Museum of London multimedia exhibition. "Being a refugee is devastating and traumatic. Refugees face huge challenges when building new lives in London and their achievements are hard won. Yet they make enormous contributions to the capital. They help to shape the city we know today. This website does not provide a history of refugees in London. Instead it shares the voices, memories and successes of people who have found refuge in the capital. All have certain experiences and concerns in common, but each person’s story is unique. They offer different perspectives on being a refugee, on London, and on what it means to belong."
» http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Community/Belonging/


Tales of three generations of Bengalis in the UK: Bengali Oral History Project
"There are approximately 300,000 Bengalis currently living in the UK. Not much history of those Bengalis who settled in the UK currently exists (except two books written by Caroline Adams & Yousuf Chowdhury). Many of the first settlers are now elderly (sadly some have already passed away) and their memories and experiences are being lost as their testimonies have not been recorded and preserved. Many young Bengalis do not know the history of their elders and cannot easily access information related to Bengali community. The project aims to preserve the memories and experiences of the elders before this loss. The project will offer unique opportunity to Bengali young people to research, document and celebrate Bengali heritage & history by recording the experience of three generation Bengalis in the UK. Interviews (interviews will be translated into Bengali or vice versa) will be recorded on audio (and if possible on video), materials (including photographs) will be used for exhibition, publication (including learning packs for schools) and website."
» http://www.swadhinata.org.uk/oralhistory.htm


The National Museum of African American History & Culture Memory Book at the Smithsonian Institution.
"Often America is celebrated as a place that forgets. This museum seeks to help all Americans remember, and by remembering, this institution will stimulate a dialogue about race and help to foster a spirit of reconciliation and healing.
There are four pillars upon which this museum will stand. The first is to create an opportunity for those that care about or who are interested in African American culture to explore and revel in this history. ... Equally important is the opportunity to help all Americans see just how central African American history is for all of us. This is not a museum that celebrates black history solely for black Americans. Rather we see this history as America's history. NMAAHC will use African American history and culture as a lens into what it means to be an American. ... Additionally, NMAAHC will use African American culture as a means to help all Americans see how their stories, their histories, and their cultures are shaped and informed by international considerations. ... And finally, as a 21st century institution, NMAAHC must be a place of collaboration. We must be a truly national museum that reaches beyond Washington to engage new audiences and to collaborate with the myriad of museums and educational institutions that have explored and preserved this important history well before this museum was created. Collaboration is one of the core values of this museum."
» http://www.nmaahc.si.edu
» http://www.nmaahc.si.edu/section/get_involved/view/76


The National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP) Oral History Archive.
"The National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP), a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, unites generations to create tomorrow's leaders by recording, preserving, and distributing through various media, the wisdom of extraordinary African American elders - Visionaries - who have shaped American history. Some of these elders are nationally recognized leaders, who are interviewed on videotape by NVLP's co-founders and board members. Other Visionary elders, known primarily in their local communities, are selected and interviewed by NVLP college Fellows. All of this invaluable primary source material is accessible worldwide on the NVLP website, and permanently archived at the Library of Congress, allowing students, scholars and the public to gain a whole new understanding of this country's past, and the lessons to be learned from it."
» http://www.visionaryproject.org/videos/index.asp


The Digital Memory Box at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, South Africa"The Soweto ’76 Digital Memory Box uses electronic multimedia to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital records of those students who took part in the Uprisings of 1976. The Soweto ’76 Digital Memory Box contributes to the ongoing effort by South African historians and archivists to preserve the record of Black townships by collecting first-hand accounts, on-scene images, and blog postings. The Museum hopes to foster positive legacies by allowing former students still living in Soweto, and elsewhere, to tell their stories in their own words. These stories will become a part of the historical record and will remain accessible to a wide audience for generations to come."
» http://soweto76archive.org/archive/memorybox/





King's Cross Voices
"Since 2004, the King's Cross Voices oral history project has been working with community members and local partners to record people's memories and unique life experiences of the King's Cross area. ... the King's Cross Voices recordings are a vital historical record of the life and times of ‘the Cross’ as the physical reminders are forever changed, and as the composition of present communities are likely to be altered irrevocably. All the interviews reflect the enormous range of occupations, communities and characters that have made King’s Cross such an intriguing and well-known, yet until now, undocumented part of central London.The voices in the archive include teachers, shopkeepers, publicans, policemen, students, squatters, housewives, social workers, builders, actors, artists, campaigners, politicians, prostitutes, factory workers, cleaners, office workers and, vitally, a whole range of occupations within the railway industry which has been the epicentre of the area for the past 150 years or so."
» http://www.kingscrossvoices.org.uk

The Front Room"In association with Michael McMillan, Iniva presents The Front Room interactive website, live from October 2007. This fantastic resource for all ages looks at the common space of the front room and the different ways it's used and presented across diverse cultures.The website will let you visit other people's front rooms or living rooms online, find out a little about these spaces and how they're used. You can even return the gesture and invite others to your front room. Send us a photograph and let us know what your front room means to you, what you feel it says about you and how you use it. It's an opportunity for you and your front room to become part of this project!" The web project is based on a 2005-6 exhibition at the Geffrye Museum that explores "the essence of homes created by post-WWII immigrants who have come from the Caribbean to Britain since the 1960s. The central focus of the show will be an installation by writer and guest curator Michael McMillan which represents his vision of the traditional ‘West Indian’ front room, drawn from memories of his parents’ and relatives’ homes in the 1960s and1970s. Special attention has been given to the choices people made in furnishing their front room, the symbolism of particular objects and the links between objects and personal identity. Michael's evocation of a typical ‘West Indian’ front room includes a range of possessions popular in African-Caribbean homes at the time and which he believes had special resonance for their owners. His rich recollection of being a young boy in his parents’ front room describes some of these objects and evokes the textures, smells and sounds of that East London home:"
» http://www.thefrontroom.org


Trace
"Trace was a participant-led oral history project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, thatworked with young people at Key Stage 3 (11 – 15 years old) from Bethnal Green Technology College, a secondary school in Tower Hamlets. The project team of young people researched and collected oral histories from different generations, including their own, on what it means to be young and to grow up in Tower Hamlets. Along the way they learnt and put into practice teamwork, project management, research, and creative problem solving skills. Trace ran from April 2007 to March 2008. Highlights of the young people’s activities include:

• They collected oral histories from people from the ages of 92 to 11, visiting local history groups, public library user groups, and youth groups.
• They have interviewed former MP Tony Benn about how politics affect young people.
• They have been advised by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News on interviewing tips.
• They have visited Jack Petchey, the self-made millionaire and philanthropist fromEast London.
• They have visited archive services to conduct primary research and have assisted in the filming of the documentary of the Trace project.
• They have examined their own identity as young East Londoners"

» http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwCDYaBVyE
» http://www.toynbeehall.org.uk/page.asp?section=00010001000100020006&pagetitle=Trace


Center for Digital Storytelling
"The Center for Digital Storytelling is a California-based non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization rooted in the art of personal storytelling. We assist people of all ages in using the tools of digital media to craft, record, share, and value the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve all our lives.
Many individuals and communities have used the term 'digital storytelling' to describe a wide variety of new media production practices. What best describes our approach is its emphasis on personal voice and facilitative teaching methods. Many of the stories made in our workshops are directly connected to the images collected in life's journey. But our primary concern is encouraging thoughtful and emotionally direct writing."
» http://www.storycenter.org

Timewitnesses
Personal memories of the Second World War. Text-only; though many stories available in 3 languages (English, French, German). "Many of the young people who lived during World War Two are still alive. Time has healed the wounds on both sides, but some of those survivors want to be sure that the lessons of the past will be learned by a new generation. We invite you to share these extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Schools may download them and use them as source material in classroom discussions about the events of those years."
» http://timewitnesses.org

Sea Your History, Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth
A museum of the Royal Navy in the 20th century. "What is it like when your loved ones serve in the navy? Listen to the experiences of their families." "Find out how naval medical staff care for sick and injured personnel at sea and ashore." "How was the Mary Rose raised? Listen to some of the people who did it." "Hear how the Navy's use of technology changed during the twentieth century." Select the 'Oral History Gallery' tab from the menu bar.
"The Oral History gallery is your unique chance to hear first hand from people who have lived and worked with the sea in the twentieth century. Discover what it is like for women to serve at sea, find out about diving on the wreck of the Mary Rose and uncover the truth about what it is like to be in a naval family."
» http://www.seayourhistory.org.uk/component/option,com_rnm_ohhomepage/Itemid,49/

The Wartime Memories Project and Web Quest
»http://www.wartimememories.co.uk

"What Did You Do In The War, Grandma?"
"An Oral History of Rhode Island Women during World War II"
"What Did You Do in the War, Grandma? was developed and produced at South Kingston High School by Linda Wood, an oral historian, and the school's librarian. The interviews were conducted and recorded in the Spring of 1989 with the support of a grant from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities."
"Oral history is a unique way to learn about past events and experiences. It is a method which probes memory, evokes emotions and feelings which have long been dormant, and creates a relationship between narrator and interviewer which is often a very special one. The information can be dramatic when the narrator is an older woman, perhaps a grandmother, and the interviewer is a young teenager whose assignment is to find out about a war that began before most teenagers' parents were born." A collection of 26 transcripts of interviews, conducted by American High School students, revealing woman's lives and experiences during World War II. Although the sitedocuments a project from 1989, on a web site last updated in 1997, it remains an interesting example of oral history embedded in a specific community with a clear focus.
» http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/tocCS.html

Profile of Bengal: "Evidence of Participants & Eye witness accounts (Oral History)"
"There was a war in the country at that time. I was living in my father-in-law’s home. My husband was a very well known person of this village. He was very brave and powerful. One day we heard that Hindu homes would be looted. Then my husband started to guard our village at night along with some other villagers. There was quite a few with him. They did it for about a month. But they couldn’t prevent looting. Suddenly some people started looting our village. In our house there were 3 or 4 grain storage rooms with sacks of paddy and rice. We had a lot of furniture, crockery, pots and pans; everything that a family needs. We had a cowshed with 30/35 cows and 2 ponds, whatever was needed for a full family. We were about 35/36 family members. They looted every single piece of belonging we had." A collection of thirty transcripts of interviews with Bangladeshi's who witnessed first hand the events throughout 1970 and 1971 that led to the emergence of Bangladesh as a nation.
» http://www.profile-bengal.com/evidenceofparticipants.html


Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: Collecting and Preserving the Stories of Katrina and Rita
"The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ... the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank contributes to the ongoing effort by historians and archivists to preserve the record of these storms by collecting first-hand accounts, on-scene images, blog postings, and podcasts. We hope to foster some positive legacies by allowing the people affected by these storms to tell their stories in their own words, which as part of the historical record will remain accessible to a wide audience for generations to come."
» http://hurricanearchive.org




Centre for Popular Memory and archive (South Africa)
"The physical archive houses over 2000 hours of audio and video. It includes text transcripts, images, biographical notes, collection summaries, metadata, narrative summaries and interview logs." The onlineWhat we do page, then go to the Online Archive (you'll need to register--it's free--to see the archives) and select a collection. The interface on the page you are then taken to may be confusing, presenting you with a search box when you've probably no idea what on earth you might be searching for, so your best strategy for accessing the collection is by clicking 'Subject', top right in the menu bar, and browsing the list it returns. All the documents--transcripts of interviews--are in PDF format. Note that many of the transcripts are in languages such as Xhosa or Afrikaans. Click here or here for typical examples in English archive, however, contains only the text transcripts. First read the .

Eye Witness to History
"Your ringside seat to history-from the Ancient World to the present. History through the eyes of those who lived it". Contemporaneous accounts, mostly eye-witness accounts, of events in history from the dawn of writing to the present day. Not exclusively the observations and narratives of 'ordinary people', but very few from professional writers.
» http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com

WW2 People's War

Hidden Histories (Southampton)
"Hidden Histories makes accessible some of the highs and lows of Southampton's 20th Century history, the glory of great ships and journeys as well as the disasters and long forgotten tales. Street Radio is a totally new way of experiencing the city. The system utilises wireless communication technologies such as WIFI and Bluetooth in combination with FM radio to create captive ‘puddles’ where particular stories and themes can be heard. By broadcasting using very weak radio transmitters a selection of stories from the Oral History Unit can be heard along 10 nodal points (locations) from where byte-sized stories are transmitted. These nodes link together to form a media rich walk that transports people through the changing life of the city."
» http://hiddenhistories.org.uk



Kelvin Grove Urban Village (Queensland, Australia) Sharing Stories project

Oral History collections at the British Library

Ephemera

The Authentic History Center
"The Authentic History Center is comprised of artifacts and sounds from American popular culture. It was created to teach that the everyday objects in society have authentic historical value and reflect the social consciousness of the era that produced them. Authentic also means conforming to fact, and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief. To meet this definition by presenting an authentic interpretation of American history is our ultimate goal. When a collection is whole enough to be considered an authentic representation of the sources produced about an historical event, they are presented via interpretive essay. Until then, incomplete collections are presented as digital archives without comment for individual study. Additionally, a large audio archive of speeches and news broadcasts are presented for students to experience a level of historical authenticity distinct from written sources. The Authentic History Center is an ambitious work-in-progress and always will be."
» http://www.authentichistory.com

Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America
This one is disturbing; yet importantly documents (as you'll see from the quoted text that follows) a dark period of very recent US history that is too easily forgotten. "Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book Without Sanctuary by Twin Palms Publishers . Features will be added to this site over time and it will evolve into an educational tool."
» http://www.withoutsanctuary.org

Intangible heritage

The 'intangible cultural heritage' means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.
Article 2, Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Paris, 17 October 2003

Further resources and readings:

Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO)
This is a very important resource: with its extensive documenation and numerous examples, you should consider this your primary authority on intangible heritage.
» http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php

Intangible Heritage
Another UNESCO site, with links to, inter alia, 'Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity'.
» http://portal.unesco.org/culture/ ... URL_SECTION=201.html

The International Journal of Intangible Heritage
"The International Journal of Intangible Heritage is a refereed academic and professional English language journal dedicated to the promotion of the understanding of all aspects of the intangible heritage of the world, and the communication of research and examples of good professional practice. This web site aims to provide online space for sharing various ideas and concerns in the intangible heritage field at an international level. Visitors also can download or browse the Journal's article(s) in portable document format(PDF)."
» http://www.ijih.org

Museums and Intangible Heritage: the International Committee for Museums of Ethnography (ICME) Papers from the ICOM 2004 General Conference, Seoul, Korea, October 2-8, 2004.
A heterogeneous collection of interesting papers from the 2004 conference.
» http://www.museumsnett.no/icme/icme2004/index.html

Conference proceedings of Constructing and sharing memory: Community informatics, identity and empowerment, October 9-11, 2006, Monash Centre, Prato, Italy.
A conference on the themes of culture, oral histories, identity, representation, social remembering, metadata, archives, etc. Since a number of papers are of interest, I cite the proceedings rather than individual papers.
» http://www.ccnr.net/prato2006/archive/index.html

Langlais, D. (2005). 'Cybermuseology & Intangible Heritage', Proceedings of the 4th Annual Intersections conference, York University and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, March 18-20, 2005
"can cybermuseology presents more than images of objects? Can the knowledge of localised cultural heritage be transferred without loosing the context it stems from? More specifically, can ICTs transfer tacit knowledge, human experience, and tangible cultural heritage, and if so, what can we learn from this new process of cultural codification? By addressing these issues, this presentation shall conclude that whether tacit knowledge can be transmitted or not by ICTs, tangible cultural heritages is a manifestation of the intangible, defined by the UNESCO as: “forms of popular and traditional expression - such as languages, oral literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, customs and craftwork…” In 2004, intangible heritage has been made a priority by UNESCO, as a way to preserve and communicate the living knowledge societies create."
» http://www.yorku.ca/topia/docs/conference/Langlais.pdf

Kolgen, S. & Ann Laenen, A. (no date) 'How to open up our intangible cultural heritage in a digital age?'
"Abstract: Before reflecting on possible ways to preserve our intangible heritage for the future it useful to frame the subject. Once defined, this lecture looks at the current possibilities offered by the Information Society as well as the challenges that will be met when opening up this heritage towards the wider community and saving it for the future."
» http://www.kandl.be/archief/mayo.doc

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICMOS) Documentation Centre bibliography of intangible heritage.
» http://www.international.icomos.org/centre_documentation/intangible.pdf

Smithsonian Folkways
"Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. We believe that musical and cultural diversity contributes to the vitality and quality of life throughout the world. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials we seek to strengthen people's engagement with their own cultural heritage and to enhance their awareness and appreciation of the cultural heritage of others. Our mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document 'people's music', spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways commitment to cultural diversity, education, increased understanding, and lively engagement with the world of sound."
» http://www.folkways.si.edu

Popular histories in education

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling, at the University of Houston.
Start by looking at some of the examples.

Using Oral History in teaching