Oral history dates to the beginnings of the University of California. Hubert Howe Bancroft conducted interviews in the 1860s in support of his 39-volume history of the West. In 1954, the Regional Oral History Office was established to conduct interviews with leading citizens of the West. In 2014 we became the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library. Over the decades, we have conducted 4,000 interviews on almost every topic imaginable. The vast majority of these interviews have been transcribed and made available online.

How to Search Our Collection

In the search box below you are welcome to search the Oral History Center collection of interview transcripts. You may search using interviewee name, interviewer name, project title, interview title, or general subject terms. Please select Advanced Search to search full text of oral histories across the entire collection, as well as other features. To browse the entire Oral History Center collection, please see the Projects page.