UC Berkeley’s library buildings are open. Here’s what you need to know.
Oral History Center
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
50
https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/Topics/bancroft-library/oral-history-center/
OHC Social Media
Using the Library during COVID-19
UC Berkeley’s library buildings are now open. To stay up to date on the Library’s policies and services during the pandemic, visit the Library’s COVID-19 webpage.
Oral History Center
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. To browse the entire Oral History Center collection, please see the Projects page.
Search the Oral History Center
News & Events
- A Good Talk with Shanna Farrell
- OHC’s October 2021 Director’s Guest Column, “The Political Significance Of Oral History: Celebrating The Renewal Of The California State Government Oral History Program,” by Todd Holmes
- John Briscoe: Ineffable San Francisco Poet, Historian, Lawyer, and Restaurateur
- Enlisting Humanity by Uplifting the Voices Who Have Gone Unheard: Undergraduate Research in Oral History
- Chew on That: A Guide to the Oral History Center’s Food and Agriculture Collection
