Oral History as a Tool in Archival Development
James E. Fogerty
Minnesota Historical Society
Few records contain thorough documentation of all phases of the operations of an organization or of the life of an individual. This is especially true for those important phases during which the organization dealt with major alterations in its operations, or an individual’s impact was most clearly evident.
Even those periods of time in which the records appear most complete will usually be found wanting; the documents seldom adequately reflect the considerations that contributed to key decisions and very rarely betray candid opinions of events and people with whom the principal actors worked. Collections of personal papers are especially weak in the information they provide on the formative years of their donors - years that often hold the keys to perceptions that influenced their subsequent actions. Even correspondence does not always betray the author’s inner thoughts, and it may, depending upon the intent behind it, be quite misleading to the researcher.
In these and related instances oral history can be seen as a necessary component in the process of documentation, rather than as the luxury it often appears to be. Without properly conducted oral history interviews, the papers of a politician or the records of a business may lack highly significant perspectives that do not appear in either the paper or electronic record. Oral history interviews can document current events in a manner that traditional archival collecting cannot, and these interviews can help deal with the modern paper mountain and its paucity of hard data.
Political papers and corporate records constitute a major portion of the archival collection in the Minnesota Historical Society. The Society’s holdings include the papers of two United States vice presidents, a number of U.S. cabinet members, and several U.S. ambassadors – in addition to the papers of virtually all of the state’s senators and congressmen. The corporate collections are among the largest in the United States, and include the records of 3M, Northwest Airlines, International Multifoods, American Crystal Sugar, Bemis, and more than 200 other corporations. It is the experience of dealing with the political papers and corporate records that led to the conclusion that oral history is a vital, critical component of archival development.
This same conclusion holds true as well for efforts to document Minnesota’s many communities – especially those whose members have arrived in the state within the past thirty years. If one is to have any reliable record – or indeed, any record at all beyond census statistics – on the Hispanic, Asian-Indian, Hmong, Cambodian, Somali, or Bosnian communities that comprise an ever- increasing part of the state’s population, one must employ oral history as a documentary tool of major importance. And with the decreasing percentage of substantive information contained in records – both paper and electronic – one must rely increasingly upon the use of oral history as a principal strategy in documentation.
Sources
- Jean-Pierre Wallot and Normand Fortier, “Archival Science and Oral Sources”, The Oral History Reader (London, 1998).
- James E. Fogerty, “Filling the Gap: Oral History in the Archives”, The American Archivist 46, 2, (Spring, 1983).
- Fogerty, “The Rising Tide and the Bottom Line: Archives and the Records of Business”, Business Records and Business History: Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Danish National Business Archives (Aarhus: 1998).
- Fogerty, “Facing Reality: Oral History, Corporate Culture and the Documentation of Business”, The Records of American Business (Chicago, 1997).
- Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History (New York, 1995).
James E. Fogerty
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Boulevard West
St. Paul, MN 55102
USA
Tel : 651.296.9989
Fax : 651.296.9961
E.mail : james.fogerty@mnhs.org
Head, Acquisitions and Curatorial Department, Minnesota Historical Society (1986-).
Professional Service:
Society of American Archivists:
- Council, 1989-1992.
- Executive Committee, 1992.
International Council on Archives:
- Member, Committee on Audiovisual Archives, 1986-1992.
- Chair, Committee on Oral Sources, 1992-1997.
- Member, Section on Business and Labor Archives, 1996- .
Oral History Association:
- Council, 1997-2000.
Conferences/Meetings:
- More than 100 papers presented at professional conferences.
Selected Publications:
- “Oral History: A Guide to Its Creation and Use.” In The Historical Ecology Handbook (Washington, 2001).
- “Balancing the Content and the Container: Defining the Role of Artifacts in the Digital Age.” Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services (24; 2000).
- Editor: Special Issue on Archives and Business Records. The American Archivist (Winter 1997).
- “Archival Brinkmanship: Downsizing, Outsourcing, and the Records of Corporate America.” The American Archivist (Winter 1997).
- “The Rising Tide and the Bottom Line: Archives and the Records of Business.” in Business Records and Business History: Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Danish National Business Archives. (Aarhus: 1998).
- “The Present as Prologue: Documenting Business in the International Age.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Business History and Archives (London, 1998).
- “Facing Reality: Oral History, Corporate Culture and the Documentation of Business.” in The Records of American Business. (Chicago, 1997).
- With Mark A. Greene. “The Records of American Business: The Project and an Approach to Appraisal.” Business Archives Principles and Practice (London, March 1997).
- “Filling the Gap: Oral History in the Archives.” The American Archivist (Vol. 46, No. 2, 1983).
- “Oral History and Environmental Controversy: The Minnesota Powerline Project.” The Oral History Review (Vol. 13, 1985).