Oral History: Critical Connections to the Past

This article first appeared in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News "Nearby History" column on March 14, 2026.

By Hayley Noble, Executive Director

Oral history project interview at a nursing home, ca. 1980. LCHS Photo: 25-12-330.

Oral traditions are key parts of many cultures around the world and have been the primary method of sharing heritage knowledge since time immemorial. In many indigenous tribes this storytelling practice is how histories and memories are passed from one generation to another, communicating creation stories, cultural beliefs, and family and tribal histories. This sacred knowledge, much of which is in native languages, is paramount to understanding tribal identity and shared values. Early anthropologists sought to collect these stories in the late 19^th century on phonograph wax cylinders. Many of those cylinders now reside in the Library of Congress and are some of the earliest known recordings of Native American songs and stories. In some instances, these recordings were done without consent and complicate the legacy of these recordings.

Oral history is both a practice and the output that emerges from the interview process. This includes an audio or video recording, written transcript, and in modern cases, permission and consent forms. The Oral History Association asserts that “the value of oral history lies largely in the way it helps to place people’s experiences within a larger social and historical context, and conversely, to contextualize social and historical events through how people lived them. The interview becomes a record useful for documenting past events, individual or collective experiences, and understanding of the ways that history is constructed.” In this way, people can share experiences in their own words and that knowledge is preserved for others. We know that memories change, so this is an imperfect practice, but it yields insight into the feelings, recollections, and reflections from the past that are difficult to access anywhere else, creating valuable primary sources.   

The modern American practice of collecting oral histories as we know it, started in the 1930s when the Federal Writers’ Project began interviewing people who witnessed important events like the Civil War. This practice continued, still with wax cylinders, by placing importance on leaders, people in power, and witnesses to “great historical events.” After World War II, the invention of audio tape recordings made these types of interviews much easier, with wire recorders able to capture hours of audio. In 1946, Professor David P. Boder traveled to Europe to interview Holocaust survivors and came back to the U.S. with some of the first testimonials from survivors. These interviews were the basis for his important book, I Did Not Interview the Dead and a significant part of the collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

By the 1950s, oral history initiatives were underway in many places, particularly regarding science and US policy. Mainstream institutions were still interested in interviewing white men in positions of power. But in the 1970s, more and more people were shifting their approach of collecting oral histories. The Smithsonian Institution began their oral history program in 1973, and many organizations followed suit throughout the 70s. A big push for this was the Bicentennial and the wish to document local history from ordinary people in their own words.    

H. Robert Otness and Mary Banks with tape recorder, ca. 1978. LCHS Photo: 25-12-030.

The Latah County Historical Society’s oral history collection also dates from this time, standing as one of the pillars in the community archive. These 1970s interviews conducted by Sam Schrager paint a picture of early Idaho country life from over 200 people connected to Latah County. This collection is available online through the University of Idaho Library. But the Latah County Historical Society (LCHS) did not stop there. Since the 70s, LCHS has collected hundreds of interviews on military service, civic participation, motherhood, drag performances, the 1987 Moscow teacher strike, farming, community activism, and all manner of topics on everyday life in Latah County. And LCHS continues to collect interviews that inform and preserve these experiences from Idahoans, while also digitizing interviews previously done on cassette tapes. An oral history initiative is part of the Historical Society’s America 250 efforts, harkening back to the Bicentennial and its focus on local stories. Part of that initiative is documenting the women “doers of history,” interviewing archivists, professors, librarians, teachers, and public historians on the work that they do to preserve and share our community’s history. LCHS is working on making these additional interviews in the collection available on our website. We heavily rely on volunteers to help us process interviews by listening to them and reading the transcript for accuracy. If you are interested in exploring the oral history collection not available online or would like to volunteer to help audit interviews, please reach out to the Latah County Historical Society to set up an appointment. Additionally, if you have suggestions of people we should interview, please email lchslibrary@latahcountyid.gov or call 208-882-1004. Lastly, oral histories do not need to be conducted by professionals. Anyone can do oral history interviews, with many resources available online for best practices, basics, and tips to conduct a high-quality interview.