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"Oral history... is a way of capturing the voices and experiences of every day people.... The narrators' voices form a harmony which is complex and subtle, revealing the history of a decade."
Thus does Linda Wood describe the essential value of oral history in making the recent past meaningful in her introduction to "The Family in the Fifties: Hope, Fear and Rock In Roll," the oral history project of which she was project director. "The Family in the Fifties" was a project designed to "explore and probe personal experiences and memories" of Rhode Island residents who grew to adulthood in the decade of the 1950s.
The interviews for the project were conducted in 1993 by fifteen members of a tenth grade English class from South Kingstown High School. The students interviewed twenty-four Rhode Island residents who recalled their experiences in the 1950s. The interview subjects were asked to focus in particular on such topics as rock and roll, the Cold War, McCarthyism, racism, the advent of television, and their impact on the "nuclear family." Based on the interviews they conducted, the students wrote papers or "stories" in which they summarized the content of the interview and recorded their own impressions and observations.
The project was funded with a grant from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities and co-sponsored by South Kingstown High School and the Rhode Island Historical Society. The students worked under the supervision of project co-directors Linda Wood and Judi Scott, as well as receiving input from humanities scholars Professor Sharon Strom and Professor James Findlay of the University of Rhode Island History Department.
In addition to the oral history tapes and transcripts generated by this project, there was also a publication produced entitled
Open for research.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Family in the Fifties, Hope, Fear, and Rock 'N Roll, Mss. Gr. 116, University of Rhode Island Special Collections.
Under the supervision of Ms. Wood, librarian at South Kingstown High School, and English teacher Judi Scott, fifteen students from a tenth grade English class at the high school conducted interviews with twenty-four Rhode Island residents who had lived through the decade of the 1950s as teenagers or young adults. The interview subjects were asked to recall their experiences in the 1950s and to recount the impact on them and their families of such topics as the Cold War, McCarthyism, racism, the birth of rock and roll, and the advent of television.
The records include twenty-nine cassette tape recordings of the interviews, transcripts of the interviews, indexes for each interview keyed to the frame counter of a tape recorder, signed release forms, "information forms" completed by each of the interview subjects, and papers or "stories" done by each of the students and based on the interviews.
After processing, the records were organized into four series as follows:
Open for research.
The records were donated to the Special Collections Department of the University of Rhode Island Library in June 1994 by the project co-director Linda Wood.
Custodial history is unknown.
Research copies of the transcripts, releases, information forms, and indexes were made by Special Collections staff during processing and were added to the collection.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
See other oral history collections.
There are no separated materials.
Casette recorder required for access.
This series contains the original taped interviews with twenty-four Rhode Island residents who related their experiences of coming of age in the 1950s. There are twenty-nine cassette tapes in the series. Also included for each interview are subject indexes which are keyed to the frame counter on a cassette recorder.
Subjects discussed in the interviews include the Korean War, the Cold War, McCarthyism, race and sex discrimination, the advent of television, social life in the 1950s, the birth of rock and roll, and the impact of all these factors on the role of the family in the lives of the interview subjects.
The interview tapes and indexes are arranged alphabetically by the name of the interviewee.
This series contains the original transcripts of the taped interviews contained in Series I, as well as information forms and release forms completed by the interview subjects. Unlike the tapes in Series I, however, there are no indexes for the transcripts.
The transcripts and related materials are arranged alphabetically by the name of the interviewee.
This series contains research copies of the original transcripts, releases, and information forms contained in Series II.
The transcripts and related materials are arranged alphabetically by the name of the interviewee.
This series contains essays or "stories" written by fifteen South Kingstown High School tenth grade students about the people they interviewed. Each student received training in oral history interviewing techniques, read literature and poetry of the era, viewed period films, and heard a series of lectures on "ethnicity, civil rights, McCarthyism, rock 'n roll, jazz, fashion, film, and family."
Based on the interviews and their background research, the students wrote papers or, as they were called in the project, "stories" about the people interviewed. The stories are a combination of the students' impressions and a paraphrase of the interviews.
The stories subsequently appeared in edited form in "Families in the Fifties: Hope, Fear & Rock 'n Roll," the publication which resulted from the oral history project. A copy of the publication has been placed at the end of this series.
The papers or stories are arranged alphabetically by the name of the interviewee.