The Alexandria Oral History Program -- Alexandria Legacies was developed through the City of Alexandria’s Office of Historic Alexandria in the early 1980s. T. Michael Miller, Research Historian for the Office of Historic Alexandria saw the connection of oral and written history, and was instrumental in conducting numerous taped interviews with long-time residents and promoting the concept. Since then, the City of Alexandria, through the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, the Lyceum and the Alexandria Black History Museum has collected oral histories of long-time Alexandria residents.
Alexandria Legacies seeks volunteers to assist in collecting memories -- both interviewers and transcribers. Alexandria Legacies also seeks people with memories and stories of their families. If you would like to volunteer in either capacity, please complete the Office of Historic Alexandria Volunteer Form.
The City of Alexandria’s Archaeology Museum first began conducting oral history interviews in 1982 through a grant received for its “Alexandria African American Neighborhood Project.” Oral histories became an important component of the Neighborhood Project as a result of the museum’s quest for information about the history of Alexandria’s African American communities. Pamela Cressey, City Archaeologist, credits Harry Burke, a native Alexandrian, with introducing her not only to the value of personal memories, but also to both Mrs. Knapper and Mrs. Lee, each of whom provided rich and varying stories about growing up as an African American in Alexandria at the turn of the century.
Mrs. Mildred Grady Lee, 1982.
(Click to enlarge)Mildred Grady Lee, for example, provided memories of her family, as well as descriptions of daily Alexandrian activities in a 1982 interview. Mrs. Lee and her family lived in the 200 block of King Street in the early 1900s. Her father owned and ran his barber shop next to their home.
"We had the barber business, which was very prosperous -- up until the Depression! … We had a horse and stable back there [in the backyard]… So we really didn’t want for anything.”
-Mrs. LeeMrs. Lee's uncle, too, ran a restaurant at the foot of King Street, where he served “chicken, ribs, and shrimp.” Mrs. Lee described the market where her uncle purchased the produce and meats for the restaurant. The market took place on the block today called Market Square in front of City Hall.
The market house interior where
Mrs. Lee's uncle purchased items
for his restaurant,
ca. 1925. (Click to enlarge)
Cressey believes that people’s personal memories – their oral histories – allow her, as an archaeologist, “to look beyond standard depictions of the past,” and they also allow her to “bring more humanity, texture and descriptions to archaeological interpretation.”
“You had to go to the ice house to get ice. Right down at … King Street and Cameron Street… Sometimes you had to go twice a day [to replace the ice in your ice box].”
-Mrs. Lee described how meats were kept cool.The Office of Historic Alexandria has continued to record oral histories of those who grew up in Alexandria’s various neighborhoods. In the 1990s, oral histories associated with black history of the Fort Ward and Episcopal Seminary areas were recorded by Patricia A. Knock for the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. More recently, oral histories associated with the World War II housing complex Chinquapin Village, as well as the annexed neighborhood of Del Ray have been collected too.
What is Oral History?
Oral histories record and therefore, preserve memories, reflections, and thoughts of living people about their past experiences. According to the Oral History Association, a membership organization for all persons interested in oral history, “Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.”
An oral history differs from a personal written history in several ways. Oral history should always consist of two source materials – an audio recording of an interview and a transcript of that recording. The audio recording can be recorded on cassette, or in a digital format. Both source materials - the recording and transcript – are important because each contribute to the historical record and can do so mutually, as well as independently. The transcript can be easily read and used by both researchers and family members. The audio recording contains emotions and accent, neither of which can be captured in a written document, but both of which are important aspects of the interviewee’s persona and the associated words and stories.
Oral history also differs from a personal history because it always involves two authors – the person being interviewed and the interviewer. The questions asked by the interviewer guide the focus of the oral history. Oral history projects might, for example, focus on interviewing former Torpedo Factory workers to find out what working in the factory was like, or they might focus on people's memories of particular events such as Pearl Harbor or desegregation.
Why do Oral History?
Oral history broadens the study of the past in areas where there are no written documents or physical artifacts. Moreover, oral history recognizes that everyone’s and anyone’s memories, reflections and past experiences are important and contribute to the historical record.
The City of Alexandria seeks people with memories and stories from their families of living and growing up in Alexandria. If you would like to share your memories, or if you know someone who has memories to share, please contact the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, 703/838-4399; email: Alexandria Archaeology; or visit the Archaeology Museum at 105 N. Union Street, 3rd Floor, Alexandria, Va.
volunteer Jen Hembree during an
oral history interview, 2001.
(Click to enlarge)Volunteer with Alexandria Legacies!
Alexandria Legacies seeks volunteers to assist in collecting memories, both interviewers and transcribers. If you would like to volunteer in either capacity, please complete the Office of Historic Alexandria Volunteer Form. No experience necessary; training provided.
