“The traditions of the school are buried deep within the recesses of some archive somewhere, and nobody seems to care. I don’t know why that is. But [we need to] dig it out and put it on the top of our agenda.”
This quote sounds as if it could be from a recent meeting on naming principles, as University of Richmond faculty and students continue their efforts to uncover and examine institutional history. But these words are actually an excerpt from an oral history recorded in 1990 with UR alum and professor Robert S. Alley.
That oral history is one of dozens available on a new University of Richmond Oral Histories digital collection. Mostly conducted by students during the 1980s and 1990s, the interviews with faculty, staff, and administration cover topics of student life, activism, academic change, and campus architecture. The new site contains full transcriptions of each oral history and is designed to allow synchronized audio playback as the user navigates the transcription. A set of recurring keywords, as well as a search box, are provided to further aid in research.
This collection was developed through the arduous task of editing machine-generated, time-stamped transcriptions. This means staff spent a lot of hours correcting the automated technology’s errors (e.g. “Dr. Boatwright” transcribed as: doctor bolt right; doctor vote right; dock the boat ride; etc.). This work was done by Marion Dieterich and Dywana Saunders, with metadata guidance from Leigh Ann Martin. The site was designed by Robert K. Nelson.
Check out the University of Richmond Oral Histories digital collection, and come back often; new content continues to be added.
~ Kimberly Wolfe – Digital Collections Librarian
Doug C Garrett
This is an unbelievable collection of audio tapes. So many interviewees were my former faculty members or coach (‘71-‘75) and in one instance ( Dr. Pierce) , a fellow teammate. Can’t wait to listen to them all. A special thanks to all of those who made this possible.