About

Oral History in National Parks

People make history, and their stories are among the most valuable resources that the National Park Service preserves and protects for future generations.

The NPS has a rich tradition of oral history. Scores of parks use oral history interviews to document the people and events they commemorate and to capture the history of individual parks. People who have shared their stories include Civilian Conservation Corps members; the families, friends, and neighbors of former presidents; immigrants who stepped ashore at Ellis Island; veterans of World War II; Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II; foot soldiers and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement; native elders in Alaska, and NPS personnel. Interviews bring history alive for visitors as they enrich interpretative programs and exhibits. They also inform management decisions as they contribute to historic resource studies, cultural landscape reports, and administrative histories.

The NPS Oral History Collection includes over 1,100 interviews with current and former NPS staff, their families, and other individuals. The collection includes a variety of projects conducted from 1959 to today, with interviews that describe the people, parks, events, actions, and decisions connected to national parks. Most interviews have associated correspondence and research notes.

Use the searchable finding aid to explore collection interviews and topics. Links to full interview transcripts are added to the finding aid as they are digitized.

Learn more about oral history projects completed and under way in Directory of Oral History in the National Park Service. This edition contains brief descriptions of projects organized alphabetically by park, a list of published oral histories, and a guide to websites where one can listen to interviews and read entire transcripts.