Building Multicultural and Intergenerational Networks through Oral History

Abstract

The Cambridge Women's Oral History Project was designed to give voice to people whose stories are least recorded in traditional historical sources-working women from many cultural communities. Carried out in 1980 and 1981, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Massachusetts Foundation for Humanities and Public Policy, and with the sponsorship of the Cambridge, Massachusetts Arts Council, CWOHP involved over 100 local residents in the preservation and analysis of community women's history. Project participants, who were mostly women, ranged in age from twelve to 100 and represented nearly every cultural group in the city. Participants completed oral history interviews of thirty older women above the age of sixty and produced a slide-tape presentation as well as a visual portfolio that includes portraits of the narrators, excerpts from the interviews and historical photographs. The interviews were conducted primarily by women of high school age. Since 1980, several community celebrations have drawn over 1,000 participants and supporters, and over 300 local groups have participated in discussions and workshops based on the slide-tape presentations. In a subsequent project women and girls created two vibrant appliqued quilts, each of the fifty-two blocks documenting a woman active at work or play. These activities created a community base for the Cambridge Oral History Center, an organization committed to the development and dissemination of multicultural and feminist social history.1 The Center is providing resources to twenty oral history projects initiated by individuals and groups in the greater Boston area.