StoryQuest Oral History Program

07/16/2018

Hello, everyone! We are excited to announce that our National Home Front Project page is live and will be providing updates from the front lines of World War II interviewing across the United States.

Our national partnership program seeks to collect memories of World War II from the civilian perspective, including the experiences of women, children, and communities whose contributions to the war effort have been lesser known and celebrated.

We’d love to hear from individuals and groups who would like to join this national collaboration, including senior citizen centers, veterans groups, public libraries, and schools. No experience or expertise in oral history is necessary - our staff will provide both guidance and resources. Reach us here or at [email protected].

The National Home Front Project is an initiative of Washington College's The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and StoryQuest Oral History Program, with generous funding support from Iron Mountain.

06/11/2018

06/11/2018

Check out this exciting program for high school students at The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience!

Registration is now open for the Young Historians' Summer Conference at Washington College, which will take place July 17-21. All those interested in oral history are encouraged to attend!

Calling all high school students: if you care about how history gets made, then you’re going to love the chance to participate in our Young Historians' Conference at Washington College July 17-21.

"History Off the Page" is a summer program designed to give you a firsthand look at how historians explore the past. You'll go behind-the-scenes with curators developing a major exhibition at the Smithsonian, dig up the past with archaeologists, conduct your own oral histories, explore the intersection of nature and culture from the deck of the college's research vessel, and attend a writing workshop led by a best-selling historian. It’s the perfect opportunity to get a hands-on look at how history comes together!

For more info and how to register: https://tinyurl.com/ydgmh5z8

04/10/2018

Have you had a chance to check out Oral History Jukebox yet?

The Oral History Jukebox is an open, informal exchange where oral historians of all experience levels and backgrounds come together to listen and learn.

The Oral History Jukebox is an open, informal exchange where oral historians of all experience levels and backgrounds come together to listen and learn. This collaborative playlist is for a session

04/09/2018

We are so proud of the StoryQuest student leaders who were able to participate in the American Historical Association (AHA) annual conference in Washington, D.C. several months ago. It isn't often that undergraduates get a chance to help plan and present a session at a professional event, but our students rose to the occasion!

What happens when a group of inquisitive young scholars encounters the most prestigious gathering of historians in the country?

04/04/2018

Today in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Catapulted to national prominence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dr. King became a critical leader in the civil rights movement. His actions, philosophy, and rhetoric inspired a generation of activists and reformers.

Dr. King's 1968 assassination transformed the civil rights leader into an icon of the struggle to fulfill the American promise of equality for all. This panel is from the Poor People’s Campaign, a demonstration in D.C. which King helped organize but did not live to see.

Visitors to our museum can explore King's legacy and the history the Poor People’s Campaign through a new exhibition created by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: “City of Hope: Resurrection City & the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign": http://ow.ly/sKlH30hLTAq

04/03/2018

Hope to see you there!

Washington College, in cooperation with Chestertown’s Diversity Dialogue Group, is hosting the town’s first Community Unity Day on April 14, a family friendly block party that will happen on Campus Avenue from noon to 4 p.m. The event will include a variety of food vendors, a sports corner, mult...

04/03/2018

During World War II, every woman did her part-- whether she took up wartime work, volunteered, or stayed home to care for her family. Women's triumphs and tribulations during the War have gone mostly uncelebrated for far too long. We have to make an effort to collect and preserve these untold stories before they are out of our reach.

What do you know about your family's home front history?

04/03/2018

As a part of StoryQuest's new national partnership program, we are working with several groups including Spirit of '45 to honor the memories of the women who served during the war at home.

This Rosie the Riveter Memorial Rose Garden is part of a national initiative launched by Spirit of '45 to ensure that the working women of World War II are given the proper recognition they deserve, and are able inspire the next generation to continue their legacy. This rosebush will bloom in remembrance of their contributions and stories, some of which can be heard at storyquestproject.com.

01/28/2018

"Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response' to Auschwitz;... not only do I not know it, but I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response."- Elie Wiesel

After going through the selection process upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Perla Schwartz, an elderly Jewish woman from Subcarpathian Rus was selected for death. She waits on the ramp to be taken to the gas chambers.

The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was established in the Spring of 1940 near German-occupied Oswiecim, Poland. By the end of January 1945, when Soviet Troops liberated the remaining prisoners in Auschwitz, approximately 1.1 million people had been murdered.

Today, marks the 73rd anniversary its liberation.

11/24/2017

Do you have a favorite Frank Capra film?

11/21/2017

There was no single experience of WWII; at the same time as Allied troops were fighting Axis powers overseas, battles were also being fought over race, sexuality, and gender. Check out this amazing interview from Making Gay History to learn more about one veteran’s experience as a gay man during WWII:

“J.J. Belanger lived a big life. But if we remember him at all, it’s only because of two images from a photo booth photo taken in 1953. Yet J.J. had a big life that extended from the skies over Europe during World War II and the offices of the legendary Dr. Alfred Kinsey to trans rights activism before transgender rights were on anybody’s radar. “

Bringing the voices of q***r history to life through intimate conversations with LGBTQ champions, heroes, and witnesses to history.