Oral Histories at Wilson Special Collections Library: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (NCDHC) is a statewide digitization organization that works to digitize North Carolina cultural heritage and make these materials available online for ease of access. Partner organizations will send materials to be digitized and staff at the NCDHC will care for and digitize these materials. Afterward, the partner organization is given the physical materials and a copy of the digitized files for their own use, while the NCDHC makes the digitized files available through their website. The NCDHC is physically located within Wilson Special Collections Library, though the digitized materials are maintained through the NCDHC's own digital archive.

As the NCDHC stewards their own digital archive, users will need to visit the NCDHC homepage to begin searching through these materials. The homepage shows two search bars, one for searching newspapers and one for searching all other materials. Due to the sheer volume of newspapers digitized through the NCDHC, this divide between searching is to help narrow results for other materials. When initally entering the home page, you will see in the search bars that there are example search terms visible. These terms will disappear once you click on the search bar to begin typing in your own search term(s).

To find oral histories, type "oral history" into the "Collections" search bar on the left side of the homepage.

By searching "oral history," over 6,000 results appear. To narrow your search, you can use the "Advanced Search" option if you are looking for a specific type of oral history, or you can use the sidebar with various filters to narrow the results.

By clicking on any of the hyperlinked search results, you will be directed to a page to view the digitized material(s). Now you should be able to start searching through the NCDHC's digital archive! Below is an example of one of the oral histories available through this archive. Donated by Saint Augustine's University, Emma Louise Perry Boyer's oral history shares about her time working as the director of the Raleigh Sojourner Truth YWCA branch, including her work for integration of the YWCA. What is unique about the oral histories available through the NCDHC is that some oral histories are solely audio, video, or transcription files, while others, like Mrs. Boyer's, include other materials, like photographs and newspaper clippings. Below is a photo found in Mrs. Boyer's oral history collection along with the material viewer found by clicking the hyperlinked search result.

Contributed to the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center by Saint Augustine's University.