Norwich Voices: Traditions and Transitions in a University Setting

• In Event: OHA Poster Session and Project Bazaar

Abstract

The Norwich Voices Oral History Project at Norwich University is an oral history project in which we are seeking to capture the stories of the Norwich community. The theme is the training of citizen soldiers at Norwich and the effects of that training beyond school. Norwich University has a rich tradition of firsts and has been at the forefront of military academies and diversity. Norwich had some of the first female cadets, the first LGBT student organization at a senior military academy, and is leading the way for religious diversity in senior military academies. We are not only documenting a community but an academic institution and its military and civilian heritage. Our traditions are a major part of Norwich University, but we have also seen many transitions within the university and its diversity. We are a relatively new oral history project that began in 2013. We use state-of-the-art equipment to digitally collect individual interviews which will be preserved in a digital repository for instruction, research and presentation. Transcripts and sound files are used in an interactive museum setting. They are archived at the museum and at the university archives. In the future, they will be made available online to researchers via a Norwich Voices website and will be included in a commemorative book for the 2019 Bicentennial of Norwich University. Norwich Voices is funded by a generous grant from the Tawani Foundation in collaboration with the Sullivan Museum and History Center.

Author

• Joseph Cates, Sullivan Museum and History Center