Fifty Years of Progress: Showcasing the Oral History Association’s Past as it Propels Toward the Future

• In Event: OHA Poster Session and Project Bazaar

Abstract

This poster documents and reflects on the planning process and construction of the Oral History Association’s 50th Anniversary Exhibition. Since oral history has maintained a close working relationship with public history for nearly half a century, this poster will illustrate how the principles of public history practice were utilized to craft an interpretation and exhibition of the OHA’s history. In particular, it addresses the factors that shaped how the project’s scope, goals, objectives, and display medium were planned; explores how the interpretive strategy shaped (and was shaped by) the availability of research sources and materials; and assesses how the project might continue to be developed over time. Exploration of the relationship between principles of public history, oral history, and the OHA will illustrate the influence of technology on virtually every aspect of the OHA 50th Anniversary exhibition, from bridging geographic distances between the project’s collaborators, expanding the resource inventory, and even informing the historiographic content of the end product. Unpacking the public history toolkit used in developing the exhibition will offer up a case study of how the OHA has helped the field develop into its current state over the past half-century, and reflect on how the association can continue to propel the field forward for the next half-century and beyond.

Authors

• Jessica Keys, Georgia State University

• Jodi Silvio, Arizona State University