What is Oral History? A Guide

Lydia, a Modern History MA student on placement with us from the University of York, has been exploring our oral history collections. She has put together this handy guide on all things oral histories.

Have you ever heard of the term ‘oral history’? Not many people have! 

As they are a big part of the Moving Stories exhibition at Wakefield Museum, I felt it was important to explain what an oral history is and why they are important.

Two women chatting over their fish and chips at the Bull Ring in Wakefield, 1993

What is Oral History?

‘Oral history’ can sound like a scary clinical term and is often thought of as a serious interview; in reality, it is a conversation. It is the sharing of experiences verbally and the conversation can be guided by questions set in advance, or in response to what is being discussed. The types of oral histories vary depending on what setting it is taking place in.

What are some good Oral History questions? How do you do an Oral History interview?

Collecting an oral history can be a formal process. This prompts some people to compare it to a serious interview. The idea is to record a person’s personal experiences and discover more about them and what they have lived through by asking questions and listening to their responses. 

This is best done through open-ended questions, allowing the other person to tell their story naturally without being stuck with closed ‘yes/no’ questions. An open-ended question could be “What was Wakefield like when you were growing up?”, whereas a closed question is more like “Did you like Wakefield when you were growing up?”. Here, the interviewee could simply answer “yes” or “no” and it shuts the conversation down completely!

How are Oral Histories used?

For historians and curators, oral histories are used as a research source to better understand a place, period, or significant event. The team at Wakefield Museums and Castles are currently exploring their oral history collection to better understand the stories of Wakefield and to understand ”What puts Wakefield on the map?”

We asked the question "What Puts Wakefield on the Map?" at the A Grand Day Out summer festivals in 2022. 

This digital map contains some of the responses. Tap the flags for more information. 

Green flags are places and attractions, yellow flags are memories, pink flags are for people and community groups, and blue flags are about where people live.

In the past, oral history has been passed down through folklore and myths. It is believed to be the first form of history. It is very important for people from many different cultures around the world. Nowadays, oral history can be engaged with in less creative manners and is at risk of becoming forgotten.

It is likely that most people have engaged with oral history in some way and may not have even realised it. Have you ever listened to a story about your family’s history or asked your relatives about their past? Have you ever told others about your own experiences in the past? These are just a few examples of how people engage with oral history daily.

The difference between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ oral histories is that they serve unique purposes. With more formal oral histories, we record and collect them so they can be referred to over the years and used for research purposes. Informal oral histories are told for personal reasons, to connect with family history, to keep ancestors’ memories alive, and to make sure your story is heard. But there is no guarantee that these stories will be recorded forever in this setting.

In this video, Herbert tells us about cycling home from dances during the Blackout! 

Drawn by Tom Bailey.

See and hear more stories from local people in Moving Stories, now open at Wakefield Museum

Why is Oral History important?

The benefit of oral histories is that we can collect massive amounts of information from this technique, helping us round out the history and objects we already possess. They help to keep voices from the past alive for generations to come.

For example, we can learn lots from government documents, records and maps of mining facilities; we can study the health and safety information at the time, the layout of the mines, the number of workers and any labour disputes. But what we lack is the perspective of the people involved. Through oral history, we can add a human element to the information available by asking what it was like to work there, their experience during strikes, whether they witnessed any accidents on or off the records, and most importantly, what this all meant to them. When using this method, we gain a first-hand perspective and authentic narrative.

Finally, a key concept of oral history is the act of preservation. Not only does it mean that it will be forever preserved and available for use, but the entire recording of the conversations is preserved, so there is no risk of only having the interviewer’s interpretation. We know that in history, there has been a tendency to maintain one perspective, but if we preserve oral history correctly, we can prevent that.

This is another reason oral history is so important, as it can help us combat disparities in history. We are all aware that history has tended to erase certain voices, preventing groups of people from having their stories told. History is all too often a story of the ‘victors’, or just wealthy, straight white men. But we can change that, and Wakefield Museums and Castles want to be a part of that change. We want to collect your story no matter your background or what you have to say. We can’t wait to hear your story!


Who knows, it might just feature in our New Library and Museum…

To see examples of our oral history collections, check out our current Moving Stories exhibition, where some of our oral histories have been brought to life in drawings by Tom Bailey 

There's also Lydia’s LGBT+ History Month blog post on Sue Riley and Madam Connie.