LSU Libraries T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History

Happy to all the dog lovers! Here’s WWI sailor Lucius Nash posing with his furry friend a century ago. His complete collection is here: https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.48229/

Today is National Senior Citizens Day. Did you know that retirement homes, hospices, and assisted living communities are one of the best places to find veterans to interview for VHP? If you were thinking about participating but don’t know any vets to interview, call up the Activities Director or Volunteer Coordinator at a local Senior Center and let them know you’re interested in interviewing their veteran residents for the Library of Congress. Chances are you’ll have more veterans volunteer to be interviewed than you know what to do with!

"He said, 'Nurse, am I going to make it?' And I said, 'Piece of cake, honey.'… Seventeen surgical procedures later, he died. And I never, ever, ever told another patient they'd make it." (Audio interview, 17:18)

Serving on a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam in 1968, Rear Admiral Frances Buckley was already a seasoned veteran of the Navy Nurse Corps, having served stateside during the Korean War as well as overseas in Rota, Spain. Sailing up the coast from Da Nang to Quang Tri to Phu Bai to Chu Lai, she supervised the operating room nurses and corpsmen. Conditions in a hospital ship operating room were chaotic: often, patients had multiple wounds requiring several surgical teams to work on them simultaneously. While much of her job focused on logistics, she was also deeply affected by the patients that she treated-and sometimes lost. After the war, she continued her career in military nursing, eventually serving as Director of the Navy Nurse Corps from 1979 to 1983.

Congratulations to Charlotte and Bryce! Stay tuned for a podcast Bryce is producing that relates to his work this summer.

Happy Memorial Day! Today we honor and remember all the brave men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country.

LSU Libraries T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History tales of Louisiana military history that would otherwise be lost with direct accounts of WWII, Korean War, & Vietnam War vets? Their narratives go beyond politics to the lives behind the logistics. Listen here: https://oralhistory.blogs.lib.lsu.edu/2009/12/22/when-boys-began-to-leave-louisiana-recalls-wwii/

Congratulations to the Williams Center's Julie Dietz who graduates this week with her degree in LSU School of Education LSU Counselor Education Program!

In the two years that Julie was on staff at the Williams Center as a graduate assistant, she contributed so much! From being an amazing audio engineer to a talented interviewer. She has also been instrumental in helping with the Director's HNRS 2020 oral history seminars, and she was key in the behind-the-scenes work to recruit veterans to be interviewed. Julie always represents LSU in the most professional way, and has made a difference in her short time, helping process Mike Agnello's Sicilian Immigrants In Louisiana collection and other important archival responsibilities. She has also been an amazing mentor for our incoming graduate student, and she conducted three mindfulness workshops for the LSU Wellness Committee!

Thanks so much and good luck in your next chapter, Julie!!! And y'all stay tuned for Julie's upcoming podcasts featuring people she interviewed for the Center's Veteran History Project.

Congratulations to Troy Reeves! Well deserved accolades!

Congratulations to Troy Reeves on being awarded distinguished status. He is now the Distinguished Oral Historian at the UW-Madison Archives & Records Management. Troy’s extensive experience, innovation, passion, and leadership have made him a critical leader in his field. We congratulate him on this achievement and look forward to his continued exceptional work! Read more about his award and accomplishments.

🔗https://loom.ly/ivo8zK4

Join LSU Libraries Special Collections as we partner with East Baton Rouge Parish Library to celebrate with activities and an open viewing of our favorite collections: The Wyatt Houston Day Collection of Poetry by African Americans! This Afternoon in the Archives will take place on April 18th, 1pm-3pm, at Hill Memorial Library. See you there!

Visit here for more information: https://lsu.libcal.com/event/12319832

I'm so sad to hear that Mike Agnello passed away this week. What a gentle, kind, open hearted soul who cared deeply about family and community. And an amazing partner who worked tirelessly with the Center to document the Sicilian American History Project focusing on Tangipahoa Parish. Mike, you will be missed.

Michael Agnello Obituary (1946 - 2024) - Amite, LA - The Daily Star View Deacon Michael Anthony "Mike" Agnello's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

Some very thought-provoking panels, y'all!

📣OHA is pleased to announce that the registration portal for our upcoming virtual symposium “AI in OH: How New and Evolving Technologies Will Impact the Profession” is now open!📣 Please visit https://oha.memberclicks.net/ai-symposium-2 to register 🌀

💻For this online symposium, OHA invited oral history practitioners and scholars from all disciplines who utilized oral history in their work to submit proposals detailing any number of intersections between artificial intelligence and oral history. From a strong submission pool, we are happy to present ten sessions over five days (July 15-19, 2024) that delve into the structural and ethical aspects of applying AI to oral history work.

❓If you have any questions about the symposium, please reach out to AI in OH program co-chairs Steven Sielaff ([email protected]) & Sarah Milligan ([email protected]).
If you have any administrative questions about the portal, please reach out to OHA’s Program Associate Hailey Vinson at [email protected].

Thank you to Our Lady of the Lake Health for generously donating $20,000 to the Manship Oral History Initiative Support Fund. This gift will go toward Professional-in-Residence Aly Neel’s project, assisted by the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs and in partnership with LSU Libraries T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, to conduct an oral history of Our Lady of the Lake Health’s COVID-19 response and experience.

We are grateful for Our Lady of the Lake Health’s commitment to and passion for the work we do. 💜💜

Exciting news! Jen Cramer, director of LSU Libraries T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History 🎙️, has been honored with one of this year's Happy Awards! 🏆 Her tireless efforts in preserving Louisiana's rich oral histories exemplify our commitment to community engagement and service-learning partnerships.

Read more about Jen's remarkable work here: https://lib.lsu.edu/24/03/10/cramerhappyaward

Undergraduate Research Opportunity in Oral History!

Special Collections Summer Project Program | LSU Discover Undergraduate Research The LSU Libraries Special Collections Summer Project Program provides LSU undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct a research or creative project using the Special Collections resources. Projects can be mentored by either an LSU faculty member or an LSU Special Collections archivist.

Registration for Audubon Day is now open! Join us for the annual viewing of Audubon's Birds of America folios on Saturday, April 27th. The event is free but registration is required. Visit lib.lsu.edu/special/audubon to reserve your space.

Encore: How the Baton Rouge bus boycott inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today on Louisiana Considered, we take a look at Martin Luther King’s time spent in Louisiana. We hear first-person accounts about the lessons he learned from the Baton Rouge Bus boycott and how he would apply similar frameworks to the boycott in Montgomery.

The Oral History Association (OHA) seeks to hire a full-time (on-site or hybrid) program associate to assist in the operation of its Executive Office.

Since 1966, the OHA has served as the principal membership organization for people committed to the value of oral history. Job tasks assigned to the program associate include assisting in planning the annual meeting, maintaining accounts, overseeing the membership roster, managing the OHA website, and other general administrative tasks. Travel to the fall annual meeting and mid-winter Council meeting is required (with costs covered by OHA). The successful candidate should have good project management skills, a friendly customer-service mindset, self-motivation, strong attention to detail, and writing and editing skills. Experience with basic bookkeeping and financial management preferred. Event planning experience preferred.

The OHA program associate will be an employee of the Oral History Association working with the Executive Office at Baylor University, located in Waco, Texas. Work can be completed fully on-site or through a hybrid schedule.

Review of applications will begin immediately; the job will remain open until filled. Position begins January 2024. You can find the complete job description here: bit.ly/OHAjobdescription

To apply, send 1) a letter of application indicating your interest and qualifications and 2) a resume or CV. Submit these materials and any questions you have about the position to Stephen Sloan at [email protected].

The Oral History Association is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

The LSU Libraries Special Collections Williams Center for Oral History salutes Louisiana Veterans this week! One way to help honor our state's veterans is to listen to their stories.

BRProud / WGMB / WVLA has been following the Center's endeavors to capture Louisiana veteran voices through an LSU Ogden Honors College class that is recording oral histories to be housed jointly at the Williams Center and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. See more from Ana Conejo's BR Proud coverage here! https://www.brproud.com/news/veterans-voices/watch-veterans-voices-stories-honoring-veterans-in-baton-rouge/

We'd like to thank our partners at the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs and the VHP who continue to make this possible.

Watch Veterans Voices: Stories honoring veterans in Baton Rouge BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Veterans Voices is a half-hour November special airing on BRProud telling stories honoring veterans. Veterans Day falls on Saturday, Nov. 11 this year. The federa…

Save the date! Saturday, September 30th from 10am-12pm at Hill Memorial Library on LSU Campus--free parking at the Peabody and Indian Mound Parking lots !

The public is invited to Veterans History Project Pop Up. Monica Mohindra, the Director of the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress will be hand to share information about how they collect, preserve and make accessible first hand accounts of US military veterans. See, hear, and touch the memories of veterans from WWI to the present through oral histories, photos, letters, and diaries. The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP via Eventbrite (optional), please visit: https://tinyurl.com/3azz9ed5

Welcome back to campus, everyone! And check out this episode of "Louisiana Considered," produced by Alana Schreiber on WRKF and WWNO: "Conversations with some of the first women to live in LSU’s dorms." It features several segments from Center podcasts on the the subject of women living on an ever-changing campus over the past 100 years.

Conversations with some of the first women to live in LSU’s dorms Today on Louisiana Considered, we celebrate the beginning of the new school year by going back to the archives to learn about the first women to live on LSU’s campus. We hear first person accounts from a home economics major, a lawyer, a performer, and the first woman of color to live in the dorms...

https://on.soundcloud.com/fDWxH

Join host, Emily Lowsma for "Destroy the Enemies!" This is the second episode in the "Oral History and the Louisiana Veteran Experience" podcast series. Odesse Patterson shares with Emily his experiences from serving during the Korean War.

Photo by Julie Dietz, 2022.

Are you interested in learning more about the logistics of planning an oral history project? Join us for this FREE workshop co-facilitated by Williams Center director, Jen Cramer, and a very special guest, Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries. Workshop is in person at LSU Libraries Special Collections Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall. See link below to learn more and sign up.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrIDUH7BI4DEdqts397JILGygqRiM2qPh8aLWUFcm4kJT8qw/viewform

Louisiana Considered's Karen Henderson interviewed Williams Center Director, Jen Cramer, and Director of Communications, Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, Brandee Patrick. Talking about veterans' stories, LSU Ogden Honors College student work, and their collaboration with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

Check out this WRKF-FM 89.3 interview with Jennifer Cramer, director of the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, discussing an upcoming podcast series that focuses on the untold stories of Louisiana veterans: https://ow.ly/Soo650P4gVn

"Oral History and the Louisiana Veteran Experience," a limited series podcast is now available through the Williams Center for Oral History at https://on.soundcloud.com/WrJoj Join one LSU Ogden Honors College student host each episode to hear from the veteran who sat down with them for an interview.

Explore the first episode, "I Wanted to Give Back:" An Interview with Louisiana Veteran, Tara Jones at https://on.soundcloud.com/8j5mW

Oral History and the Louisiana Veteran Experience Join one LSU Honors College student host each episode to hear from the veteran who sat down with them for an interview. Part of the students’ final project for their Fall 2022 class, "Oral History and