The stories of women’s lives have become an important focus for researchers in the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University’s Edmon Low Library.
These programs are designed to fill the gap in the historical record by gathering the stories of some of Oklahoma’s most interesting women- told with their own voices.
“Oral history is very inter-disciplinary,” said Juliana Nykolaiszyn, an assistant professor and historian who has worked on several oral history projects at OSU. “It’s qualitative in nature and you have a wide range of people working in oral history: history, library science, community activists, and kids and moms and dads who just want to preserve memories for posterity.”
Associate Professor, Juliana Nykolaiszyn
One of the first projects the OOHRP participated in was interviewing specific women focused on the state legislature. Dr. Tanya Finchum started the project in 2006 when only 77 women had served in the Oklahoma legislature.
“A lot of these voices, these histories weren’t recorded anywhere. It helped kick-off our project,” said Nykolaiszyn.
Nykolaiszyn started working for Edmon Low in 2007, when researchers from library special collections were going out to interview women for a project called “Dust, Drought and Dreams Gone Dry,” chronicling the lives of women who lived through the Dust Bowl.
“That project was really meant to compliment the women’s archives,” said Nykolaiszyn. “A lot of dust bowl voices were from men, but women were here too, working to survive.
“When I first came to this library, I said ‘I want to see these tapes,’ and I helped to get them online.”
An extensive collection of the oral histories is now available on the website for Edmon Low Library.
These historians work to find ways to tell the whole story of a community, including the voices and perspectives of many people.
“I’m going to look at the make-up of a population and ask ‘who’s missing?’ How can we get more diversity?” said Nykolaiszyn.
“I think a lot of the women’s voices offer some level of advice for others,” said Nykolaiszyn. “It’s the stuff you hear all the time: Don’t give up. It’s never too late.”
At the end of an interview with Betty Boyd, who served on the Oklahoma Legislature as a grandma, she said to Nykolaiszyn “stay in Oklahoma.”
“That’s telling,” said Nykolaiszyn. “We want to keep our talent in the state. You can always come home.”
You can hear the interview with state legislator Betty Boyd and many others at Library.okstate.edu/oralhistory .