Public History & Memory

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Application to the Marshall Fund

Name: Stephanie E. Yuhl
P.O. Box: 95A
Telephone: 508-793-2783
Department: History
Project Title: The Worcester WWII Homefront Project
Students enrolled in History 303-02 "Whose Past Is It Anyway: Public History and Memory" will immerse themselves in researching Worcester's domestic history during the Second World War in order to produce a website on the subject. The city will serve as both classroom and archive for this project. The centerpiece of this page will be the oral histories of elderly Worcester community members. Each student will be required to conduct, transcribe and analyze 3-5 hours of oral history interviews (from at least 3 interviewees) with approximately 30 individuals who lived and/or worked in Worcester during WWII. Primary sources, such as newspapers, photographs, city records and personal correspondence collections from local collections, including those at the Worcester Historical Museum and the Worcester Public Library, will serve to supplement the interviews, as will scholarly secondary materials. Students will then determine how to arrange this information in a useful and intriguing way on a web site they will build together.
A central premise of public history, the focus of this course, is that knowledge is a community asset. Thus, the sharing of information is essential to maintaining the spirit and integrity of this community-based learning project. We hope to give back to the community the fruits of the student-interviewee joint efforts. Thus, complete transcripts of the interviews will be available on the website. In recognition of the fact that Worcester's history belongs to the larger community, the original interview tapes and transcriptions will also be deposited with the Worcester Historical Museum and made accessible to a wide range of Worcester populations. We also intend, if funded, to invite our interviewees to a gathering on the Holy Cross campus in May to celebrate the launching of the Worcester WII Homefront Project website - to celebrate Worcester's stories and the relationships forged between student and interviewee.
Because I am asking students to act as historians, I am not dictating who should be interviewed; they must start from scratch, as most practicing historians do when commencing a research project. I will help the students brainstorm about what they want their page content to be and then determine what group or institutions they might target to gather pertinent information accordingly. For example, the students may decide to focus their page on the life of one Worcester neighborhood during the war, or one industry, or a cluster of places of worship - or they may decide to cast their nets widely and interview a general cross-section of the population (in which case, I imagine the students will begin their search for willing interviewees at the Worcester Senior Center). I have spoken to Bill Meinhofer in the Donellan Community-Based Learning Center about this project and will refer my students to him for further help if necessary.
Before commencing interviews, the students will participate in a seminar led by me in which we will discuss techniques and ethics of doing oral history. Students will also familiarize themselves with the "Oral History Methods and Guides" made available by the History-Net/Oral History Group (http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~oralhist/methods.html) as well as the Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (http://www.fda.gov/oc/ohrt/irbs/belmont.html). Students will work with each other and their instructor to compile a list of oral history questions that will serve as a starting point for their interviews. Sample topics include: nativity, family structure, education, occupation, religion/faith community, city institutions, neighborhood relations, household economy, public events, leisure activities, views of government, the presence of the war in daily lives, etc. Given the fluid nature of oral histories, students will be encouraged to allow their subjects to talk about their life stories in whatever form the subject chooses. You cannot "script" oral history.
One of the most difficult aspects of conducting oral history is convincing one's subjects that their life stories are valuable and worth sharing. Once the interviews commence, people tend to enjoy themselves immensely, especially when the sharing of information and respect moves between the generations. I envision this project as wonderfully rewarding learning opportunity for my Holy Cross students who have at their feet a richly textured city with a fascinating history. In addition to teaching them how to be historians, I aim to infuse my students with a respect for and a sense of belonging to the place that is their four-year collegiate home. I also hope to benefit the Worcester community through the creation of the website and the sharing of original research materials, as well as through showing Worcester residents that the Holy Cross community values their history. We will provide all participants with a typed copy of their transcribed interview; we hope our interviewees will take personal pride in the project - that they feel a sense of authorship and agency in the final product.
Financial support from the Marshall Fund will help facilitate the above-outlined goals. Some of the funds requested are for momentary expenses (transportation, refreshments for the end-of-the-semester gathering, etc.); others (such as recording/video equipment and materials) will leave a more permanent mark and will be utilized in the future. I intend to teach this course approximately every three years. Thus, the Worcester WWII Homefront Project website will be an on-going project, built upon in the future by Holy Cross students and Worcester residents working together.
I have attached a proposed budget to cover the costs of this project. I have not applied to any other sources of funding. A letter of support from Professor Karen Turner (History) will arrive under separate cover.
Thank you for your consideration of this proposal.





BUDGET (The Worcester WWII Homefront Project):
6 Portable Cassette Recorders (CTR-114 Optimus) @ $100/each = $600
6 Cassette Recorder Adapters @ $13/each (273-1755 Radio Shack)= $78
35 Archive-Quality Tape Cassettes ($7/each): $245
6 packs of Batteries (4pack, AA batteries) @ $3.40/each = $20.40
Transportation Costs (for interviews and for end-of-the-year gathering) = $150
Reproduction/Scanning Costs (Worcester Historical Museum) = $125
Website Launching Party Costs = $300
Total requested: $ 1518.40