Sesquicentennial Oral History project launched
February 14, 2008
By Bill Doran (Herald Progress)
The Oral History Committee for the 150th Anniversary of Ashland met for the first time on Feb. 5. Its goal is to videotape citizens telling stories about life in Ashland today and in the past to build a resource for future generations to look back and see how Ashland once was.
About a dozen people showed up to come up with ideas and suggestions on how to best accomplish this goal. The volunteers on hand ranged from the academic community with experience in oral history projects to audio-visual professionals.
Author and researcher Dale Talley is the chairwoman for this project. She laid out some issues for the committee to consider. "I have been thinking about issues we might want to consider," said Talley. "Such as what is it we want to accomplish? How should we organize this within our project's parameters and funding? What do we want as our final product and how will it be developed, preserved, shared and distributed?"
Several Randolph-Macon staff members were on hand, including Librarians Judy Showalter and Laurie Preston. They suggested using the students to help conduct the interviews.
Additionally, Alphine Jefferson of the R-MC history department has put together many black oral history projects throughout the nation, and mentioned many of his students were interested in participating.
"In order to make this successful we need to speak with everyone in the community," said Jefferson. "There are people who have been here for generations, both in the black and white community. They all have stories to tell, and to be successful we need to hear them all, the good and the bad."
Some suggestions that came out of this initial meeting was to think about who the target audience should be, develop a slate of Ashland-related questions, and come up with names of citizens to talk to.
They also asked for the citizens to think up a series of themes for the various chapters in the oral history.
The next meeting of the Oral History Committee will be Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ashland Police Department. If you would like to help with this special project, please contact Dale Talley at 550-1777 or dptalley@comcast.net.