What is Oral History?
An Introduction
by Melissa Lott

Melissa is donating the tape recorders (that she got through a grant) as well as two books to Mrs. Noe and her class. Melissa is a student at Mt. Union College and directed the program with Alliance City School District under the guidance of Dr. Peter Schneller.

We are all familiar with "textbook" history. We all know that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and that the Civil Rights movement occurred in the 1960's. However, this is often a part to all of this history that is overlooked, the oral aspect of history. Oral History is the personal emotions and feelings of individuals during a certain era. It is the personal perspective of historical events. It allows for one "...to become a producer of historical knowledge, rather than a passive absorber of historical information." (Glen Whitman, http://www.doingoralhistory.org/)

The fourth graders at Morgan Elementary School, 2002, became just this, "producers of historical knowledge." Over the course of three weeks, the students worked on and learned all about the living past apparent in oral history. They conducted interviews to construct their very own oral history of the Alliance community. On this Web site is their work and the history they never know was all around them.