UW Libraries Blog

oral history


February 3, 2023

Black History Month 2023

UW Libraries

While Black History Month provides a focused platform for collective reflection and celebration of Black History, the responsibility to self-educate is never-ending.   Making space to read, listen and watch something new – as a continuous practice (well beyond February) broadens our understanding of Black History in support in our collective work as allies, advocates, educators…


March 21, 2022

UW Libraries in the Classroom: Looted? Ethnomusicology, Archives & Colonial Legacies

UW Libraries

Inside the echoing walls of the Smith Room* within the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, John Vallier, Ethnomusicology Curator for UW Libraries, presses “play”.  Students listen intently to the scratchy recording of a so-called “war chant”. Vallier explains that it was recorded in 1906 near Mount Kilimanjaro by an officer in Germany’s colonial force. “The singers…


April 27, 2020

Listen and Learn: Exploring Oral Histories at UW Libraries for #preswk

UW Libraries

It’s Preservation Week 2020! This month marks the 10th anniversary of Preservation Week®, a public awareness initiative that aims to promote preservation and conservation in communities with the help of libraries, institutions and museums. Preservation Week inspires actions to preserve personal, family, and community collections in addition to library, museum, and archival materials. It also…


February 4, 2020

Founding Stories: The Origin of UW Tacoma

Justin Wadland

On the eve of our 30th anniversary, the UW Tacoma Library is spearheading a project to document the origins and development of UW Tacoma through oral history. Gathering the Voices of Those who Built UW Tacoma Nearly 30 years ago, in March 1990, the News Tribune asked residents of the Tacoma area where the new “branch campus”…


October 17, 2019

UW Tacoma Library Welcomes Oral History Project Manager

Justin Wadland

Reposted from UW Tacoma Libraries Blog by Justin Wadland 10/14/2019 The Library is pleased to announce that Joan Hua joined its staff this autumn as the Oral History Project Manager. In the next 12 months, she will be working to develop a new collection of digital oral histories for the UW Tacoma Oral History: Founding…