In the 1970s WHMC with the cooperation of many professors and students conducted
a large oral history program. Hundreds of people were interviewed about there
lives and experiences. Some of these oral history tapes were transcribed, but
many were not. The sheer quantity made it impossible to transcribe them as they
were completed. Until recently WHMC has allowed researchers to listen to the
tapes, but only a small percentage of the backlog has been transcribed by the
always busy staff of WHMC-St. Louis. Recently WHMC has digitized many of the
transcripts and placed them online. During this process we realized that many
of these important historical recording are in jeopardy due to normal aging.
It was decided to ask our friends and the friends of history to help save some
of these wonderful accounts of life in St. Louis by adopting one of the oral
history recordings and funding its transcription. One hour of tape can take
up to ten hours to transcribe because of the age and failing quality of the
recording. The average cost for transcribing one hour of tape is $150.00 to
$275.00. As each tape is adopted the transcript will be added to the WHMC web
page with recognition of the person or organization that adopted it.
Anyone interested in adopting one these valuable recordings contact Zelli Fischetti
at
(314)516-5143 or Email: zelli@umsl.edu