Oral History

Purpose Statement

The Stanford Historical Society's Oral History Program explores the institutional history of the University, with an emphasis on the transformative post-WWII period, through interviews with leading faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and others. The project furthers the Society's mission "to foster and support the documentation, study, publication, and preservation of the history of the Leland Stanford Junior University."

The interview recordings and transcripts provide valuable additions to the existing collection of written and photographic materials in the Stanford University Archives. In addition to scholarly use, we hope to expand our efforts to share information gathered through these interviews more broadly through print articles, campus lectures or electronic media.

Like any primary source material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a unique, reflective, spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it may be deeply personal. By capturing the flavor of incidents, events, and personalities, the oral history approach provides details and viewpoints that are not often found in traditional records.

Collections

Under the leadership of the late Fred Glover in the 1980s, Society volunteers partnered with the Archives to record over 60 in-depth interviews with individuals who have figured prominently in Stanford's history. In 2006, the oral history project was re-launched and over 100 interviews have since been conducted by Society volunteers.

University Faculty and Staff

Recent interviews of leading faculty and staff include a series with four early Stanford artists as well as two former provosts. Now is a critical time – we must capture the remembrances of many more outstanding faculty and other contributors who were at Stanford in the 1960s and 1970s. Interview materials and transcripts are available in the University archives at https://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/uarch/

“Dr. [Lorenz] Eitner asked Ann Rosener if I would photograph the [Art Department’s] cramped quarters on Geology Corner. He wanted a new space...So he made arrangements through Ann for me to go photograph Keith Boyle’s life drawing class. Well, the life model didn’t want to be in the picture. So here’s this long room, I’m over here in this corner photographing into that corner and that other corner – I had to avoid the model, you see. But anyway, I printed them and gave them to Ann. She took them to Dr. Eitner. He said, “The minute I saw the pictures I knew I’d asked the wrong man.” [Holub smiles and chuckles.] I love this story...Well, it didn’t show the cramped quarters. … But the pictures I did take he considered poetic. Ann had some other pictures [of mine] she’d been saving, and she showed them to him. And he said, “Why don’t we give him a show?” So that’s how it started.
        --Leo Holub, Senior Lecturer Emeritus and famed photographer (deceased April 2010)

“Wally [Sterling] let Fred [Terman] run the intellectual establishment... And Fred was impressive. He was certainly not chatty. He was not personable. But he was very task-oriented. And they made a wonderful team... When I came out [to interview]...I sat in Fred’s office and he interrogated me about my research grants. Where are they from? They’re all moveable, aren’t they? And I said, yes, they’re NSF. He finally said, well, do you have any questions for me? And I said yes---all the talk had been about graduate students and H&S and I was also going to do a course for the business school---so I said I would hope to teach an undergraduate course. And Fred’s face clouded over -- [laughing] -- not what he wanted to hear.
        --Albert H. Hastorf, Benjamin Scott Crocker Professor of Human Biology, Professor of Psychology, and, by courtesy, in the Graduate School of Business, Emeritus and former Provost and Dean of Humanities & Sciences

“[Life for faculty families] on the Stanford campus during the 1950s was a very quiet life but it was also a lot of fun, certainly for children, because Stanford was still a farm. There were farm animals everywhere. The red barn was open. We could go over there and look at the horses. There were cows in some of the areas around the golf course. And there was abundant wildlife, it was everywhere. Opossum, raccoons, many more deer than there are now. Snakes—gopher snakes and king snakes—huge snakes. They were very pretty. And meadowlarks. Meadowlarks and quail. The meadowlarks are all gone now. … They started to disappear when the university started major construction projects in the 1950s – Stern Hall, Crothers Hall, Wilbur Hall. That was sayonara to the meadowlarks. They were beautiful birds. They were yellow and green and they had a beautiful song.
        --Dennis Bark, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Other Stanford Faculty and Staff Oral Histories

As part of its program on the history of the biological sciences and biotechnology, the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley has interviewed several Stanford faculty and staff. These transcripts and supporting materials have been placed in the Bancroft Library and are available on its website at https://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/.

• Paul Berg, Ph.D., A Stanford Professor's Career in Biochemistry, Science Politics, and the Biotechnology Industry
• Arthur Kornberg, M.D., Biochemistry at Stanford, Biotechnology at DNAX
• Niels Reimers, Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing and the Cohen/Boyer Cloning Patents
• Arthur L. Schawlow , Optics and Laser Spectroscopy, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1951-1961, and Stanford University 1961-1999
• Stanley N. Cohen, M.D., Science, Biotechnology, and Recombinant DNA: A Personal History, an oral history conducted by Sally Smith Hughes in 1995

In addition, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has been conducting, recording, and transcribing oral histories with significant individuals in its fields of interest, including members of Stanford faculty and staff, since the late 1960s. The interview transcripts are available on the IEEE Global History Network website.

• IEEE Oral History Collection
  • C. Sidney Burrus
  • Vinton Cerf
  • C. Chapin Cutler
  • Donald Cox
  • James Gibbons
  • Robert Gray
  • Thomas Kailath
  • Brad Parkinson
  • Kumar Patel
  • Bernard Widrow
  • Frederick E.Terman Associates Oral History Collection
    • Marvin Chodorow
    • Edward Ginzton
    • William Hewlett
    • William Rambo
    • Guy Suits
    • Oswald Garrison Villard

Alumni Stories

The Alumni Stories project was piloted during Reunion Homecoming Weekend in October 2007, supported by a grant from the Stanford Associates, and was repeated in October 2008. Over 60 alumni, most attending their 50th reunions, recounted their memories and stories about undergraduate student life in the 1950s. An additional 15 alumni were interviewed at a Founding Grant Society event in 2009. Some excerpts from the Class of ’57 interviews were made into an audio clip (7M, mp3) and a related article was published in Sandstone & Tile.

Diversity Oral History Project

Launched in 2009, the first phase of the Oral History Project on Racial and Ethnic Diversity at Stanford seeks to re-capture what happened in the two decades between the late sixties and the late eighties that initiated and then shaped a significant increase in undergraduate student diversity at Stanford. We hope this multi-year project will greatly enhance the historical record of diversity at Stanford.

“One of the first things that I can recall really was the Kent State-Jackson State Riots which led to the killing of students on campus. One thing that took place here at the university made a lasting impression on me. We were really sympathetic to both campuses, but more so to Kent State. One day I received a call from President Pitzer who asked me to see if we could have a memorial service at MemChu [Memorial Church at Stanford]. That was a very impressive statement. And I asked him, did he want me to carry his name to Dean Napier? I think Napier was the Dean of Memorial Church at the time. He said no, just go ahead and have it done. That told me a lot about Stanford University. It was significant to memorialize students at a black college [Jackson State].
        --Harold Boyd, Assistant and Associate Dean of Students, 1969-80 and Director of Medical Fund for the Office of Development, 1980-95

Collaborations

The Historical Society encourages the oral history efforts of other campus organizations and may be able to provide training, equipment or modest funding support.

Supporting Oral History Projects

The Stanford Historical Society relies on the generosity of our members and friends to fund all of our programs. In order to continue and augment our oral history efforts, we are seeking special grants and gifts to support personnel and other costs such as purchase of equipment, transcription services, and post-interview production. If you are interested in helping to advance this important and timely work, please contact us at [email protected] or 650-725-3332.

Joining the Oral History Team

The Stanford Historical Society welcomes any individual who would like to participate in the oral history projects. Volunteers may participate in any or all aspects of the project, including conceptualization, background research, conducting interviews, transcribing recordings and editing transcripts. Training will be provided if needed. Please contact us at [email protected] or 650-725-3332.