Oral Histories at the Digital Commons@Becker

The Washington University School of Medicine Oral Histories are now accessible through the Digital Commons@Becker. The Digital Commons serves as an institutional repository for showcasing and preserving the scholarly work produced at the Washington University School of Medicine. Administered by the Bernard Becker Medical Library, the Digital Commons provides departments, centers, divisions, and programs at WashU Medicine with a digital platform to create customized collections that reflect the wide range of their scholarly output.

The Becker Library Archives uses Digital Commons to make available historical texts and resources which now include the oral histories, in both PDF transcripts and audio files. Being on the Digital Commons, the oral histories benefit from enhanced search capabilities, increased visibility for researchers and the public, and improved metadata, abstracts, and biographical notes that provide crucial context for each interview. This digital transition not only preserves invaluable first-person accounts but also fosters broader engagement with the rich personal narratives that illustrate the history of WashU Medicine.

The Washington University School of Medicine Oral Histories comprise a comprehensive and evolving collection of recorded interviews and transcripts capturing the personal experiences and recollections of individuals connected to WashU Medicine. These recordings, preserved at the Becker Library Archives, feature first-person accounts from faculty, staff, alumni, family members, friends, and others associated with WashU and the medical community in St. Louis and beyond. The oral histories serve as a vital resource for understanding the institution’s past, emphasizing voices that are often absent or underrepresented in traditional archival documents.

The origins of the oral history project date back to 1964 when Dr. Estelle Brodman—a medical historian and librarian with a PhD in the history of medicine from Columbia University—initiated the effort. Dr. Brodman was a pioneering figure who introduced significant innovations to biomedical librarianship and informatics during her twenty years at WashU. After spending twelve years at the National Library of Medicine, she became the librarian and associate professor for the history of medicine at WashU Medicine in 1961. During her tenure, she played a pivotal role in supporting special collections and developing the archives within the medical library. The first formal oral history interview was conducted by Dr. Brodman herself, in which she interviewed Joseph Erlanger, the former chair of the physiology and a 1944 Nobel Prize winner. This initial effort marked the beginning of a long-term commitment to capturing the lived experiences of faculty, staff, alumni, family members, friends, and others involved with WashU Medicine.

At that time, oral history was still a relatively new discipline, particularly within academic archives. Only a few academic centers, including Columbia University, where Brodman was educated, taught oral history as a discipline. Columbia established one of the first oral history programs in 1948. Brodman’s interview with Dr. Erlanger in 1964 occurred before the first National Colloquium on Oral History in the United States in 1966. The Oral History Association was not incorporated until 1967. Oral History, the oldest journal dedicated to the work of oral historians, was first published in the United Kingdom in 1969. In the United States, the Oral History Review, the journal of the Oral History Association, was first published in 1973.

The primary goal of oral history is to capture the voices and memories of individuals involved in historical events, offering perspectives that might otherwise be absent from official documents. The program initiated by Brodman was part of a broader movement to create a more inclusive and representative historical record through personal narratives.

Over the decades, the collection has grown substantially, now including over 219 hours of audio from 193 recordings, representing 158 uniquely identified oral histories. The collection added an average of two and a half oral histories per year. However, the yearly distribution of recordings shows periods of increased activity and other times of more modest growth.

Although Dr. Estelle Brodman conducted her first recording in the early 1960s, the earliest oral history in the collection is from 1959 and was added to the library about ten years after its recording. Having the program at the library encouraged others to deposit independently created oral histories with the archives. The surge in activity during the 1990s and mid-2000s can largely be attributed to other WashU staff conducting oral histories—sometimes with assistance from the library—and subsequently transferring these recordings to the archives for preservation and access.

In 1990, Edwin McCleskey, PhD, along with medical students James Carter (WashU Medicine MD ’93) and William Geideman (WashU Medicine MD ’93), conducted interviews with thirteen individuals who played significant roles in the desegregation of WashU Medicine and its affiliated hospitals. These interviews were then archived in the Becker Library Archives.

The most active period for the project occurred between 2006 and 2015, primarily due to the efforts of the Program in Physical Therapy, led by Dr. Susan Deusinger. She collaborated with the library to record interviews and secure the necessary releases from current and former staff and alumni of the program.

With more than half a century of recordings, the project has encountered challenges related to legacy formats, incomplete documentation, and securing permissions. In preparation for making the oral histories available online, archivists have invested significant effort in reviewing documentation and tracking down permissions to ensure that the histories can be shared publicly in a trustworthy and ethical manner. Obtaining proper releases and rights clearances has proven particularly difficult for earlier recordings made before standardized ethical guidelines were established. Some older interviews existed only as paper transcripts, which required retyping or converting to digital files, while others lacked transcripts entirely, necessitating labor-intensive transcription work by library staff. Many of the earliest interviews were captured on reel-to-reel tapes and later transferred to cassette tapes in the mid-1980s. Digitization began in the early 2000s, and all analog audio formats have since been digitized.

Transitioning the collection to Digital Commons involved extensive work to create and edit metadata, format transcripts, and prepare abstracts and biographical notes for each interview. This migration not only improved accessibility but also enhanced search capabilities, allowing users to find relevant oral histories through keyword searches rather than relying on static indexes.

Recent technological improvements have greatly facilitated these tasks. Artificial intelligence tools have transformed the processes of audio restoration and transcription. Some early recordings suffered from poor audio quality, which made transcription challenging or impossible. AI-powered audio cleaning tools have significantly improved sound clarity and enabled the generation of accurate transcripts. Automated transcription services have expedited the creation of new transcripts and allowed for the review and correction of existing ones. These technologies have saved countless hours of manual labor and uncovered nuances in tone and meaning that earlier transcripts often missed.

The Washington University School of Medicine Oral Histories project serves as an essential record of WashU Medicine’s history, capturing diverse voices that illuminate various aspects of the institution’s past. Initiated in the 1960s under Dr. Estelle Brodman’s leadership, the project has evolved into a digitally accessible archive enhanced by modern technology. This evolution showcases a continuous commitment to documenting and sharing personal narratives. With ongoing advancements in technology and active community involvement, these oral histories will remain a valuable resource for scholarship, teaching, and public understanding for many years to come.