About the Living History Project

The University of Rochester Living History Project was formally established in 2013 at the request of President Joel Seligman to complement the 2014 publication of Our Work is But Begun: A History of the University of Rochester, 1850-2005.

Oral history interviews intended to preserve University of Rochester history have been conducted since at least the 1960s. The various divisions of the University--the College, the Medical Center, the Eastman School of Music, the Memorial Art Gallery--have each created recordings.
Some have been audio-only, but others include film or videotape footage. The sound and image quality varies greatly, and the materials are posted on this website with minimal enhancement.

The Living History Project (LHP) is charged with adding to these existing oral histories, as well as preserving and making those prior materials more widely available on a central website.

Many individuals have worked on the Living History Project: interviewers, transcribers, proofreaders; volunteers, as well as staff and student workers, including:

  • Nancy Martin '65, '94 (MA) (Interviewer, transcriber, proofreader, editor)
  • Andrea Weinstein'06 (MA) (Interviewer)
  • Paul Burgett '68E, ’76E (PhD) (Interviewer)
  • Eileen Fay '08 (Transcriber)
  • Atrayee Lahiri '15S (MBA) (Editor)
  • Emma Morgan '16 (Transcriber, proofreader)
  • Megan Wilson '15 (Transcriber, proofreader)
  • Nicholas Knopf (PhD candidate in English) (Editor)
  • Helen Ancona Bergeson '38 (Interviewer)
  • John Braund '53, '61W (MS) (Interviewer)
  • Jack End '40E (Interviewer)
  • LaRoy Thompson (Interviewer)
  • Ruth Van Deusen (Transcriber)
    Ruth Watanabe '52E (DMA) (Interviewer)


Original website implementation: Harish Nayak '00 (Senior Digital Services Analyst, Information Discovery)
Original website design: Sean Morris (Web User Interface Designer, Information Discovery)

For more information, suggestions, corrections, and comments, please contact:
Melissa S. Mead, John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian (melissa.mead@rochester.edu)