UNT Oral History Program

One of the oldest academic oral history programs in the United States, the UNT Oral History Program is a longstanding research initiative of the University of North Texas. Housed at Willis Library on UNT’s main campus in Denton, Texas, the Oral History Program is affiliated with the UNT Department of History.

The program records, transcribes, and archives oral history interviews covering a variety of subject matters in order to preserve the history of the North Texas region, including the Dallas-Fort Worth-Denton Metroplex. The program trains UNT students in the theory and methods of oral history, and also conducts workshops with members of the larger community who are interested in preserving their own histories. The program has several ongoing partnerships with local history societies and historical museums, fellow colleges and universities, and community organizations.

All interview recordings are transcribed. The transcripts are edited, bound, and archived in Willis Library, where they are available to scholarly researchers and members of the general public through the University Archives. The strengths of the collection include (but are not limited to) World War II history, with a collection of over 1,000 interviews with WWII veterans; Texas political history; Texas business history; history of the New Deal in Texas; and North Texas civil rights history. For more information, see the Oral History Program's web page.

A portion of the collection has been digitized and made available to members of the UNT community via the UNT Digital Library.