Guide to the Audio Tapes of the Pittsburgh Oral History Project, 1974

Arrangement

Repository
Heinz History Center
Title
Audio Tapes of the Pittsburgh Oral History Project
Creator
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Collection Number
CSS#1
Extent
.50 cubic feet (1 box)
Date
1974
Abstract
The Pittsburgh Oral History Project was the first project started by Dr. John E. Bodnar as chief of the Division of History of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). The project, conducted from 1974 to 1978, was a continuation of the Ethnic Culture Survey begun by the PHMC in 1966 to collect, study, and preserve Pennsylvania's traditional cultures. Series have been designated for African-Americans and Slavic Groups.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
This guide to the collection was originally prepared by Historical Society Staff in 1975. Papers rearranged and inventory rewritten by Jocelyn L. Liang on August 22, 1994. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in Summer, 2001.
Sponsor
This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
Publisher
Heinz History Center
Address
1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org

Project Description

The Pittsburgh Oral History Project was the first project started by Dr. John E. Bodnar as chief of the Division of History of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). The project, conducted from 1974 to 1978, was a continuation of the Ethnic Culture Survey begun by the PHMC in 1966 to collect, study, and preserve Pennsylvania's traditional cultures. Using experience obtained from a 1973 oral history project at the University of Scranton, Bodnar developed a questionnaire to be applied to different ethnic and racial groups within a particular geographic area that sought information about shared experiences. With the assistance of David Montgomery of the University of Pittsburgh, Bodnar recruited and trained Peter Gottlieb, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Pittsburgh.

African-Americans, Italians, and Irish, as well as people of Polish, Croatian, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian, and other Slavic birth or heritage were interviewed. About 150 males and 50 females were interviewed, most of whom were over the age of 60 and were first or second generation immigrants or migrants. Most of the men interviewed worked or had worked at blue-collar industrial jobs. All interviews were conducted in English and were field recorded under varying conditions in interviewee homes, offices and places of work using portable cassette recorders. Basic information forms were completed for all interviews and most were indexed in writing. Manuscripts of typed transcripts were created for some interviews. In 1987, six recordings were missing or were not suitable for listening from those originally a part of the project.

The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania administered the first part of the project, providing meeting and administrative facilities. In return, the Historical Society received copies of some of the interviews. This collection includes recordings of twenty-two of the 191 interviews conducted, with twenty-one male and one female interviewee. The audiotapes in this collection include interviews with African-Americans, Slovaks, Serbs, Ukrainians, and Poles. The originals of all the audiotapes and some transcripts remain in the collection of the PHMC. Peter Gottlieb conducted the majority of these interviews, with the exception of two that were conducted by Major Mason, a McKeesport resident who interviewed African-Americans in that area. Although the project continued until 1978, the interviews included here all occurred in 1974.

Scope and Content Notes

In keeping with the question schedule developed by Bodnar, all interviewees discuss basic demographic information, immigration/migration stories, family background, details of career, family history and descriptions of their mobility and residential experiences. Most of the people interviewed in this collection resided in Pittsburgh, McKees Rocks, or McKeesport at the time of the interview. All of the men interviewed for this collection were employed in the steel industry during the 1919 strike, and many worked for the Jones Laughlin Steel Company at some time. The interviewers are particularly interested in the subjects' recollections of the growth of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and any mention of the 1919 Steel Strike, as well as ethnic and race relations among steelworkers and unionized workers. A sampling of the tapes reveals that these interviews provide useful information on urbanization, working conditions in steel mills and coalmines, Prohibition, the Great Depression, the unionization of steelworkers in Pittsburgh during the 1930s, and the accomplishments of the union. Unfortunately, some of the copies are of poor quality. All tapes are audiocassettes.

Arrangement

The Pittsburgh Oral History Project Tapes are arranged in two series. Series have been designated for African-Americans and Slavic Groups. Within the series, tapes are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the person interviewed.

The Pittsburgh Oral History Project Tapes are housed in one archival box.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These materials were received in one accession in 1974.

Acc# 74.52 Gift of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. December 1975, (Audio tapes).

Preferred Citation

Audio Tapes of the Pittsburgh Oral History Project, 1974, CSS #1, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Historical Society Staff in 1975. Papers rearranged and inventory rewritten by Jocelyn L. Liang on August 22, 1994.

Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Doug MacGregor on July 6, 2001.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.

Subjects

    Personal Names

    • Bodnar, John
    • Gottlieb, Peter
    • Mason, Major

    Geographic Names

    • Aliquippa (Pa.)--Social life and customs
    • McKeesport (Pa.)--Ethnic relations

    Other Subjects

    • Afro-American iron and steel workers -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Afro-Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Afro-Americans -- Pennsylvania -- McKeesport
    • Afro-Americans -- Social life and customs
    • Alien labor -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Company towns -- Pennsylvania -- Aliquippa
    • Depressions -- 1929 -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Employees -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Labor disputes -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Rural-urban migration -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Serbian Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects
    • Slavic Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Slovak Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Steel Strike, U.S., 1919-1920
    • Strikes and lockouts -- Steel industry -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Strikes and lockouts -- Coal mining -- Pennsylvania
    • Trade-unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Trade-unions -- Afro-American membership
    • Trade-unions -- Coal miners -- Pennsylvania
    • Trade-unions -- Iron and steel workers -- Pennsylvania
    • Ukrainian Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
    • Women -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh

Container List