Oral History Interviews

We add approximately 75-100 new interviews to our collection each year. Interviews range from 45 minutes to 45 hours with 3-5 hours as the average length. The majority of interviews are conducted as audio-only, but we do hold some audio-video oral histories as well.

• Interviews organized by name (last updated June 2023)
• Interviews organized by UW department (last updated 2016)
• Interviews with transcripts (last updated August 2025)

Browse the Collection

You can browse oral histories in the library catalog and oral histories in UW Digital Collections (UWDC). Note that neither is a complete list of all the interviews we hold.

You can also use the library catalog to discover specific interviews within the collection.

1. Go to: https://www.library.wisc.edu/
2. Click “advanced search”
3. Key word search “oral history” and the individual’s name (e.g. “oral history” and “Birge”)
4. Under Filters, click Formats then choose Sound Recordings
5. In this case, one would get a list of all oral histories where the name “Birge” is the narrator or mentioned in the metadata.

Looking for someone specific? Follow steps 1-4 but keyword search on their name + “oral history”.

Search in our Digital Repository

We have over 1,000 interviews in UW’s digital repository, which is called MINDS@UW. Once at the “UW-Madison Oral History Program” page, select “This Collection” in the top right corner and type in a specific name or topic into “Search within this collection.” Then, hit “Go” to see the results.

• We also have a list of all oral history interviews that are available on MINDS@UW (last updated July 2025).

Browse the Collection by Series

Some interviews were collected as part of a larger effort to document specific themes related to UW campus history. View the list of current Series:

• Oral History Interviews – Series

For further assistance searching for oral history interviews in the library catalog, contact the Oral History Program Head or call 608-890-1899.