oral history
nounDefinition of oral history
1
: a recording containing information about the past obtained from in-depth interviews concerning personal experiences, recollections, and reflections
also
: the study of such information
2
: a written work based on oral history
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Examples of oral history in a Sentence
I'm reading an oral history of the Great Depression.
Recent Examples on the Web
The Intuit knowledge - or Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the culture's oral histories - was perhaps the most complete collection of firsthand accounts to survive over the decades, some of which was recorded in the 1850s and 1860s. — Meagan Flynn, Anchorage Daily News, "A doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic killed 129 men. Now the ship’s artifacts have been found ‘frozen in time.’," 29 Aug. 2019 Vice collected a full oral history of how the years-long experimental film project became one of the biggest horror movies of all time. — Adi Robertson, The Verge, "Don’t be fooled by the internet: this week in tech, 20 years ago," 20 July 2019 The event was part of the oral history additions at the park from the Alabama Bicentennial project. — Ivana Hrynkiw | [email protected], al.com, "Honorary marker unveiled at Red Mountain Park," 10 July 2019 In memory of the Mercury astronauts who led the way to the Apollo program, peep our oral history of the 1983 film The Right Stuff. — Aarian Marshall, WIRED, "A Meditation on Moon Shots, a Mid-Engine Corvette, and More Car News This Week," 21 July 2019 Interest in learning the native tongue grew, inspired in part by a series of oral histories broadcast in Native Hawaiian over the radio by local Hawaiian language activist Larry Kimura. — Noelle Swan, The Christian Science Monitor, "Whose independence? Why some Native Hawaiians don’t celebrate on July 4.," 2 July 2019 To mark Taschen’s release of an oversize limited-edition monograph celebrating Bailey’s oeuvre, our oral history draws on accounts from models, friends and old flames, offering a vibrant portrait of how the lensman worked. — Kristina O’neill, WSJ, "WSJ. Magazine Editor’s Letter: Drawing Inspiration," 4 Apr. 2019 Visitors can hear audio of oral history recounting firsthand accounts of life under Jim Crow or women of Montgomery boycotting bus segregation. — National Geographic, "13 destinations for African-American history and culture," 23 May 2019 Manufacturing Victory uses photos, historical artifacts, oral histories and an interactive audio-visual display to help visitors dive into the industrial movement. — Brandon Patterson, Detroit Free Press, "New Yankee Air Museum exhibit puts focus on Arsenal of Democracy," 5 Feb. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'oral history.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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