Special Collections & College Archives

The FIT Library's Oral History Project holds over 400 interviews of prominent 20th-century fashion industry insiders, as well as members of the FIT community, that provide a broad historical record that is drawn directly from the knowledgeable, informal, and often, colorful verbalization of its practitioners.

A portion of these interviews can be accessed on FIT's Archive on Demand video platform or YouTube, while others can be viewed by making an appointment in SPARC. 

Scroll down for SPARC's Oral History Index, its full list of interviews.

Oral histories are special kinds of interviews meant to collect information from important members of communities, families, companies, and more, whose memories are crucial for the preservation of historical records.

The Oral History Association states that "Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies."

For detailed guidance on conducting oral history interviews, check out:

• The Oral History Association's resources pages. Their Independent Practitioners’ Toolkit for Oral Historians is particularly helpful for anyone learning to conduct oral histories for scholarly research.
• The Columbia Center for Oral History Research's Services and Resources pages. You do not need to be a Columbia student to take classes through their oral history program. This webpage links out to additional oral history organizations and programs.
• The Oral History Society's Advice pages. This is a UK based organization that provides great advice on a variety of areas. Keep in mind that laws in the UK and the EU vary from those in the US, however this can be helpful if your research might find its way to international publication.
• The Baylor University Institute for Oral History's resource guides. 

Important things to keep in mind about conducting oral history interviews:

• The person conducting an oral history interview is tasked with helping the interviewee recall and speak about their experiences, while keeping their own bias, opinion, and related experiences from influencing the speaker.
• The interviewer should review ethical and legal guidelines before planning and conducting oral history work. 
• Factor in time and costs around transcribing oral history interviews. The Guilford College Library provides guidance on how to transcribe an oral history recording.

View a larger version of the index by clicking here. Scroll down for a video on how to use the index.

Watch this quick video for some tips on searching the Oral History Project index above.