Oral history center gets grant (S. Dakota)
A jewel of United States history quietly resides in the bowels of a nondescript building at the University of South Dakota.
The South Dakota Oral History Center isn't widely known outside of academia, but the center, located in a basement, contains eyewitness accounts of history that, in many cases, have remained undisturbed for decades.
"We sit on a very valuable collection here _ probably one of the most valuable in North America," said Edward Valandra, chairman of the Department of American Indian Studies.
Now, thanks to an earmark sponsored by Sen. Tim Johnson, the university is racing against time to preserve more than 5,500 recordings of people who witnessed and participated in the settling and early history of this region, including 2,200 interviews of Native Americans.
Many of those recordings were made on old audio reels. Thanks to time and the elements, the recordings on those reels could be lost. The federal grant, worth $409,000 over three years, enables the university to digitize the recordings.
Read entire article at Rapid City Journal
The South Dakota Oral History Center isn't widely known outside of academia, but the center, located in a basement, contains eyewitness accounts of history that, in many cases, have remained undisturbed for decades.
"We sit on a very valuable collection here _ probably one of the most valuable in North America," said Edward Valandra, chairman of the Department of American Indian Studies.
Now, thanks to an earmark sponsored by Sen. Tim Johnson, the university is racing against time to preserve more than 5,500 recordings of people who witnessed and participated in the settling and early history of this region, including 2,200 interviews of Native Americans.
Many of those recordings were made on old audio reels. Thanks to time and the elements, the recordings on those reels could be lost. The federal grant, worth $409,000 over three years, enables the university to digitize the recordings.