Capstone Project 2: The Appalachian Oral History Collection

"I'm not telling you my story so you can fix anything. I'm telling you my story so somebody knows it happened." — Retired teacher, Wise County, Virginia, recorded 2017

Overview

Throughout this textbook, you have encountered voices — in primary source excerpts, in case studies, in the composite profiles of Chapter 42. Some of those voices came from oral history collections: recordings made by researchers, students, and community members who sat down with Appalachian people and asked them to talk about their lives.

Oral history is one of the most powerful methods available for recovering the experiences of people who do not appear in official records. The coal miner's wife, the Black church elder, the first-generation college student, the returned veteran, the grandmother who remembers when the company store closed — these are people whose lives shaped their communities but whose names rarely appear in census records, land deeds, or newspaper articles. Their stories exist in memory. If no one records them, they disappear.

This capstone project asks you to become an oral historian.

The Appalachian Oral History Collection is an alternative to the Community History Portfolio. Instead of building a single county's written history, you will conduct 3 to 5 oral history interviews with people who have direct experience of Appalachian life — residents, former residents, or people with deep ties to an Appalachian community. You will transcribe the interviews, annotate them with historical context drawn from the textbook, and assemble the collection into a coherent document that contributes to the preservation of Appalachian memory.

This project is not easier than the Community History Portfolio. It is different. It requires a different set of skills — interviewing, listening, transcription, contextual analysis — and it produces a different kind of knowledge. Where the county history tells a place's story through documentary evidence and scholarly analysis, the oral history collection tells a community's story through the voices of its people.

Project Requirements

Interviews

You must conduct 3 to 5 original oral history interviews. Each interview should be:

At least 30 minutes in length, with a target of 45-60 minutes. The best oral history interviews are unhurried. People need time to settle into their memories, and the most valuable material often comes after the first twenty minutes, when the interviewee has relaxed and begun to tell the stories they did not plan to tell.
Recorded with the interviewee's informed consent. You must obtain written consent before recording. A consent form template is provided below.
Conducted with an Appalachian community member. Your interviewees should be people with direct, lived experience of Appalachian life. This includes people who currently live in Appalachia, people who grew up in Appalachia and moved away, people who moved to Appalachia from elsewhere, and people whose families have deep roots in the region even if they themselves have lived elsewhere. If you are unsure whether a potential interviewee qualifies, consult your instructor.
Focused on a coherent theme or community. Your interviews should not be random conversations with unrelated individuals. They should be connected — by geography (all from the same county or community), by experience (all coal miners, all women, all members of a particular church), by generation (grandparent, parent, and child from the same family), or by theme (all addressing the opioid crisis, or the coal economy, or the experience of leaving and returning). The connection between your interviews is what transforms a set of transcripts into a collection.

Finding Interviewees

Start with your own networks. If you have family or community connections in Appalachia, begin there. A grandmother, a neighbor, a family friend — people who know you are more likely to speak openly.
Contact community organizations. Senior centers, churches, historical societies, and community action agencies can often connect you with willing participants.
Ask your first interviewee for referrals. This "snowball" method is standard oral history practice and often produces the best results.
Do not cold-approach strangers. Oral history depends on trust. An introduction through a mutual connection almost always produces a better interview than approaching someone you have never met.

Oral history involves real people telling real stories about their real lives. The ethical obligations are serious.

Principles

Informed consent is non-negotiable. Every interviewee must understand what the project is, how their words will be used, and that they have the right to decline to answer any question, to stop the interview at any time, and to review the transcript before it is submitted.
Do no harm. Some topics — addiction, abuse, poverty, family conflict, racism — are sensitive. You may hear things that are painful, private, or politically charged. Your obligation is to the person sitting across from you, not to your grade. If an interviewee becomes distressed, pause or stop the interview. If someone shares information that is deeply private, ask whether they want it included in the transcript.
Respect boundaries. If someone does not want to discuss a topic, do not push. If someone asks you to turn off the recorder, turn it off immediately. If someone asks you to delete a section of the recording, delete it.
Maintain confidentiality unless permission is given. Offer every interviewee the option of using a pseudonym. Some people want their real names attached to their stories. Some do not. Both choices are valid. Never assume.
Share the results. Oral history should not be extractive. Offer every interviewee a copy of their transcript and, when available, a copy of the final collection. They gave you their stories. The least you can give them is a record of what they said.

You must obtain signed consent from each interviewee before recording. The following template may be adapted to your specific project. If your institution has an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that requires approval for student research involving human subjects, follow their procedures.

ORAL HISTORY CONSENT FORM

Project Title: [Your project title]

Interviewer: [Your name]

Interviewee: [Name or pseudonym]

Date: ______

Purpose: This interview is being conducted as part of a capstone project for a course on the history of Appalachia. The interview will be transcribed and included in an oral history collection submitted to the instructor. [If applicable: A copy may also be donated to a local library, archive, or historical society.]

I understand the following:

This interview will be audio recorded.

I may decline to answer any question.

I may stop the interview at any time.

I may request that specific portions of the interview be excluded from the transcript.

I will have the opportunity to review the transcript before it is submitted and to request corrections or deletions.

I may choose to be identified by my real name or by a pseudonym.

I choose to be identified as: ☐ My real name: ___ ☐ A pseudonym: ___

I grant permission for this interview to be: ☐ Used for the course assignment only ☐ Used for the course assignment and donated to a library or archive ☐ Used for the course assignment and made available to the public

Signature: ____ Date: ______

Interviewer Signature: ____ Date: ______

Interview Protocol

Before the Interview

Research your interviewee's background. If possible, learn basic biographical information before the interview. Knowing that someone worked at a particular mine, or attended a particular church, or grew up in a particular hollow allows you to ask more specific and productive questions.
Prepare a question guide, not a script. Write 10-15 open-ended questions organized thematically. These are starting points, not a rigid checklist. The best oral history interviews follow the interviewee's lead. Your questions should open doors; the interviewee decides which doors to walk through.
Test your equipment. Record a brief test on whatever device you plan to use (phone, digital recorder, laptop). Listen to the playback. Make sure the audio is clear. Bring backup batteries or a charger. Technical failure during an interview is devastating and avoidable.
Choose an appropriate location. The interviewee's home is usually best — people are most comfortable and most articulate in familiar surroundings. A quiet room is essential. Background noise (television, traffic, barking dogs) degrades both the audio quality and the interview quality.

During the Interview

Begin with the basics. State the date, your name, the interviewee's name (or pseudonym), and the location. This is standard oral history practice and creates a record for the transcript header.
Start with biography. Ask the interviewee to tell you about their early life — where they were born, who their parents were, what the community was like when they were young. Biographical questions are comfortable and natural, and they give the interviewee time to settle into the rhythm of storytelling.
Ask open-ended questions. "Tell me about..." is almost always better than "Did you...?" Avoid questions that can be answered with yes or no. The goal is to elicit narrative — stories, descriptions, reflections — not to confirm facts.
Listen more than you talk. The most common mistake of beginning interviewers is talking too much. Your job is to create space for the interviewee to speak. Let silences happen. People often fill silences with the most important things they have to say.
Follow up. When an interviewee mentions something interesting, ask for more detail. "Can you tell me more about that?" and "What was that like?" are among the most productive questions in oral history.
Do not correct or argue. If an interviewee says something you believe is factually incorrect, do not correct them during the interview. Their memory of events — even if it differs from the documentary record — is itself a form of historical evidence. You can note the discrepancy in your annotations.
Close gently. End with an open question: "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about that I didn't ask?" Some of the best material in oral history comes from this final question.

Sample Question Guide

The following questions are starting points. Adapt them to your specific theme and interviewees.

Early Life and Community - Tell me about where you grew up. What was the community like? - What did your parents do for a living? Your grandparents? - What are your earliest memories of [the community, the landscape, the work]? - What did people do for fun when you were young?

Work and Economy - Can you walk me through a typical day at [work/school/home]? - How has the economy of this area changed during your lifetime? - What did it feel like when [the mine closed / the factory left / the hospital shut down]?

Culture and Community - What traditions or customs from your childhood are still practiced? Which ones have disappeared? - Tell me about the music / food / faith that mattered most in your community. - How would you describe the way people talk in this area? Has that changed?

Change and Continuity - What is the biggest change you have seen in this community during your lifetime? - What has stayed the same? - If you could explain one thing about this place to someone who has never been here, what would it be?

The Hard Questions - How do you feel about the way Appalachia is portrayed in the media? - What do people from outside get wrong about this place? - What do you want people to know?

Transcription

Every interview must be fully transcribed — a complete, verbatim written record of the spoken conversation. Transcription is labor-intensive (expect 4-6 hours of transcription for every hour of recorded interview), but it is essential. A transcript is a primary source document. The audio recording captures what was said; the transcript makes it accessible, searchable, and analyzable.

Transcription Guidelines

Verbatim transcription. Transcribe exactly what was said, including false starts, repetitions, filler words ("um," "uh," "you know"), and grammatical constructions that differ from standard written English. Do not "clean up" the interviewee's speech. Appalachian dialect features — a-prefixing, double modals, distinctive vocabulary — are part of the historical and linguistic record. Normalizing them into standard English is an act of erasure.
Indicate non-verbal cues. Note significant pauses [pause], laughter [laughs], emotional moments [voice breaks], and other non-verbal communication in brackets.
Speaker identification. Label each speaker clearly (e.g., "INTERVIEWER:" and "INTERVIEWEE:" or the person's name/pseudonym).
Timestamp periodically. Include timestamps every 5-10 minutes to facilitate reference between transcript and recording.
Accuracy over speed. Listen to each section multiple times. If you cannot make out a word or phrase, note it as [inaudible] rather than guessing.
You may use transcription software. AI-powered transcription tools (Otter.ai, Rev, Whisper, etc.) can produce a rough draft, but you must review and correct the entire transcript by hand. Automated transcription is especially unreliable with Appalachian dialect features and with elderly speakers. The software is a starting point, not a finished product.

Contextual Analysis

Transcription alone does not make an oral history collection. The raw transcripts need contextual analysis — annotations and interpretive essays that connect the interviewees' stories to the historical themes and frameworks of this textbook.

For Each Interview, Provide:

An interview header — Date, location, interviewee biographical information (with permission), interviewer name, recording length, and a brief description of the interview context.
Annotations — Footnotes or endnotes throughout the transcript that provide historical context for events, places, institutions, or practices the interviewee mentions. When an interviewee says "We used to get paid in scrip at the company store," your annotation should reference Chapter 16 and explain what scrip was, how the company store system worked, and how this interviewee's account compares to the historical record.
An analytical essay (800-1,200 words per interview) — A short essay that follows each transcript and addresses: - What historical themes from the textbook are visible in this interview? - How does this person's account confirm, complicate, or contradict the textbook's narrative? - What does this interview reveal that documentary sources alone cannot? - Whose perspective does this voice represent, and whose perspectives are still missing?

For the Collection as a Whole, Provide:

An introduction (1,000-1,500 words) — An essay that introduces the collection, explains the thematic connection between the interviews, describes your methodology, and previews the major themes that emerge across the interviews.
A synthesis conclusion (1,000-1,500 words) — An essay that draws the interviews together, identifies the common threads and the contradictions, and reflects on what you learned about Appalachian history and identity from listening to these voices. This synthesis should explicitly engage with the textbook's recurring themes — extraction, resistance, diversity, agency, living culture — and should address what oral history can reveal that written sources cannot.

Analysis Framework

As you annotate and analyze your interviews, consider the following questions, drawn from the textbook's recurring themes:

The Extraction Pattern (Chapters 15-21, 41) - Do your interviewees describe the extraction of wealth from their community by outside interests? How do they understand this process? Do they use the language of exploitation, or do they frame it differently?

The Resistance Tradition (Chapter 26) - Do your interviewees describe acts of resistance — strikes, protests, legal challenges, community organizing, or everyday acts of defiance? How do they understand the tradition of resistance in their community?

Diversity (Chapters 6, 12, 19, 40) - Do your interviews capture the diversity of Appalachian experience? If your interviewees are predominantly white, what does that tell you about access, networks, and whose voices are most easily recorded? What steps could you take to broaden the collection?

Stereotype and Identity (Chapters 14, 35) - How do your interviewees talk about how Appalachia is perceived by outsiders? Do they experience stereotyping? How do they respond to it?

Memory and Silence - What do your interviewees choose to talk about, and what do they avoid? The silences in an oral history — the topics that are deflected, minimized, or refused — are as historically significant as the stories that are told.

Final Deliverable

Your completed Appalachian Oral History Collection should include, assembled in order:

Title page — Collection title, your name, date, course information
Table of contents
Introduction (1,000-1,500 words)
Interview 1 — Header, annotated transcript, analytical essay
Interview 2 — Header, annotated transcript, analytical essay
Interview 3 — Header, annotated transcript, analytical essay
[Interviews 4 and 5, if conducted] — Same format
Synthesis conclusion (1,000-1,500 words)
Methodology appendix — A brief description of how you found interviewees, the interview conditions, the recording equipment used, and the transcription method
Copies of signed consent forms (or a note confirming that signed forms are on file with the instructor)
Bibliography — Sources cited in annotations and analytical essays

Total length: The complete collection, including transcripts, will typically run 40-60 pages. The non-transcript portions (introduction, analytical essays, synthesis) should total approximately 7,000-10,000 words.

Audio files: Submit the original audio recordings along with the written collection. Label each file clearly with the date and interviewee name or pseudonym.

A Note on Oral History as Method

Oral history is not journalism. It is not a podcast interview. It is not a casual conversation recorded on a phone. It is a historical method — a disciplined practice of recording, preserving, and analyzing human memory as a form of evidence about the past.

The stories your interviewees tell are not "just stories." They are historical documents — primary sources that record how people experienced, understood, and made meaning from the events of their lives. Like all primary sources, they must be treated with both respect and critical analysis. A person's memory of an event is not the same as a factual record of the event, and the gap between memory and record is itself historically significant. People remember what mattered to them, forget what did not, and reshape their memories over time in response to new experiences and new ways of understanding the past.

Your job is not to determine whether your interviewees are "right" about what happened. Your job is to record what they remember, to understand why they remember it the way they do, and to connect their memories to the broader historical narrative you have learned in this course.

See Appendix F: Oral History Guide for additional methodological guidance, including extended bibliography, equipment recommendations, and archival procedures.

Community Impact Option

As with the Community History Portfolio, you are encouraged to donate your completed oral history collection to a local library, archive, or historical society. Oral histories are among the most valued acquisitions for local history collections, and your interviews — properly transcribed, annotated, and organized — constitute a genuine archival contribution.

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky, the Appalachian Sound Archives at Appalachian State University, and the West Virginia and Regional History Center at WVU all accept donations of oral history recordings and transcripts. Contact them to learn about their submission guidelines.

Before donating, ensure that your interviewees have granted permission for their interviews to be shared beyond the course assignment. This is addressed on the consent form.

Capstone Project 2 of 3 | Part 9: Capstone