Oral Histories

Rosie the Riveter/World War II American Home Front Oral History Collection

The following content is taken from the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkely and is part of a collaboration between Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, the City of Richmond and the University of California, Berkeley Oral History Center.

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UC Berkeley Bancroft Library - In collaboration with the National Park Service and the City of Richmond, the Oral History Center conducted over 250 interviews focusing on the World War II Home Front experience. Starting with over one hundred interviews focused on the home front experiences in the Bay Area, we focused on why people from different backgrounds came to the Bay Area, what they did when they arrived, and what they learned from the fluidity and flux of wartime life that affected decisions they made after the war ended. What did women learn about the relationships between work and family life? How did attitudes change toward education? How did war affect race relations and reshape civil rights struggles? Did new ideas about sexuality take root, and if so, why and where? What happened to entertainment? To what degree did religious organizations provide people with a new sense of community? Oral histories collected are used in the National Park Service’s Visitor Education Center at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront National Historic Park and the Bancroft Library and available online below in transcript — and when possible — with videos synced to transcripts.