Oral History Project

We are working to improve the oral history reading experience better!

We have upgraded our oral histories from pdf files to live web content. This will ensure accessibility for all users around the world. We are working on these alphabetically. We will also gradually be incorporating audio files into the oral history pages.

If there is a specific oral history you would like in a pdf format, please contact us. We will email you that particular file if our email system can accommodate it. Please understand that because of the age of the source documents used to create the pdfs, many cannot be made completely accessibile.

These oral histories were originally recorded, and then transcribed as best as possible. In some cases, interview subjects used words that may be shocking or disturbing to modern users. In some cases such language may be slightly edited in transcripts. Our friends at the National Archives have a good explanation of how modern day historians and users can understand such language. You can find that explanation here: https://www.archives.gov/research/reparative-description/harmful-content

 

Jimmy Carter with Bess Truman's nurses at the Truman Home, August 1980. Carter was interviewed in 1991.

The oral history project at Harry S Truman NHS began in 1983. When the National Park Service began tours of the home in 1984, little was known about the Truman family's private life and activities in the community. Early oral history interviews focused on the personal information critical to properly interpret, furnish, and preserve the home in a manner that accurately reflected the occupation of the Truman family.

For more than 30 years the program has preserved important information about the Truman family's home life and community ties in Independence and Grandview, Missouri. One Hundred thirty taped interviews have been conducted, totaling over 200 hours. The completed interviews allow the park to document the stories of family, friends and neighbors associated with Harry Truman and his family during their residence at 219 North Delaware in Independence and on the Truman farm in Grandview. Oral history informants included neighbors, secret service agents, medical personnel, shopkeepers, relatives, friends, household staff and other Truman contemporaries. The broad range of people interviewed helps paint a more complete picture of the Truman family's life.

Click on the alphabetical links below to browse the oral histories. Park staff and volunteers are working on finalizing recent interviews and these oral histories will be posted as they become available.

ORAL HISTORIES

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q

R S T U V W X Y Z

To search the oral histories by the informants' relationship with the Truman family, visit Oral History Informants by Association.

 

Truman Library Oral Histories!

Additional Truman Oral Histories.