“Tell me a story about your boss at your last job?” OR 
“Where did you get that cool necklace?” 
 
I think the necklace approach is less threatening, and could just yield the more intimate conversation. If you asked me about the shiny necklace that I had chosen to wear for the occasion, I could tell you about my relationship with my delightful mother-in-law who gave it to me. That might lead me to the occasion I received it, and I might even tell you why I wore it tonight. That is a lot of context!

As personal historians, when we tune into something that is important to our clients, we have a chance to hear their deeply held values as they relate to uniquely personal treasures in their lives.

• a lifetime of old license plates? 
• your grandmother’s weavings she brought from her native land? 
• books signed by the author?
• tools your family used to make maple syrup over the past 150 years? 
• board games? 

 
Q:  Why do we hold on to these old things?
 
A: Because these artifacts say something about us when we say something about them. Sometimes we don’t even realize we have a collection until someone notices all our little bowls and then asks us what that is all about. Who can resist being seen, noticed, listened to? 
 
I am a big fan of the art and the value of asking questions, but after raising two sons and working as a mental health counselor with reluctant children, I have come to appreciate a more oblique approach to information gathering. 
 
I like to know what motivates people, and it is fun to listen for clues about that in conversations on the air, in the clinic, or on the patio. I wondered what would happen if I recorded people talking about the things they love? What if we focused more on memories and reflections than on telling stories with beginnings, middles and ends? Would there still be juicy content? 

​Kate Manahan is a radio producer/host and oral historian who founded Thumbprint Audio in late 2020. Her new personal history business records family and individual narratives, sometimes represented in client-narrated picture books. Kate lives and works in Kennebunk, ME and collects rocks, old political buttons, and—as it turns out—things with images of birds on them. 

www.thumbprintaudio.com
kate@thumbprintaudio.com
207 604 9015

By Peggy  Rosen
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Pull out a sepia-toned photo from the 1920’s of my Great-Aunt Bess. I’ll take delight in sharing the stories that have become family legend, about an adventuress ahead of her time. Equally comfortable on rock, snow, or ice, and as tough as her hobnailed boots, Elizabeth (Bess) MacCarthy became one of the most accomplished female climbers in North America. She scaled many peaks in the Canadian Rockies, making first ascents of formidable climbs such as Bugaboo Spire in 1916. In 1917, she climbed the challenging Mt. Hungabee, the first woman to stand on its summit.
 
Show me an image of my college-aged-self suspended on a ropes course high in the treetops. The smell creosote-soaked timbers, sweat, mosquito repellant is overwhelming.  The sound of the whistling wind takes me back to the wilderness camp in the heart of New York’s Adirondack Mountains –- an experience that influenced the course of my adult life. I might even tell you, with a grin, about seeing the hit movie that summer that everyone was raving about — “Star Wars – A New Hope.”
 
Photos serve as a strong and effective trigger for memories. The immediate reaction of recognition and remembered experience can get us talking right away, prompting descriptive details that make a life story vivid. And beyond eliciting sensory specifics that enhance our story, the visual experience of a picture can take us down a reminiscence road full of emotions.
 
Written personal stories and heirloom books frequently use photos to illustrate a narrative. Often, the initial step in a personal story project involves interviews with one or more story narrators who respond to questions posed by a personal historian. The personal historian assists the narrator in elaborating on their responses, then transcribes and organizes the information into narrative form. We may already have specific photos to incorporate into a final product, adjacent to the story text. At other times, after the story is written, we comb through photos to pick the best one that “goes” with the story.
 
What if we turn this around and start with photos, before diving into story questions? This approach can be a fun way to launch life story sessions. In lieu of a list of questions, start with a sheaf of photos, or an album, or even stock photos of an era.  The “photos first” strategy can be helpful for those who are having trouble deciding where to begin their memoir or life story project, or for personal historians working with reluctant narrators. Using photos as a memory prompter lends itself to “digging deeper” into the perspective of the viewer. The details that emerge in describing a picture and its backstory enhance discovery. Let pictures do more than sit beside story. Let them help tell it.
 
To try working from a photo as a starting point, begin with these tips:

• Select a photo that shows yourself, and/or other people, an event, or some kind of action taking place. These photo subjects often provide more opportunities for deeper description and discussion than simpler photos of scenery.
• Describe the five “W’s” in the picture - Who, When, Where, What, Why?
• Note the fashions, trends, social behaviors, setting, historical objects pictured.
• Pay attention to facial expressions captured in the photo and where people are  positioned relative to one another.
• Be respectful of the fragility of old photos, and handle with care.

A new view of your photos, as “detailed memory excavators” just might serve to illuminate, as well as illustrate, your life stories.

Our PHNN Zoom social gathering on Veterans Day, 2020, focused on gathering veterans' stories. I spoke of my experiences gathering their stories, both the joys and the challenges. Thirteen of my veterans' interviews are now housed at the Library of Congress Veterans Oral History project collection. Here’s the powerpoint presentation we used for the gathering.

During our time on Zoom, I explained the process I use, which involves meeting with each veteran prior to the interview to get required paperwork completed (It’s a government program—you know!).

The pre-interview time helps in understanding each veteran’s story,  provides an opportunity to gather and scan any photos the veterans may have to share from their time of service, and learn about what the veterans have gone on to do with their lives after military discharge. Perhaps most important, this private meeting allows time to ask each veteran what they do NOT want to be asked about on camera. This is an opportunity to be clear about experiences a service person may wish to remain private, and is a matter of respect that has always been welcomed.

The time spent privately with each veteran allows the interviewer to put together an interview script to share with both the veteran and the camera crew. Our local Community Cable TV station, where all my interviews have been taped, were great partners in my local effort to gather these stories. I supply the camera crew with not only the script, but the jpegs of the veteran’s photos, to insert at appropriate times throughout the interview, adding visual interest to the final product.
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Since no interview goes exactly as planned, there have been mix ups, confusion about which photo to use and other issues, but on the whole, the process has worked well. It does require close coordination with the crew at the TV station.

Community cable stations have a requirement to provide programming for specific community benefit. Producing and airing veterans stories destined for the Library of Congress fits the bill of community service to a T. Partnering with my local cable station (ABMI Channel 8)  has been a positive experience all around.
 
Besides sending the documentation plus DVD of each recording to the Library of Congress, I also worked with our town to reserve a page on the town website, under Veterans Services, where all the interviews conducted here in Bellingham, MA are posted that are also housed in the Library of Congress. A short blurb is posted under each veteran’s link to help site visitors get a taste of what each interview offers. 
 
Spending time with veterans is an experience in meeting people who have had their lives changed from having served. Almost without exception, those I interviewed have continued finding ways to serve after their discharge, whether it has been by joining law enforcement or fire departments, serving on local town boards, or other ways to continue giving back to our community. Listening to a veteran’s story is both a joy and a humbling experience. My hope is that other veterans will come forward to share their stories, a gift to us all.

While taking a “Museum & Digital Technology” class at Tufts University last fall, I was tasked with creating a system that utilized new technology and was beneficial to an organization in my community. I live in the Blackstone River Valley, a national park with a rich history whose story has not been fully told. I began thinking about the difficulties of collecting the oral histories of lifelong residents and being able to share them with the public. I realized that I could create an easy-to use interface that would allow personal historians to gather stories from millworkers using their computer or mobile device, along with spreading the stories online or through social media. (You can look at the process here.)

The Blackstone River Valley has a long history as the “Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” At the southern end of the valley, Slater’s Mill in Pawtucket, RI became the first water-powered mill in the United States in 1793. From then on, hundreds of mills in all shapes and sizes were built on the Blackstone River and its tributaries. Local people left their farms to work in the mills, while immigrants came from Europe and Canada to run the machines. Amazingly, this millworker lifestyle continued until the 1970s, when the last of the mills closed down. Because this way of life continued for so long, some of the former millworkers still live in the Blackstone Valley. The youngest are in their mid-seventies, while most remaining mill workers are older. Within a few years, the last of the millworkers will be gone, and their stories would be lost.

When working alone, I didn’t have any funding to create a completed product. That’s where Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. (BHC) came in. When the COVID-19 restrictions hit, I connected with BHC to begin a summer practicum under the supervision of Volunteer Coordinator Suzanne Buchanan. After pitching the idea to her, she arranged a Zoom meeting for me to seek support for the project. An initial meeting with BHC and National Park Service staff and volunteers was highly successful, and I was given the go-ahead to build the project, thanks to funding found by BHC director Devon Kurtz. I have been working with media expert Brad Larson to put my interface over his StoryKiosk framework, along with local historian and PHNN member Marjorie Turner Hollman to create a list of interviewing questions to guide the storytellers.

To find millworkers who want to tell their stories, I hope to turn to a few different sources. During the early stages of recording, as I find the best way to interview millworkers using this new technology, I will collect the stories of local community members whom I have known for most of my life. Many local historical societies are run by the very same people who once ran the mills, and they have kept in contact with their fellow workers. The Rhode Island Manufacturers Association is another resource, as they connect the industries of the past to those of the present.

I’m excited to begin collecting stories from the former millworkers of the Blackstone Valley. All of the stories will be held in a database that can be made accessible to other organizations related to the Blackstone Valley, like the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, RI. Selected stories will be shared on the BHC social media, including their Facebook page, Instagram feed, and YouTube channel, along with hopefully appearing in future exhibits once restrictions are lifted. If you know anyone who worked in the mills of the Blackstone Valley or had close family that worked in the mills, feel free to send them my way! My email is aaepplett@gmail.com.

Abigail Epplett is a MA candidate in Museum Studies at Tufts University, focusing on informal education and American history. She recently completed a summer practicum with Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc., a non-profit organization affiliated with the Blackstone River Valley National Historic Park in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and continues to volunteer with the National Park Service.