ORAL HISTORIES

Alexander Beaton and Sons LCM # 1261

Oral histories are the stories of a community told by the people who experienced history first hand.

The Langley Centennial Museum has over 200 recordings of oral histories. Since the 1970s, researchers have been interviewing local people -- from the editor of the local newspaper to the descendants of fur trade adventurers. These interviews include important information about our community and local families.

In 2003, the Museum received funding from British Columbia Digital Collections program, supported by the British Columbia Arts Council and British Columbia Museums Association. This support enabled us to convert the fragile, cassette recordings to digital sound files. These sound files are now available to listen to on an audio CD – just like listening to a music CD at home. We have also completed a description of each interview.

This on-line, searchable database is a guide to the recordings. While we do not yet have the capacity to make the actual recordings available through the website, they are available through the Museum. Please contact Kobi Howard at khoward@tol.bc.ca to arrange access.

If you are from a museum or archive interested in learning more about how we went about digitizing our recordings, please click here for further information.

Keyword Search Database

Enter a keywords below to search the oral histories collection. The search will find all records that contain the entered keywords. For example, if you enter "ken", the search will return the records that contain "ken", "kenneth", etc. If you enter "kenneth", the search will not find records that contain only "ken". You can enter multiple search terms, separated by spaces. The search will return those records that contain any of the words that you enter.

Advanced Search

Insert keywords in the fields below and click on the "Search" button.

You can enter multiple search terms, separated by spaces. The search will return those records that can contain all of the words that you enter.

Title Is Contains Begins With File # Is Contains Begins With Date of Interview (Dates of Creation) Is Contains Begins With Description of Interview (Scope & Content) Is Contains Begins With Interviewer (Statement of Responsibility) Is Contains Begins With Subjects Is Contains Begins With

British Columbia Digital Collections supported by the British Columbia Arts Council and British Columbia Museums Association.