CAG's Oral History Project

CAG is embarking on an oral history project for Georgetown. We have been awarded a Dorothea DeSchweinitz Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to collect and record a “living” history of Georgetown’s remarkable homes, buildings and structures as seen through the eyes of long time residents. The project will record the history of Georgetown buildings and places (houses, institutions, schools, churches, parks, cemeteries, and businesses) as experienced, remembered, and articulated by long time residents. According to Oral History Committee Chair, Louise Brodnitz, transcripts of these "living history" interviews will be available on a special website, and eventually, in the Peabody Room at the Georgetown Library.

The steering committee -- Louise Brodnitz, Denise Cunningham, Betsy Cooley, Hazel Denton, Nola Klamberg, and Leslie Kamrad, Annie Lou Berman, Patty Murphy and Leslie Wheelock – has been working out details and procedures for the project. They have met with Bernadette McMahon, coordinator of Capitol Hill’s Overbeck History project, to learn about that established project. (Check out Capitol Hill’s excellent website at www.capitolhillhistory.org to get a sense of their fascinating program.)

CAG’s Oral History project is recruiting and training volunteers to conduct interviews with people who have played significant roles in Georgetown over many years. Dozens of long-time residents will be tapped (many in their eighties and nineties) to record their rich experiences and invaluable memories of growing up, living, or raising families in Georgetown and/or participating in the organizations and businesses that have developed and preserved Georgetown buildings and structures over the past century. Our oldest residents will be interviewed at the earliest stage of the project to share their unique and irreplaceable knowledge.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: Interviewers and Interviewees
The Committee is seeking volunteers to conduct the interviews – training and guidance for interviewers will be led by Annie Lou Berman, (who worked extensively on the oral history at the Archives of American Art). The committee is also looking for volunteers to do research, take pictures, and assist with transcribing and organizing.

Nola Klamberg is in charge of identifying long-time (and former) residents who would like to talk about their experiences and memories of growing up, living, raising families, and/or doing business in Georgetown. If you would like to be interviewed -- or if you have people to suggest for interviews -- please contact the CAG office (at 337-7313 or cagmail@cagtown.org) or you call Nola Klamberg directly at 342-3195.

Working together we will capture the vibrant and diverse history of Georgetown as seen by those who have lived and worked here. It is expected that, with funding from a variety of sources, the project will continue well into the future.

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