Announced at the recent annual meeting of the OHA, the Mason Multi-Media Awards recognize “outstanding oral history projects, collections, exhibits, and multimedia presentations for the public.” According to Yolanda Hester, who chaired the committee that selected the winners and whose members included Barbara Truesdell and Max Peterson, “This year many exceptional projects were nominated, featuring […]
In the fall 2024 issue of OHR, Ricia Anne Chansky discussed why the Oral History Lab/Laboratorio de Historia Oral was born at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) on September 20, 2017, in her article, “Oral History and the Climate Crisis: Listening in the Aftermath of Disaster”. Here, she elaborates further about the destructive […]
One is former Air Force gunner Mel Jenner, now 102. Follow this link to read the story. We transcribe these stories every day, and it’s amazing how little they have forgotten. This next paragraph from The Washington Post Opinion illustrates what we hear every day. They remember the names, they remember the faces, they remember their laugh, where they were from, where they were heading, the shock of realizing they weren’t coming back. I hope you can follow the link and read the article.
Jenner, as photojournalist David Burnett recounts, is not thinking about the war in the abstract. He is thinking about his best friend, Oscar McClure, then a young gunner as well, and watching as his friend waved his last goodbye from a neighboring plane. Far away from the speeches this week, that’s what D-Day still means to those who were there.
Mel Jenner, a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps and the Air Force, at his home in Orlando in March. (David Burnett/Contact Press Images)
The B-17 blew apart in an instant. The memory has burned for 80 years.
For waist gunner Mel Jenner, a friend’s farewell in the skies over occupied France has echoed since 1944.
By David Burnett
June 3, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Deadline: January 24, 2025 The Spanish Hawaiian Heritage Association is convening a conference to spur research, and interest in Spaniards who emigrated to Hawai‘i, and subsequently to California. The conference will be held at the University of California Davis on September 5-7, 2025. Events will include plenary and keynote speakers, academic panels, book talks, cultural […]
The official 2025 annual meeting page for the upcoming OHA conference in Atlanta, Georgia, is now available on the OHA website! Inspired by the upcoming semi-quincentennial commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the 2025 Oral History Association Annual Meeting will convene a variety of shared experiences that ask […]
Survey Closes on November 15, 2024 Thank you for being a part of this year’s conference! We’re committed to delivering valuable experiences, and your feedback is essential in helping us improve. Please take a few minutes to complete our post-conference survey. Click here to access the survey.