Welcome to the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
News
09.24.2008
SPOHP and the UF History Department will host a lecture and book signing by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson on his latest book THE DAY OF BATTLE: The War in Sicily and Italy.
10.23.2008
The StoryCorps MobileBooth will be in Gainesville, FL from October 23 through November 15, 2008.
Features
The Proctor-Pleasants Award
In
2009, we will launch the Samuel Proctor-Julian Pleasants
Travel Research Grant Award Program.
>>
More
Publications
Gator
history, Florida newspapers and the 2000 Election in print.
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More
Featured Interview
Robert
Cade, "thirst-quenching" inventor of Gatorade.
>>
More
How We Began, What We Are
Samuel Proctor, founder
of SPOHP, and Director Emeritus Julian Pleasants speak on how
the oral history program began and its plans for the future.
>>
More
Welcome to the new online home of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida! We are one of the premier oral history programs in the country. Our team of dedicated staff, students and volunteers strive to make histories of Florida, the United States and the broader world accessible to scholars and the general public alike. Interviews from the SPOHP collection have been used widely by university scholars, documentary filmmakers, public radio hosts, community-based organizations and public schoolchildren, just to name a few.
We have recently moved our facilities to Pugh Hall, which is in the heart of the historic district of the University of Florida. Pugh Hall also houses the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
SPOHP is dedicated to building on the legacies initiated in 1967 by our founder, University Historian and Professor Emeritus Samuel Proctor. Today, our collection includes more than 4,000 oral histories, making it the largest oral history archive in the South. Our collections feature more than 900 interviews with Native Americans (Seminoles, Creeks, Cherokees and other nations.) We also have significant numbers of interviews with African American Civil Rights activists, women in Florida, World War II veterans, Florida politicians and pioneering faculty, staff and administrators from the University of Florida.
On our current projects page you may read how we are working with the UF Digital Library Center and the Florida Center for Library Automation to digitize our holdings and to make history come alive for you. SPOHP has recently purchased new digital video and audio recording equipment that we will use to train new generations of students to capture and catalogue untapped histories of social justice, everyday life and epic events in our nation and in the world. More about the theory and practice of oral history can be found in our education section.
A new Oral History Public Program Series in the 2008-2009 academic year will feature public events on African American history, World War II veterans' experiences and women in professional health occupations. We are looking for individuals, groups and classes willing to volunteer time to our research and teaching initiatives.
Gathering, transcribing and making oral histories accessible takes resources. SPOHP is continually working on raising new funds to sustain our work. We encourage you to visit our support page today if you would like to contribute to our program. Please email or call us if you have questions about participating or volunteering your time with SPOHP.
I encourage you to browse through our Web site to learn more about our program and contact us for more information about our holdings and to learn how you may become involved in SPOHP's work.
Paul Ortiz
Director
portiz@ufl.edu
