Women in Rhode Island Oral History Collection (OH.1E.2014.001)

Historical note

The history of the Women in Rhode Island Oral History collection is not well understood but it likely began in approximately 1982 by leadership at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University. The collection likely developed as a result of an early Pembroke Center initiative known as the Chrsitine Dunlap Farnham oral history project on the history of women at Brown and in Rhode Island.

Over time, the Farnham oral history project splintered into two parts. The first, called Brown Women Speak, documented the college experiences of women who attended Pembroke College and Brown University and their post graduate lives. The Second part of the project became the Women in Rhode Island Oral History Collection, which captured interviews of notable non-alumnae Rhode Island women and their perspective on issues affecting women.

It is belived that some of the transcripts derived from Pembroke Center programming, where women spoke on panels about subjects such as the Women's Movement. Other files indicate that students conducted interviews, possibly as part of their course work, and then donated the subsequent administrative files and audiotapes to the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive for inclusion in the collection.

Though the collection has not grown since 2006, new interviews could be added should Brown University students conduct them in the course of their research. Women in Rhode Isalnd is a "created collection" structured by the Brown University Archives to to accomodate interviews from multiple donors about notable individual and topics relating to women in the state of Rhode Island.