What Did You Do in the War, Grandma? (Mss. Gr. 85)

Historical Information

"Oral history is a unique way to learn about past events and experiences. It is a method which probes memory, evokes emotions and feelings which have been long dormant..."

Thus does Linda Wood describe the value of oral history in her introduction to "What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?", the published results of the oral history project of which she was project director. "What Did You Do In the War, Grandma?" was a project designed to "explore and explain" the roles of women in World War II. It was conceived by Linda Wood, school librarian and Judith Scott, English teacher of South Kingstown High School. The interviews for the project were conducted in 1989 by seventeen members of a ninth grade honors English class from South Kingstown High School. The students interviewed thirty-six Rhode Island women who recalled their lives in the years immediately before, during, and immediately after World War II. Based on the interviews they conducted, the students wrote papers or "stories" in which they summarized the interviews and recorded their own impressions and observations.

The project was funded with a grant from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities and co-sponsored by South Kingstown High School and the Rhode Island Historical Society. The students worked under the supervision of project co-directors Linda Wood and Judith Scott, as well as receiving input from humanities scholars: Professor Sharon Strom and Professor Emeritus William J. Metz of the University of Rhode Island History Department, and cultural journalist Pamela Wood of Kennebunkport, Maine.