In the fall of 2023, the Oral History Center (OHC) produced its first multimedia exhibition in the Bancroft Library Gallery named Voices for the Environment: A Century of Bay Area Activism. While the exhibit will remain on display in The Bancroft Gallery throughout the Fall 2024 semester, we’re now working to make much of the exhibit accessible online!
Voices for the Environment, which was curated by Todd Holmes, Roger Eardley-Pryor, and Paul Burnett of the OHC, traces the evolution of environmentalism in the San Francisco Bay Area across the twentieth century. In three sections, it highlights how Bay Area activists have long been on the front lines of environmental change: from efforts to preserve natural spaces in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire; to the midcentury fight for state regulations to protect the San Francisco Bay shoreline; to more recent demands for environmental justice to address the disproportionate burden of pollution that inflicts communities of color around the Bay.
This exhibit was the first major effort in The Bancroft Library Gallery to showcase oral history alongside the library’s traditional archival collections. It did so through Audio Spotlight technology, which are specially honed speakers that allow visitors to listen to never-before-heard oral history recordings with Bay Area environmentalists. Those oral history recordings played in the gallery as part of three edited videos that paired the recordings with historic photographs and rare film footage. Additionally, the exhibit featured a three-episode podcast, which visitors could access by scanning a QR code in the gallery with their smartphones. Those podcast episodes, which were produced in partnership with Sasha Khokha of KQED Public Radio and The California Report Magazine, offered visitors a deeper dive into the oral histories highlighted in each of the exhibit’s three main sections.
In the effort to give the exhibit a life beyond its December 2024 closing date, the curators are working this fall to transform Voices for the Environment from a physical to digital exhibit. Some of the contents are already available online. The three podcast episodes can be accessed through Soundcloud, and the three exhibit videos are now available through YouTube. Additionally, by using a 3D omnidirectional camera, the curators aim to bring the full exhibit—and all its material contents, like posters, postcards, and documents—to the digital world, and thus to classrooms throughout California.
Voices for the Environment was curated with the classroom in mind. Curators Todd Holmes and Roger Eardley-Pryor created an educational workbook as an educational resource for the exhibit. The workbook, which was designed for students of all ages, aimed to foster further engagement with the various themes and primary sources on display in the exhibit. We now hope that a digital Voices for the Environment exhibit can bring that same experience to classrooms for years to come, offering another teaching resource in California’s K-12 environmental curriculum. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, feel free to check out the exhibit’s podcast and videos below:
Voices for the Environment Podcast
Voices for the Environment Exhibit Videos
Episode 1: A Preservationist Spirit
Episode 2: Tides of Conservation
Episode 3: Environmental Justice for All
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ABOUT THE ORAL HISTORY CENTER
The Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library preserves voices of people from all walks of life, with varying political perspectives, national origins, and ethnic backgrounds. We are committed to open access and our oral histories and interpretive materials are available online at no cost to scholars and the public. You can find our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. Search by name, keyword, and several other criteria. Sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring think pieces, new releases, podcasts, Q&As, and everything oral history. Access the most recent articles from our home page or go straight to our blog home.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Oral History Center if you’d like to see more work like this conducted and made freely available online. While we receive modest institutional support, we are a predominantly self-funded research unit of The Bancroft Library. We must raise the funds to cover the cost of all the work we do, including each oral history. You can give online, or contact us at ohc@berkeley.edu for more information about our funding needs for present and future projects.