The Anacostia Oral History Project Collection contains 39 oral history interviews with 42 individuals who either grew up in or spent a considerable amount of time in the neighborhood. Interviewees discuss their memories of Anacostia dating back to the 1890s and points of focus include education, occupations, transportation, geographic boundaries, and recreational and community activities. The interviews were conducted and recorded on audiocassettes in 1975 through the Center for Anacostia Studies and the Anacostia Community Museum. Most of the interviews have been digitized and are accessible in the archive on CDs.
Biographical/Historical note:
The Center for Anacostia Studies was the predecessor of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum research department.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Anacostia Community Museum Archives also houses other oral histories of the area, including the ACM 25th Anniversary Oral History Project.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
This donation consists of 156 separate interviews or sound sources collected by Elgen Long while he was researching and writing his book, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved which promotes the theory that Amelia Earhart's aircraft came to rest at the bottom of the ocean near Howland Island.
This collection is in English.
Scope and Contents:
The donation consists of 156 separate interviews or sound sources, some comprising two or more tape sides. Most of them are interviews conducted by Long, including interviews with: crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Itasca; Naval and Coast Guard officials; mechanics and engineers involved in the maintenance of Earhart's aircraft; New Guinea and Australia residents and radio operators; friends, family and associates of Earhart and Noonan; and advocates of alternative disappearance theories. There are also radio interviews and a few movie soundtracks and miscellaneous items. The total running time of the collection is 13,209 minutes (220sca hours). This donation also includes a hard drive which holds 387 audio files in .mp3 or .mp4 format (each file is an interview with the possibility of multiple interviews per tape).
Arrangement:
Arrangement by donor.
Biographical / Historical:
Elgen Long collected oral recordings, both interviews and sound sources, while he was researching and writing his book, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved which promotes the theory that Amelia Earhart's aircraft came to rest at the bottom of the ocean near Howland Island. These tapes were also used throughout Long's partnership with David W. Jourdan, founder of the deep-sea exploration company Nauticos, during their three attempts to locate Earhart's aircraft on the ocean floor (2002, 2006, and 2017).
Provenance:
David Jourdan, Gift, 2020, NASM.2020.0025
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.