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    Oral History Program

    Address:
    225 South 700 East
    St. George, UT 84770
    Phone:
    (435) 652-2087
    Contact:
    Bonnie B. Percival
    Special Collections Librarian
    Phone: (435) 652-7718
    FAX: (435) 656-4169
    Email: bpercival@dixie.edu
    Hours:
    Monday-Friday
    1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
    (or by appointment between semesters and in summer)

    Under the direction of Delmar D. Gott, former Library Director, the Browning Library began the Special Collections Oral History Collection. This Collection covers the contiguous geographic and cultural area of Utah's Dixie, especially Washington County; Southeastern Nevada (the Big Muddy Region), and the Arizona Strip.

    Major portions of this Collection include interviews from the following areas:

    Voices of Remembrance.
    (441 audiotapes) This first oral history project, started in the late 1960s, under the direction of Melvin Blomquist and the Voices of Remembrance Foundation, focused on recording mainly the spiritual memories of identified Washington County residents who were sixty years of age and above. Audiotapes of these interviews were donated to the Browning Library by The Voices of Remembrance Foundation. The original reel-to-reel tapes are housed in the Special Collections Library, Sherritt Library, Southern Utah University. Few of these interviews are transcribed; however, a grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University was received in 2004-2005 to begin transcription on the untranscribed audiotapes.

    Delmar D. Gott Oral History Collection.
    (70 audiotapes) Delmar D. Gott contacted local residents and community leaders and personally recorded 70 oral interviews between the years 1965-1990. This collection contains interviews with a wide variety of people discussing their lifestyles (ranching, farming, government, business, etc.) and the lives of their pioneer ancestors. Transcriptions for these interviews are available, due to grants from the Utah State Historical Society and the Utah Humanities Council.

    Douglas D. Alder/Karl F. Brooks Oral History Collection.
    (80 audiotapes) This collection is a result of local interviews conducted during research for the Centennial County History Series book A History of Washington County: From Isolation to Destination. Transcriptions for these interviews are available, due to grants from the Utah State Historical Society and the Utah Humanities Council.

    Institute for Continued Learning (ICL) Oral History Collection.
    (66+ audiotapes) This collection is the result of local history classes conducted by ICL through the auspices of Dixie State College of Utah for retirees in the local community. New audiotapes are added periodically (irregular). Transcriptions for these interviews are available, due to grants from the Utah State Historical Society.

    Dixie State College of Utah Archives.
    (11 audiotapes) This collection is not growing at the present time. It consists of commencements, convocations, and miscellaneous College functions. Transcriptions for these interviews are available, due to grants from the Utah State Historical Society.

    Santa Clara-Virgin River Flood, Washington County, Utah, 2005.
    (100 audiotapes) This collection consists of audiotapes and other ephemera collected by local community members to record personal memories of this event. The audiotapes were used in the compilation of the book Portraits of Loss, Stories of Hope created as a fund-raiser for victims of the 2005 floods. A grant from the Utah State Historical Society and Utah Humanities Council is assisting with the organizing, reformatting, and preserving of this collection.

    Revised 8/10/2005

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