DC Public Library, The People’s Archive

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of works and materials collected or authored by Paul Phillips Cooke. Items include clippings, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, pamphlets, and publications from a variety of organizations, including the Cosmos and Torch Clubs. Additionally, there is information on Cooke's time as a student at Miners Teachers College and as President of the D.C. Teachers College.

Scope and Contents

Between 1972 and 1992 the Library conducted 29 oral history interviews with individuals who had a long association with and knowledge of Washington D.C. Topics include childhood experiences, segregation, religion, neighborhoods, education, communities, employment, demographics and social life. The interviews were organized and conducted by Marcia M. Greenlee and Roxanna Deane.

Scope and Contents Between 1984 and 1985, Mara Cherkasky, then a graduate student at The George Washington University, conducted 35 oral history interviews with longtime Dupont Circle residents. The interviews were conducted as a part of her master's thesis research about the changes to the northwest neighborhood. Here thesis is entitled "Slices of the Pie: Black and White Dupont Circle from the 1920s to the 1950s." Topics include Dupont Circle from the 1920s to the 1950s, childhood experiences, work and life...

Scope and Contents Mapping Segregation in Washington DC: School and Neighborhood Desegregation in Ward 4 documents the transformation of Ward 4 neighborhoods and schools during the 1950s and early 1960s. Ward 4 was predominantly white in the early 1940s, but saw a shift in demographics as white families fled after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bolling v. Sharpe, in which public school segregation was deemed unconstitutional in the District of Columbia. This project primarily consists of interviews with...

Scope and Contents

In 1993, Jeff Koenreich conducted these oral histories for the Library's Oral History Project. Residents of the Striver Section of the Shaw neighborhood were interviewed. Topics include the history of the neighborhood, childhood, family, segregation, the Civil Rights movement, and the community.

Content Description

Digital audio recordings and PDF transcripts of 10 oral history interviews recorded by Shaw Library staff to document the Shaw neighborhood and the effect of the 1968 riots on its community.

Content Description

Digital recordings of 20 oral history interviews by DCPL Special Collections Librarian Kelly Navies and related digital documents. 18 of the recordings are about the U Street cultural corridor. All of the U Street interviews have logs and two of them also have transcripts. Digital photographs and other documents were also included in the U Street transfer. There is also an interview with DC author Edward P. Jones, in 2 parts.