History - Incite at Columbia University

The Oral History Archives at Columbia University Libraries is one of the largest collections in the United States, open to the public, and broadly relied on as a leading repository for first-hand testimony on the 20th and 21st centuries.

The archive represents diverse approaches and perspectives on the flows of history, from lengthy biographical interviews with individuals such as Anne Braden, Bayard Rustin, Francis Perkins and Thurgood Marshall to large dedicated projects on the history of philanthropy and of social and political activism, to hundreds of personal accounts of New Yorkers after September 11, 2001 and during the COVID pandemic.

In 2013, COH formalized our ambitious transdisciplinary mission and expanded our capacity to build partnerships beyond the academy by moving from the Columbia University Libraries to Incite Institute, which already housed our Master of Arts program in oral history. Since that time, COH has led cutting edge oral history research, continued as an instrumental hub for scholarship and professional development, and set leading standards for alliances with community leaders and artists that have moved the field of oral history forward.