Volume I, 1996

[Selected from the title page of Volume I]

This volume represents a semester-long oral history project by a First Year Seminar class at Bates College from January through April 1996. Under the direction of Economics Professor Anne Williams, the students in FYS 187, "Hard Times: The Economy and Society in the Great Depression," studied the experience of the Great Depression in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

During the first month of the semester, the class read extensively about the 1930s. The students formulated questions to be asked about virtually all aspects of life during the Depression years. Although there was no formal interview schedule, each interview covered most of the broad areas of interest.

The class then focused on interviewing individuals born in 1920 or earlier who had lived in the Lewiston-Auburn area during the 1930s, who still lived here in 1996, and who were able and willing to participate in a one-hour interview.