Main content
Penn Carey Law Oral Histories
Notifications
Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library [Contact Us]3460 Chestnut Street, Biddle Law Library, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Legal Oral History Project ran from 1999 to 2006. The project was a collaborative effort by a team of faculty, librarians, and students. They recorded and preserved first-person narratives of graduates, members of the Penn Law community, and public interest lawyers. The project began with a seminar taught by Professor Sarah Barringer Gordon and Edwin Greenlee, Biddle's Associate Director for Public Services. One of the primary goals of the project was to train students in oral history theory and practice. Each student selected a graduate or member of the Penn Law community, conducted background research, prepared questions, and completed a taped interview. Afterwards, the student transcribed the tape and prepared a biographical article. The tape, transcript, article, and related biographical information were then archived in the Biddle Law Library.
This record group consists of the following sub-group:
BLL.001.006.001 Legal Oral History Project contains research files and audiovisuals.
Series I, Course and Project Materials, contains proposals and resources created by Edwin Greenlee and Sally Gordon as they prepared to teach. Also included are videos that the instructor's gave students as examples of oral history methodology and compiled clips from the Legal Oral History Project that were presented to the law school.
Series II, Interviews, contains the research files and audiovisuals from each interview. The files include biographical essays of the interview subjects, interview questions written by the students, background research compiled by students, correspondence with the interviewee, photographs, and release forms. Also included are audiovisuals, which vary for each interview, but include DVDs, VHS, audiocassettes, and some digital files which are available upon request. Please contact the archives for more information.
The interviews are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee. Although listed together in the inventory, paper files and audiovisual materials for each interview are physically separated. Paper files are located in boxes 001001 through 001008. Audiovisuals are located in boxes 001009 through 001016.
- Legal Oral History Project (BLL.001.006.001)
Digital reproductions of some of the interviews (including transcripts, questions, biographical essays, video, and audio files) are located on the archives' digital preservation platform. The digital material that is available or not varies for each interview. Please contact the archives for more information.
Transferred to archives by Edwin Greenlee in 2005.
Processed by Christiana Dobrzynski Grippe and Jeremiah Eagen in 2010 and Elizabeth Wittrig in 2024.
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library
- Access Restrictions
-
The archives reserve the right to restrict access to materials of a sensitive nature.
The archives follow the access policies of the University Archives and Records Center which were adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1990 and revised in 2022. This means that all administrative records of the University are closed for twenty-five years from their date of creation. More information on these protocols is available on the University Archives website.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.