Welcome to the Regional History Project
at the University Library

University of California, Santa Cruz

The Regional History Project has been documenting the history of the Central Coast of California and the institutional history of UC Santa Cruz since 1963, through oral history. This web site includes the complete catalog of our collection, oral history resources, and links to other oral history sites on the Internet. Copies of our oral histories are available for the cost of photocopying, which varies according to the length of the document. Please contact Irene Reti at ihreti@.ucsc.edu for ordering information on the particular oral history in which you are interested. All of our oral histories are available to the public at the Special Collections Department of McHenry Library. Call 831-459-2547 for their hours. Selected oral histories are available in the circulating stacks of the library. You may search the library's Cruzcat catalog to find the call number for the oral history you are looking for.

Some of these oral histories are now online in a PDF (portable document format). You must have Acrobat Reader to read these files. You can download which is available free from Adobe Inc.

Oral history is a method of conducting historical research through recorded interviews between a narrator with personal experience of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of adding to the historical record. Because it is a primary source, an oral history is not intended to present a final, verified, or "objective" narrative of events. It is a spoken account, reflects personal opinion offered by the narrator, and as such it is subjective. Oral histories may be used together with other primary sources as well as secondary sources to gain understanding and insight into history.

Copyright Restrictions

PLEASE NOTE these interviews are provided for research purposes only. All uses of these manuscripts are covered by copyright agreement between the interviewees and the Regents of the University of California. All the literary rights in these manuscripts, including the right to publish, are reserved to the University of California, Santa Cruz. No part of these manuscripts may be quoted for publication without the permission of the University Librarian of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The Regional History Project's Catalog of Interviews

1. Santa Cruz History

Esther Abbott: Photographer and Social Reformer, 1911-2003

Alta and the History of Shameless Hussy Press, 1969-1989

George Barati, A Life in Music

Michael Bergazzi: Santa Cruz Lumbering

Frank Blaisdell: Santa Cruz in the Early 1900s

Roy Boekenoogen: A Tour Through the House of Roy Bookenoogen

George H. Cardiff: Santa Cruz and the Cowell Ranch, 1890-1964

Ciel Benedetto: A History of the Santa Cruz Women's Health Center, 1985-2000

Martina Castro: The Martina Castro Lodge Family

The Cowell Press and Its Legacy: 1973-2004

John Dong: The Cowell Ranch Cookhouse

"I Respond": Alissa Goldring's Photographs of Mexico in the 1950s

Paul D. Johnston: Aptos and the Mid-County Santa Cruz Area From the 1890s through World War II

Ernest T. Kretschmer: Reflections on Santa Cruz Musical Life, 1962-1992

Ernest T. Kretschmer: Reflections on Santa Cruz Musical Life, Volume II, 1993-1999

The Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989: A UCSC Student Oral History Documentary Project

Henry J. Mello: A Life in California Politics

Sandra Martz: Papier-Mache Press and the Gentle Art of Consciousness Raising, 1984-1999

Mr. and Mrs. Darrow Palmer on Frederick A. Hihn and Santa Cruz in the Early 1900s

Irene Reti and HerBooks Feminist Press

Howell Rommel: The 1955 Santa Cruz Flood

Edward T. Rountree: A Commentary on South Pacific Coast

Malio Stagnaro: The Santa Cruz Genovese

Albretto Stoodley: The Loma Prieta Lumber Company and Santa Cruz in the Early Twentieth Century

Fred Wagner: Blacksmithing and Life In The Santa Cruz Area, 1890-1930

Adalbert Wolff: The Cowell Ranch, 1915

Hubert Wyckoff: The Memoirs of Hubert C. Wyckoff Jr., Volume I

Hubert Wyckoff: Attorney and Labor Arbitrator, Volume II

2. Institutional History of the University of California, Santa Cruz

Out in the Redwoods:

Documenting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender History

at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1965-2003

This documentary, multigenerational oral history book is based on twenty-seven oral history interviews with UCSC students, alumni, and staff. The interviews were conducted by eleven UCSC students who were trained in an oral history internship course, as well as a team of community volunteers. Ten narrative essays by UCSC alumni are also included. Out in the Redwoods has been published as a 350-page illustrated paperback, featuring a poetic montage of excerpts from the oral histories, and the full narratives. Also included is a cd-rom including the full transcripts of the oral histories and other resources. The project was coordinated and edited by oral historian Irene Reti. The book also includes an introduction, timeline, bibliography, and other reference material. This book connects the LGBT past with the present. The history of UCSC spans the historical timeline from before Stonewall, through the rise of the feminist movement, the gay liberation movement, and other leftist student movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the flourishing of women's studies, the battle against AIDS, to the queer student activism of the past two decades. Nationally, UC Santa Cruz has been a magnetic center of LGBT culture and activism. At this critical crossroads in history those who witnessed and participated in the birth of a movement of liberation have been able and willing to share their singular historical experiences with the continuing generation of LGBT college students.

Check out the Out in the Redwoods website including full text of interviews, narratives, photographs and other archival documents. Copies of the book can be ordered for $20.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling from the Regional History Project, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (checks payable to UC Regents). The book can also be purchased from Herland Bookstore, The GLBT Center at UCSC, Bookshop Santa Cruz, and the Bay Tree Bookstore.

Rita Bottoms, Polyartist Librarian, 1965-2003

Donald T. Clark: Early UCSC History and the Founding of the University Library

Crossing Borders: The UCSC Women's Center, 1985-2005

Raymond F. Dasmann: A Life in Conservation Biology

Allan J. Dyson: Managing the UCSC Library, 1979-2003

Edges and Ecotones: Donna Haraway's Worlds at UCSC

Julie Fawcus: History of the Trianon Press in Paris, France

The Early History of UCSC's Farm and Garden Project

The UCSC Arboretum: A Grand Experiment

Harold A. Hyde: Recollections of Santa Cruz County

Clark Kerr and the Founding of UC Santa Cruz

Leo F. Laporte: Professor of Earth Sciences: Recollections of UCSC, 1971-1996