Oral Histories integral part of Arizona Historymakers Program

 What is an Oral History Interview? a well-prepared interviewer questioning an interviewee and recording their exchange in audio or video format. Oral history is a method to learn about past events from the spoken stories of people who lived through them. It enables us to take account of those many aspects of history that are not recorded in documents.

We are so grateful to Norma Jean Coulter, Carolyn Hartman, Zona Lorig, Josephine Pete, Tom Shumard, and Diane Smith for interviewing the 2023 Arizona Historymakers.

If you ask any of the interviewers, they will tell you it is a very rewarding experience.

The audience at 2023 Arizona Historymakers Celebration enjoyed these videos at the October 14 event at AZHC.

View them now on YouTube.com@ArizonaHistoricalLeague

Barbara Barrett enjoys Cookbook

Ambassador Barbara Barrett has a long list of major accomplishments. The Historical League honored her as an Historymaker in 2008. She is a supporter of Tastes & Treasures, reordering the cookbook again to give to members of the Arizona Woman's Forum.

To read her fascinating oral history and biography visit
http://www.historicalleague.org/hm.htm

Historymakers Oral Histories on www.HistoricalLeague.org

One of our Centennial Legacy Project commitments is to have all 58 Historymakers Oral Histories on www.HistoricalLeague.org. It's a BIG job but Zona Lorig and Joan Robinson continue to work on it. All the official portraits, biographies and some pictures have been on the website but now there is more.

Joe Beeler and Esther Don Tang's pages have recently been updated to include their Oral Histories. It is exciting to see this happen. Now these amazing stories are available to the public through www.HistoricalLeague.org. Teachers, students, history buffs, geneologists, researchers and families can enjoy these interesting life histories as told to us - "In Their Own Words."

Historymakers Gala preparations

Pam Stevenson and Susan Dale put their heads together working on the Historymakers Gala. Pam has filmed and edited the videos for several events while Susan works at sponsorship opportunities. The Gala takes 2 years of preparation for the event held Friday, February 11, 2011. This time it is an official Centennial Gala kicking off Arizona's Centennial celebration.

The Historymakers Recognition Program continues each year with exhibits, videos, oral histories and artifacts at the AHS Museum at Papago Park.

Thank you ladies for all you do for the Historical League.

Historymakers Biographies in Gala book

With Zona Lorig organizing the Historymakers Gala book filled with biographies and interesting photos of our Historymakers, the meetings are fun and interactive. So much discussion on Arizona history goes into the AZ Historymakers Timeline, I love listening and contributing. Historians Reba Wells Grandrud, Zona and Norma Jean Coulter have facts and figures in their heads. Norma Jean baked a "Killer Coffeecake" and along with the extra cup of coffee, we were fired up to write the book. Looking forward to the next meeting and watching this book become a reality.