Oral Histories: Voices from Plainfield
Click here for more on this reseach-based project on women and aging in Plainfield.
In the Plainfield Historical Society, we believe that the history of our community is contained not only in tangible materials such as artifacts, documents, and photographs but also in the memories of the people who live here. The Society’s Mission Statement written in 2013 explains: “The Plainfield Historical Society believes that an understanding and appreciation of our town’s historical heritage and the people involved in that history are essential in sustaining a unique and meaningful identity as a community.” With this commitment in mind, we include materials from oral history as a way of capturing aspects of the town’s history that might otherwise be lost.
According to the Oral History Association, this is “a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.” http://www.oralhistory.org/about/do-oral-history/
Just click on a picture to learn more.
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- Watch this full length video of the history of Plainfield, A Conversation with Arvilla Dyer. Courtesy of Clio Associates: Recorders of Life Stories
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- Irene Jordan Caplan (1919 – 2016)
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- Kay Dilger Metcalfe (1912 – 2018)
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- Listen to this audio recording of an interview with Evelyn Guyette. Photo courtesy of The Franklin Land Trust. Photographer Alex Atwater
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- Blanche Svoboda Cizek (1919 – 2021)
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- The Old Brick Store. Read an interview with Mary Connell, whose ancestors once owned this Plainfield landmark.