What is Oral History?Oral history is a recorded collection of verbal stories told by those who lived the experiences. While the story content may not be verifiable – oral history is not hearsay, folklore, gossip, or rumor, but rather the reality of the Narrator, whether they are reporting their direct personal experiences or sharing their perceptions of the community during a specific time in the past.
We use the term "Narrator" to refer to the men and women we interview, who tell the stories about what they remember about life at Salisbury Beach. We film these interviews on video and keep an unedited version in an archive. Oral historians store of their findings for use later by scholars, educators and members of the community. Our oral history interviews are all shot on video and will be archived by the Salisbury Community Access TV & Media Center. We hope to make copies of the videos available for viewing by the public in a repository at the Salisbury Public Library. |
About the ProjectThe project was the brainchild of Lance Wisniewski, executive director of Salisbury Community Access TV & Media Center (SCTV). With the help of Monique Greilich, a grant application was submitted to the Salisbury Cultural Council in the end of 2015, and the initial funding was awarded. We have also now received funding from The Salisbury Beach Betterment Association, the Friends of the Salisbury Council on Aging and contributions from individuals.
In early 2016, Christine Green joined the team as project director and the development of the project began. The Salisbury Beach Oral History Project is not your traditional oral history project. While we are committed to finding and recording accurate and interesting oral histories about the people and the community of Salisbury Beach, we don't have the resources to follow the strict protocol adhered to by many other oral history projects. We therefore we don't make efforts to verify our findings, analyze them, or attempt to place them in a fully accurate historical context. We only interview those who we believe to be credible Narrators. But understand that a story being told by a Narrator is either their personal experience as they remember it, or a story they are sharing about a local legend or a commonly held belief at that time in the history of the community. With that in mind, remember that the language used or the way in which a memory is reported may be influenced by the social context of that time in history. And that the opinions of the Narrator are theirs, and not necessarily shared by the SBOHP. |
Who We Are
Christine Green
Christine developed the nuts and bolts of the program, and in collaboration with Monique defined our mission and goals. She runs the program day-to-day, is involved in strategic planning and handles the digital marketing. Her photographs are featured on this site and our social media pages. |
Monique Greilich
Monique is our Narrator scout. She is out in the community researching the best Salisbury Beach oral history sources. She performs the pre-interviews and is our head interviewer for video sessions. She is also instrumental in our fundraising efforts. |
Lance Wisniewski
Lance was the visionary with the idea to capture the oral histories of Salisbury Beach. He was a key player making it into a reality. He specializes in the technical aspects and assuring that our video interviews are of high technical quality. He oversees the broadcasting of interview segments on the Salisbury Cable channel. |