Having conducted extensive research in the American Folklife Center, David Isay fell in love with audio recordings from the 1930s and '40s, made under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Writers' Project and other agencies and organizations. Most of these early recordings, which documented the thoughts and feelings of ordinary Americans, were made by folklorists and other cultural specialists.
Inspired by these oral histories, Isay encouraged friends and family members to interview one another. In 2003 he launched the StoryCorps Project with a recording booth positioned in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. StoryCorps provided an on-site facilitator to offer instruction and advice on how to conduct an interview.
One of the StoryCorps trailers parked outside the Library. - Michaela McNichol
Some of the first recordings made in New York City include the stories of a man trying to get a job as a lifeguard at Coney Island during the Depression; a boy recording his grandmother singing a gospel tune shortly before she passed away, a fireman who died during rescue efforts following the disaster at the World Trade Center, a 98-year-old woman recalling the experiences of her defiant grandmother who was born into slavery and a New York City transit worker who found himself helping to deliver a baby on the subway.
The StoryCorps Project began its yearlong national tour at the Library of Congress in May 2005. Two mobile recording booths were stationed in front of the Madison Building from May 19 to 28 as the first stop on the tour. At a news conference held that week, the first collection of 2,327 stories collected by the project since its inception in 2003 were presented by David Isay to AFC Director Peggy Bulger.
In July 2005 the second permanent StoryCorps booth opened on the site of the World Trade Center.
"Listening is an act of love," said Isay, who hopes the project will go on for a long time and continue to gain in popularity. Over the course of the 10-year project, he hopes to have more mobile units on the road; a network of outposts with stationary recording booths set up in libraries and museums; and a kind of door-to-door program, in which a facilitator would visit a family reunion or other such event to teach and encourage participants to interview and record life stories.
"We want StoryCorps to become part of the fabric of American life."
