Historical Society to interview residents

Part of oral history initiative

The Lorain Historical Society, 329 W. 10th St. in Lorain, has launched “International City Project: Oral History Initiative” to collect the stories and ethnic and cultural traditions of Lorain residents.

Participants will sit with a Historical Society volunteer or staff member for 30- to 45-minute interviews and can share up to five photographs of their family and feature their ethnic culture.

“We want to highlight the positive stories,

and if there are tough subjects that come up, we hope that we can learn to be better neighbors and improve situations,” said Jillien Zudell, the project’s coordinator.

The Historical Society received a $10,000 grant from the Community Foundation

of Lorain County for the project.

Zudell began researching the best practices for collecting oral history in the beginning of August and has reached out to social clubs and organizations in the area for support.

Currently, interviews are scheduled directly through the Historical Society or as a member of a participating social club.

The Mexican Mutual Society, 1820 E. 28th St. in Lorain, is one of the first organizations to hold a threehour

special session at its headquarters for its members to participate in.

Interviews will be documented via audio recording and will be used for future programming at the Historical Society and as an exhibit at the Carnegie Center.

Zudell said the Historical Society wants to collect 50 interviews by late spring next year.

“We can collect these stories

in the future, well past 50 of them and well past next spring,” she said.

Next year, the Historical Society will host sessions at multiple Lorain Public Library System branches.

“It’s easy to keep the history of politics and of big business and the major traditional historical topics, but to have those every day stories of those lives, are as important to our history as these topics,” Zudell said.