We are helping to preserve the history of Quabbin through the Friends of Quabbin Oral History Project. We have already produced nearly two hundred audio and videotaped interviews with former Swift River Valley residents and people who worked on the construction of Quabbin Reservoir. We are currently making this collection more permanent and making them available to the public.
Many excerpts from the interviews can be heard on our CD-ROM, “Here Was Home”, which was designed to accompany visitors on a driving tour of Quabbin Park Reservation, and is available at the Quabbin Visitors Center for purchase. The collection includes interviews of former residents who were recognized as being the “Voice of the Valley” such as Eleanor Griswold Schmidt and Robert “Bob” W. Wilder. Oral History Catalog – This hyperlink will bring you to the Friends of Quabbin Oral History Catalogue. Each Oral History interview is accompanied with an index (this has been recently completed by DCR Interpretative Services). Each interview will be in a separate folder with the the index, an Acrobat PDF file that will inform the visitor at what time in the interview of what the topic the interviewee is speaking about. You will be informed if there is a missing index at the folder level which identifies the interviewee and topic. Without question, the Oral History Project is critical to preserving the history of the former Swift River/Quabbin Valley.