​Oral History

Reaching for a Dream: Huntington’s Ethnic Heritage  The Huntington Historical Society has recorded oral testimony from three of our town’s ethnic groups; Afro-American, Latino and Italian-American. These recordings and the publication summarizing the study, can, by special arrangement be made available through our Archives Office.  In 1987, the Huntington Historical Society, in collaboration with the Town of Huntington through the Department of Community Resources and the Office of the Town Historian and the Center for Latino Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, began an oral history project to record the History and traditions of the Town’s ethnic and racial minority communities. The resulting tape recordings provided the basis for the Historical Society’s exhibition. “Reaching for a Dream: Huntington’s Ethnic Heritage,” and the publication of the same name.  Oral history is primary source material obtained by tape recording interviews with individuals who harbor information previously unavailable. Its purpose is to obtain and preserve the historical record that would otherwise be lost through oral autobiographies and testimony.  The Huntington Historical Society and the Town endeavor, through and oral history project to acknowledge and document the history and contributions of the Town’s culturally diverse population. The initial focus of the project has been the Afro-American, Latino and Italian-American communities which collectively represent more that 20% of the total population (as per 1980 census figures) The selection of these three groups provided a large spectrum of historical eras in the Town’s development as well as microcosm, examples of national historical trends.