StoryCorps in Fairfield

What was the happiest moment of your life? What are you most proud of? How do you want to be remembered? These are just some of the questions that start a great conversation. Conversations such as these are oral histories; a way to capture the important memories, information, and opinions of those we love and admire. For four days in October, the Fairfield Museum and History Center and the Fairfield Public Library presented an opportunity to capture these stories for generations to come. The nationally-renowned oral history project StoryCorps came to Fairfield.

StoryCorps is an independent, non-profit project that records the stories of our lives. The mission of StoryCorps is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Broadcast by National Public Radio and beloved by millions of listeners and participants since 2003, StoryCorps has allowed people to capture and relive our experiences, our history and our humanity. Interviews are conducted by a family member or friend, and each interviewee is given a copy of their interview on CD. In addition, each interview is archived at the Library of Congress, the Fairfield Museum and History Center and the Fairfield Public Library.

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is the place for Fairfield’s stories; a place to learn about the stories of our collective past and a place where your own stories are told, recorded, archived, discovered, retold and relived, as the stories of today will be history to future generations.

At the Museum, stories grand and small, momentous and anecdotal, silly and serious are preserved at the museum’s special collections library in photographs, maps, manuscripts, films, and sound recordings. What was it like for your grandparents to go to school? Where were the best swimming holes and sledding hills? Who rode out the hurricane of 1938? How did people remember the milestone events that shaped their lives—the stories of love, toil, reward, disasters, of triumph and loss—and how do you remember those events in your life?

While history is traditionally written on paper, the Fairfield Museum and History Center also preserves the spoken word. Oral histories offer a depth that is often missing from our history books: a feel for the everyday texture of life at a different time. When we listen to someone’s story from their own lips, their experiences are no longer abstract; rather, they become testimonies that move us on a deeply personal level. We not only share those stories but relive them emotionally. We warmly invite you to participate in writing your community’s story by visiting us and telling us yours.

If you would like to interview a friend or family member to hear their story, we invite you to sign up for StoryCorps. Participating in the StoryCorps project is free, but spaces are limited. StoryCorps will be at the Fairfield Museum on October 3rd and October 4th, and at the Fairfield Public Library on October 10th and October 11th. Please stop by either the Fairfield Museum or the Fairfield Public Library to pick up a short interview form, or visit www.fairfieldhs.org or www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org to download an electronic copy. In the coming months, the Fairfield Museum will continue its own similar project to collect and preserve our community’s stories. If we were unable to schedule your interview during the time when StoryCorps was in town, we will make sure that you are scheduled for a future occasion at the museum.

StoryCorps is just one of the many exciting educational programs and events the Fairfield Museum has planned. In September, the museum celebrated its one year anniversary with a festive cocktail party and presented its annual community-wide Fall Festival, complete with Native American performances. In the coming weeks you can look forward to fascinating lectures and workshops, a new exhibit opening, entertaining children’s programming and the unique monthly series Third Thursdays, which provides engaging adult education programs in a relaxed, social setting. Please visit our website, www.fairfieldhs.org to learn about all that is going on. We hope that you will find many reasons to visit the museum again and again.