Collections: Oral Histories

Between 1975 and 1978, Dr. Eli A. Rubinstein, assistant director for extramural programs and behavioral sciences at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and an expert on the effects of television violence on children, interviewed forty-two people who were prominently involved with the founding and early history of the institute. Rubinstein hoped to publish a book about the institute, but never did so. In 1989 he gave the interview collection to the NIMH when a formal oral history program was proposed by James Pittman, an NIMH associate director. The oral history program, however, was never funded, and eventually the collection was donated to the National Library of Medicine. Each interview contains a transcript and sound cassette (which has been copied to the MP3 file format and is downloadable). Many of the transcripts also contain the interviewee's curriculum vitae. Some also contain associated material, such as articles or conference papers that the interviewee felt was pertinent to the subjects discussed during the interview.