Over the past two years, we’ve collected oral histories from almost a dozen Maine residents about the Androscoggin River. Our narrators have included native Mainers and people from away, young and old, scientists and mill workers, activists and politicians. Below are excerpts from some of our interviews.

For each oral history interview, we contact potential narrators by email, phone, or in person. We discuss what topics they might be willing to cover before scheduling an appointment in a quiet place where we can hold our conversation. We record our interviews with a Marantz PMD661 Professional Compact Digital Audio Recorder with a Shure SM58 Vocal Microphone (for the interviewees) and an Electro-Voice RE50N/D-B Handheld Interview Microphone (for the interviewers). Our interviews are informal exchanges although we do ask interviewees some standard biographical questions alongside specific queries about their relationship to the Androscoggin River. We adhere to the principles and best practices of the Oral History Association in our interviews, asking narrators sign a release form so we can use recordings for our project. All interviews will be deposited in the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives at the Bowdoin College Library for public use.

After our interviews, we take the raw digital recording and listen to it several times, extracting excerpts that both are powerful in their own right as well as relevant to particular images or writings from our project. In turn, we believe the interviews shape how we craft our images and essays. We strive to collect and present as many diverse voices and opinions about the Androscoggin River as possible. Our project isn’t an errand of advocacy or journalism; it is an artistic and scholarly venture to raise questions and complicate preexisting ideas about place and time and our connections to both.

We conduct these interviews together, seeing them as another artistic and scholarly collaboration we create in concert with our interviewees. Seen this way, these oral histories are not unlike photographs or writings—they have their own textures, tones, and emotions that make each one unique. When combined with the photographs, they reveal other complexities to the Androscoggin River and its environs, past and present, as well as the people who call this place their home.

We are always looking for more stories. If you want to share yours, please contact us.