Tell your own story & preserve your own history.
We help Boston history become more inclusive by offering support for anyone who wants to document, share, and save the stories of their families, neighborhoods, and communities. Learn more about our work.
Explore Recent Projects
Love Letters to East Boston
Artwork from صنع في أمريكا (Made in USA)
Boston Public Library Community Scanning Days
Community History Resources
Community History staff can help you start your next project. We can also direct you to digitized historical materials, Boston area archives, and research guides, as well as books, databases, and other resources available at BPL and other research institutions.
Community History Resources
Oral History Workshops
Getting Started with Oral History
Research at BPL
Local History at BPL
Events & Workshops
Community History offers workshops to help you launch your projects. Examples include basics of oral history, personal storytelling workshops in partnership with GrubStreet, managing your personal and community archives, and how to create interactive web history projects.
Community History Workshops
Oral History Backpacks
Through the BPL’s Library of Things, you can check out an Oral History Backpack at participating locations. This toolkit includes recording equipment and a multilingual guidebook to help you create an oral history from scratch.
Oral History Backpacks
Oral History Backpacks
Contact Us
Do you have questions about a project? Are you feeling unsure of your next steps? Contact us to set up a meeting with a Community History expert.
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About us
The BPL Community History Department democratizes the expression of history by supporting individuals, community groups, and local organizations in their efforts to document the stories of themselves and their communities. Our department aims to address past injustices by centering historically excluded and underrepresented groups, and to surface a more inclusive history of Boston. We offer resources and support for local and community history work based on people’s lived experiences, knowledge, and expertise. We are committed to providing collaborative, responsive, and sustainable library services to historians and learners in Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
BPL Community History Department supports individuals, community groups, and local organizations in their efforts to document stories about themselves and their communities. We believe that individuals live and make history every day, and that these stories matter. We are committed to supporting the telling of these stories, in all their richness, complexity, and diversity. We are guided by our commitment to collaboration, inclusion, equity, justice, and repair.
