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Visualizing: What We Don’t Know (Pt. II)
If you haven’t already, take a look at Pt. 1 of “What We Don’t Know” to learn about other obstacles in the Veterans History Project archive. The Incredible Transcribing Robot! The CCSU Veterans History Project features over 700 oral histories, which are all viewable on YouTube. And one of the many benefits of that platform is YouTube’s capacity to auto-generate transcripts. Transcripts are immensely useful, not just because they offer subtitles for viewers who may have a hard time hearing or understanding the interview. Referencing the time-coded transcript of an interview allows a viewer to quickly identify and navigate to relevant sections. Without it, the only way through is the…
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Visualizing: Comparisons
How representative is the Veterans History Project? The 20th century saw the US military engaged in conflicts around the world. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs nearly 42 million American men and women served their country in these conflicts. From those millions of veterans, the Connecticut Veterans History Project has nearly 800 different entries. And while that may seem a small snapshot, the oral histories alone add up to nearly 1000 hours. Comparing historic statistics from the nation-wide V.A. to the Connecticut-wide Veterans History Project helps us better understand how this collection relates to the American military experience in the 20th century: By making this comparison, it’s easier to see how the Project does –…
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Visualizing: Age at War Start
CHOOSING QUESTIONS The Veterans History Project archive contains nearly 800 oral histories from Connecticut veterans. These interviews are accompanied by written answers to some basic questions about each veteran. The transcribed answers to these questions now form a large database that we can use to quickly learn about these veterans as a group. But one crucial question was missing: How old were you when you enlisted? This question almost always came up over the course of each interview, but the answer wasn’t written down. As a result, a systematic answering of this question would involve viewing hundreds of hours of oral histories and recording the answer when (and if) it was provided. Luckily, two crucial answers were systematically recorded for each interview: What is your date of birth? What wars did you…
