2.2 Administrative history Oral history projects began at the World Bank in 1960, when the Director of Information proposed that the Bank “accumulate historical materials against the day when the Bank may want a scholarly history done of its history and operations.”  The Bank asked the Brookings Institution to develop the oral history project, and Brookings in turn engaged Robert S. Oliver, an economist from the California Institute of Technology, to  conduct the interviews.  He ultimately interviewed 32 individuals. The Bank then turned to the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University to produce the transcripts.  The tapes were given to Columbia, which retained a transcript and returned a transcript to the Bank.   A few years later Harold Graves of the Bank’s public information staff and the primary force behind the oral history project conducted two interviews, one with Robert Cavanaugh and one with William Iliff, that were summarized in Graves’ office but were not fully transcribed.

Twenty years later, the Bank embarked on a second oral history project, this time conducted by Bank staff members.  During the period from 1981 to 1989 more than thirty interviews were conducted, principally by staff members of the World Bank Group Archives but also by consultants.  These have been transcribed and the tapes and transcripts are held at the Archives.

As the 50th anniversary of the Bank approached, an Office of the Historian was created in 1993.  Staff members of that office and consultants conducted interviews, at least in part to aid an official Bank history project being prepared by the Brookings Institution under contract to the Bank. When the Historian’s office was terminated later in the 1990s, the oral history project transferred to the Archives.  Oral histories continue to be recorded and transcribed.

3.1 Scope and content   The oral history projects were used principally to support the production of histories of the World Bank, both the volume published in 1973 and the two volumes published in 1997.  Consequently, the interviews focus on key events and key people. The individuals interviewed discuss the evolution of Bank policies and procedures and help establish the context within which policy choices took place.  The interviews also are instructive on issues in the economic history of the times in which the Bank operated.

Several individuals were interviewed by two or more of the projects.  In addition, copies of  oral histories obtained by the Bank from non-Bank projects often contain interviews with individuals who were also interviewed by a Bank project.  J. Burke Knapp, for instance, was interviewed by Bank projects in 1961 and 1981; the Bank also has a copy of his interview with the Harry S Truman Library oral history project and a copy of the interview Robert Oliver conducted with him while Oliver was writing his book on George D. Woods.
 

3.3 Accruals   Accruals are expected

3.4 Arrangement  Arranged in four series:
                                             Oral history project 1961
                                             Oral history project 1981-1989
                                             Oral history project 1993-2002
                                             Oral history project, 2003 -

4.1 Conditions of access  Interviews are subject to the conditions in the donor’s instrument of gift for each interview and to the World Bank Policy on the Disclosure of Information.

4.2  Conditions of reproduction  Subject to the conditions in the donor’s instrument of gift; fair use reproduction permitted.

4.3 Language/scripts   English

4.5 Finding aids   Master list of oral history interviews
                     List of oral history transcripts, 1961 project                           
                     List of oral history transcripts, 1981-1989 project
                     List of oral history transcripts, 1993-2002 project                           
                     List of oral history transcripts, 2003- project

5.2 Existence and location of copies  Transcripts of the 1961 project are at the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University.

5.3 Related units of description WB IBRD/IDA 51, Copies of transcripts from the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University; WB IBRD/IDA 55-02, copies of Robert S. Oliver interviews for his book on George D. Woods;WB IBRD/IDA 62, Records of the Office of the Historian, oral interviews recorded by the authors of the Bank’s 50th anniversary history.

5.4 Publication note  Charles Ziegler, “Oral History at the World Bank,” International Journal of Oral History, Vol. 8, No. 3, November 1987, p. 183.

7.2 Rules or conventions Internal World Bank Group Archives rules

7.3 Date(s) of descriptions  2003-09-03, 2005-01-09, 2005-03-27