Between 1980 and 1984, Florence First, a founder of the Long Beach Historical and Preservation Society, interviewed and recorded several local and longtime residents of Long Beach. Many of the interviewees were Florence’s friends or parents of former students she had as a former teacher in Long Beach. This resulted in candid and relaxed interviews that contain a wealth of information regarding the history and development of Long Beach.
The collection also contains recordings made outside of the dates mentioned above. The earliest recording in this collection is from 1976. The remainder of the recordings in the collection were recorded between 2000 and 2005 of group discussions and oral histories that took place around Long Beach.
Scope of Collection
This collection consists of taped interviews of Long Beach residents and events that took place in the community. The recordings date from 1976 to 2005. The people found on these recordings discuss growing up in Long Beach, its development, their family histories, businesses, daily life, transportation, and much more.
A portion of these recordings were digitized in August of 2021 by NYU’s Regional Media Legacies Project. The bulk of these recordings were digitized in June and July of 2024 thanks to the Long Beach Historical and Preservation Society’s partnership with LILRC’s Accessing Archives Program. These recordings were uploaded to New York Heritage in July 2024.
