About the Project

The Texas Oral History Project is an ongoing effort to document the stories of the people of Texas in the 21st century: their wants and their needs; their triumphs and regrets; their memories of the past and their hopes for the future. In short, each entry is meant to serve as a brief but meaningful glimpse into the life of a human being living in Texas at this moment in time.

Each participant takes part in an oral history interview, ranging in length from thirty minutes to three hours. Then, their portrait is taken on black and white film with a 4x5 large-format camera. This process creates an image rich in both material and emotional detail.

On the Full Archive tab, each portrait is organized alphabetically according to the participant’s last name. On the Places tab, the archive is organized according to the location where the interview took place.

Each portrait is accompanied by an excerpt from that individual’s interview. With some exceptions, you can click any image on this site to expand.

The Texas Oral History Project is a non-profit corporation registered with the Secretary of State of the State of Texas.

Board of Directors

Michael Kamber is a photojournalist and educator. Between 2002 and 2012, he worked for The New York Times, covering conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, Somalia, the Congo, and other countries. He is the winner of a World Press Photo award, the Mike Berger Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Club Award, American Photo Images of the Year, and was a member of The New York Times team that won a 2003 Overseas Press Club award. In 2011, Kamber founded the Bronx Documentary Center, a non-profit gallery & educational space in the South Bronx.

Robert Dailey is a teacher and retired systems engineer. Dailey has taught in Chicago, Austin, and in Santiago, Chile, where he ran an orphanage during the years of the Pinochet dictatorship. Until recently, he was a tutor at a Title I high school in Austin Independent School District. Dailey’s name is on more than 40 US patents, and his board experience includes Voice of the People in Uptown Chicago, Hogar Santa Cruz in Santiago, Chile, AIDS Services of Austin, Third Coast Activist Resource Center, and Jolt. He was also a member of the provincial council for Brothers of Holy Cross.

Evan Michael Solís is a public school teacher and a native Texan. He has a decade of experience in radio and multimedia journalism, and has reported from South America, the United States, and Southeast Asia. For his work, he has received a Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Fellowship and a duPont-Columbia Award Fellowship. Solís is the founder and director of the Texas Oral History Project. He can be reached at evan@tohp.org.