Below are two sets of Oral Histories related to the early history of Haskins Laboratories. The recordings have been transferred to the University of Connecticut Library’s Archives & Special Collections, and will be available for public access in the Fall of 2023.

Below you can access transcriptions from these two Oral History collections.

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An Oral History of Haskins Laboratories: 1988-1991, by Patrick W. Nye, transcribed December 2006

“This is the first set of recordings and their transcription cover the early history of Haskins Laboratories as remembered by the laboratories’ founders and other early participants. Most of the recordings were made in the fall of 1988. The last recording was made in February 1991. The session on this recording began on August 12, 1988, the occasion of Caryl Haskins’ 80th birthday. Three senior members of Haskins Laboratories were present: Caryl Haskins, Franklin Cooper, and Seymour Hutner. Caryl was invited to begin with a memoir of his early life and the events that led to the founding of Haskins Laboratories. He initially completed the task in little more than 5 minutes, much to my dismay and fortunately others too. Frank saved the day by gently suggesting that Caryl needed to be much more forthcoming, and it was just about at this point that I noticed the red flashing light on the tape recorder and realized that the machine had not been recording. And so faced with the facts, Caryl good-naturedly agreed to begin his memoir once again, this time in greater detail.” — Patrick W. Nye

Click here for a 267 page transcript in PDF format.

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An Oral History of Haskins Laboratories: compiled by Carol Fowler and Donald Shankweiler, 2013-2017

Transcripts and oral histories from: Arthur Abramson, Freddie Bell-Berti, Alan Cooper, Craig Cooper, Alice Dadourian, Carol Fowler, Kathy Harris, Len Katz, Lloyd Morrisett, Philip Rubin, Maxine Singer, Michael Studdert-Kennedy, Michael Turvey, Cyrus Bacchi, Stuart L. Marcus, and Nigel Yarlett.