The Wildwoods are four shore communities (North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, West Wildwood) on a barrier island on the southernmost edge of the South Jersey peninsula. The island has been a center for working class summer recreation for over 100 years and has a rich and unique history generated by tourism, amusements, entertainment, local businesses, and an active local government.
From 2002-2006 I worked on The Wildwoods Oral History Project, a project to interview a diverse array of year-round residents to create an archive of stories about the post-World War II era in the Wildwoods. In December 2006 more than 900 pages of original oral history transcripts and photography as well as family-generated genealogies and copies of personal effects and memorabilia were deposited in two local history museum archives. This was the completetion of the first stage of my Wildwoods project.
Copies of the original sound recordings for this oral history project reside in the George F. Boyer Museum collection (51 tapes of 34 interview subjects).
Copies of this printed collection and a digital archive (CDR) of all the texts appear in the following locations:
George F. Boyer Museum
3907 Pacific Avenue
Wildwood, NJ 08260
Hereford Inlet Lighthouse
111 North Central Avenue
North Wildwood, NJ 08260
Here is a brief description of the project’s aims and methods:
The Wildwoods Oral History Project: Project Overview
Click below for an index of interview participants and a brief description of topics discussed in each interview:
Wildwoods Oral History Project: Index of Interviews