Beginning in 2004, the Clerk of the House authorized the first Oral History Program for the U.S. House of Representatives under the Office of History and Preservation (OHP). The program reveals the rich heritage of the House to members, staff, scholars and the general public through descriptions of legislative processes and procedures, personal and political anecdotes and recollections about the evolving nature of the institution.

Part of the larger oral history program, and containing only a subsection of the institutional records collected as part of that project, this site provides public access to selected interviews and related information as well as video, audio and artifacts.

The multi-level navigation structure resembles a scrapbook and gives visitors the option of selecting an historical figure from the photos on the home page or hovering over the More Information bar for a detailed dropdown of site offerings. Additionally, a search engine allows for navigation and interviews are indexed by Congress, job position and specific historic events.

• Preparation of content generated as part of the oral history program, as well as development of site-specific content began in March 2009; design of the site began in June; the bulk of the development work occurred in September and October and the site launched in December 2009. Total project time was approximately eight months.

• The site has more than 200 media elements and includes a “share” feature that enables users to easily send site information to delicious, StumbleUpon, digg, Twitter and individual e-mail addresses.

• The site's received over 6,000 visits with 24,700 page views since its launch in December 2009.

• Three divisions of the Office of the Clerk were involved in the development of this site: Four members of the Oral History Program staff developed the content; five members of the Office of Publication Services staff designed and developed the site; and two members of the Legislative Computer Systems staff provided server support.