Barbara W. Sommer

 Back to top

Biography: 

Barbara W. Sommer is a public historian with a specialty in oral history and is a descendent of Romansh immigrants to Minnesota. She has been director or co-director of numerous oral history projects and has been a presenter at state, national, and international oral history conferences. She is the author and co-author of several key publications in the field, most recently The Oral History Manual (third edition, 2018), The Community Oral History Toolkit (2013), Practicing Oral History in Historical Organizations (2015), and Doing Veterans Oral History (2015). She also is the author of Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota (2008). She has degrees from Carleton College and the University of Minnesota. Barb and her husband Larry have three children—a daughter, with son-in-law and grandson, who live in Minneapolis; a son and daughter-in-law in New York City; and a daughter who lives in Brooklyn and works in New York City.

Articles: