2022 Award Winner: The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Oral History Program

The Society's inaugural winner for the Award for Special Service to the Historic Profession recognizes the Oral History Program of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training.  

ADST Lecture & Award Presentation

Commendation

The Society for History in the Federal Government is pleased to recognize the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) Oral History Program with the Award for Special Service to the Historical Profession. This award honors long-term excellence by an organization, group, or federal history office that furthers the understanding of federal history and contributes in a significant and meaningful way to scholarship in federal history.

Since its inception in 1986, ADST’s Oral History Program has built an exceptional repository of first-hand information for the federal history community. The program has gathered over 2500 interviews, with hundreds more to come, attesting to the ongoing value of the project. The archive includes interviews with, among others, former ambassadors, retirees from the Foreign Service, USAID, and USIA, and with Foreign Service Nationals and Foreign Service spouses. This treasure trove of personal accounts, including such notables as Prudence Bushnell, Thomas Pickering, and Julia Child, provides scholars and historians of U.S. foreign relations with an invaluable resource, offering unique insights on personal interplay and debates among U.S. policy makers and on the importance of U.S. diplomacy in serving the nation’s interests.

ADST’s efforts to make their published materials accessible and easily navigable adds to their value. In addition to a free text search of the collection and content, their products can be accessed in various formats – through transcripts, videos, and podcasts, and on the Library of Congress website as the Frontline Diplomacy collection.