Records currently consist of printed transcripts and flash drives containing Word, PDF, MP3 and MP4, wav, and raw video files, dating 2015-2018, of the oral histories created as a part of the new 2015- Getty Oral History Program initiated by Trust President James Cuno and overseen/conducted by Martin Meeker, oral historian with The Oral History Center, Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley.

The J. Paul Getty Trust has had a number of internal oral history initiatives throughout its brief history. The projects have fallen into rough categories of Interviews Regarding the Study of Art History (1986, 1988, 1990), Interviews with Art Historians (1991-2002) and Interviews of Significant Getty Trustees and Staff, organized by historical period and institutional role of interviewee (1999-2010). The interviewers of the first two categories were Richard Candida-Smith and, to a lesser extent, Claire Lyons, while the interviewer of the third category was Eric Abrahamson.The J. Paul Getty Trust is a cultural and philanthropic institution dedicated to the presentation, conservation, and interpretation of the world's artistic legacy. Through the collective and individual work of its constituent programs-the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute-the Getty pursues its mission in Los Angeles and throughout the world, serving both the general interested public and a wide range of professional communities in order to promote a vital civil society through an understanding of the visual arts. Since 1954 the Oral History Center of the Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable.

1.5 Linear Feet

The 2015-ongoing Getty Oral History Program Interviews are unrestricted and open to the public.