Records comprise the final transcripts and three videos of oral histories conducted with Getty staff, trustees, and associates by Oral Historian Eric Abrahamson between 1999 and 2010.

The J. Paul Getty Trust Oral History Project was launched in the fall of 1999 to capture the insights and perspectives of individuals who made critical contributions to the development of the Trust and its programs. These interviews have been conducted to provide a rich resource of perspectives on the history of the Getty as an institution; they are intended to help future generations of Getty leaders understand the organizational dynamics that shaped and will continue to shape the J. Paul Getty Trust. For historians and managers, they also provide the rich detail and color that makes the stories of the past inspire a new generation to carry on the work of the moment.All interviews for the oral history project have been conducted by Dr. Eric John Abrahamson, president and principal historian with Vantage Point Historical Services, Inc.. Abrahamson received his doctorate in history from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to the Getty Trust, Abrahamson has conducted oral histories for the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Pacific Telesis Group. In addition, he is the author or co-author of a number of organizational histories including Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless World with Dr. Louis Galambos (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Spirited Commitment: The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation with Dr. Roderick MacLeod (McGill-Queens University Press, 2010). Abrahamson's book Building Home: Howard F. Ahmanson and the Politics of the American Dream was published by the University of California Press in January 2013. He is currently writing and editing a series of books to be published in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation's centennial.The J. Paul Getty Trust is a not-for-profit institution, educational in purpose and character, that focuses on the visual arts in all of their dimensions.

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Restrictions are noted at the individual/transcript level and were designated by the participants. When known, the date on which an interview will open for research has been noted.