The Oral History Process

Two interviews were recorded on May 16 and June 26, 1996 in Campbell's busy medical practice. Fully engaged in the interviews, particularly in the discussion of constructing safer sex guidelines, he was intent on conveying his dual and sometimes conflicting interest in preserving health and freedom of sexual expression. He returned the interview transcripts in record time, making a few changes and additions.

Although Campbell has seen his primary role in the epidemic to be that of physician and educator and has used his medical training to distance himself from his patients, his emotions nonetheless run deep:

I love to see plays or movies or pieces of art that have to do with the AIDS epidemic, like the quilts and the play Early Frost. Some of these things that have come out are very, very important for me to see, because I can sit back and be a spectator and become emotionally involved. I don't have to play my role as doctor, and I can sit back and cry about things.

The Regional Oral History Office was established in 1954 to augment through tape-recorded memoirs the Library's materials on the history of California and the West. Copies of all interviews are available for research use in The Bancroft Library and in the UCLA Department of Special Collections. The office is under the direction of Willa K. Baum, Division Head, and the administrative direction of Charles B. Faulhaber, James D. Hart Director of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

October 1999

Regional Oral History Office
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley