EIC’s Collection of Oral Engineering History Interviews

This new Collection includes a series of recorded oral interviews of senior engineers conducted during the summers of 2021 and 2022. Encouraged by trained interviewers, narrators describe some aspects of their careers often related to interesting engineering projects of historical significance.

The EIC and entire engineering community are indebted to them for agreeing to share these reminiscences. Most of the interviews were recorded in English, while some were redone in French (as per the narrator’s native language). The French interviews will be mounted on the server in the near future.

There are two videos for each interview: the full 35- to 90-minute interview; and, short three- to six-minute “snippets” that capture a brief story from each interview. The EIC History & Archives committee, which oversaw this project, is delighted by the diversity of both the engineering fields (biological, biomedical, civil, electrical, geotechnical, mechanical, nuclear, and dam engineering) and individuals (11 female and 17 male engineers from different backgrounds) represented.

The EIC hopes that the personal recollections of these “Narrators” will serve as original sources for researchers, provide professional guidance for current engineers-in-training, and inform secondary students who are curious about potential careers in engineering.

For the inaugural series of 27 interviews, EIC gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Canadian Dam Association; the Canadian Geotechnical Society; the Canadian Nuclear Society; the Canadian Society for Bioengineering; the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering; the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering; the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers; the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (Canada); and Mitacs.

Support from Western University’s Public History program, in particular Professor Michelle A. Hamilton and Interns Robin Marshall, Avraham Shaver and Madeline Shaw is also gratefully acknowledged. The assistance of Catherine Davidson, University Librarian, and Marcia Johnson, Associate University Librarian, Digital Initiatives, Ontario Tech University, who archived the recorded interviews, is greatly appreciated.

To view the oral interview recordings, please visit the following page hosted by OntarioTech Library (official keeper of EIC’s archives):

https://digitalcollections.library.ontariotechu.ca/engineering-institute-canada