Later Years > Oral History
Dean Albertson interviewed Frances Perkins for the Oral History Research Office between 1951 and 1955. Albertson served as an air officer in the navy during the Second World War, and then obtained a Ph.D. at Columbia, studying with Allan Nevins. He was the first of Nevins's four students appointed to the staff of the Columbia Oral History Research Office, conducting a large number of the early interviews and at one time spearheading an effort to establish a branch in Washington, D.C.
The Perkins interview was one of the first undertaken by the Office. Under the editing protocols of that time, questions were deleted from the transcript and the text was edited for style, so one can only speculate about the interaction between Perkins and Albertson. Also at that time, the audio part of the process was considered a step, and after being transcribed, tapes were generally used over for other interviews.
You can hear those portions of Frances Perkins's Oral History Research Office interviews that still exist through the Notable New Yorkers web site:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/perkinsf/index.html