Balboa Island Museum

Watch Jennifer’s interview at the Museum Director for Visit Newport Beach at 01:17 to 03:31 for the history of Balboa Island.
Wing Lam and Lee Family

In January 2014, graduate students Jennifer Keil (M.A. in Oral and Public History) and Cindy Keil (M.A. in English) instituted the “Over the Bridge” Oral History Project. Social media accounts were established to promote the museum and this project. You can see their curated collection of stories on the YouTube Legacy Project Playlist. Transcripts/Recording Logs and physical DVDs were provided to the narrators for archival purposes. This project was featured in the museum’s newsletter. They interviewed long-term residents and integral leaders of this community.

One of our favorite interviews was with the Lee Family and Wing Lam who shared the history of Shanghai Pine and Wahoo’s Tacos. See the 033.3 Wing Lam and Mr & Mrs Lee’s John Wayne Story — 00:04:08

Four highlight reels were created to engage visitors at the oral history station. They are the following: Over the Bridge, Holiday Memories, Jolly Roger Memories, Celebrity Encounters.

The poster (above) was presented at the 2016 Southwest Oral History Association session at the Center for Oral and Public History at CSUF. Cindy and Jennifer presented, “Over the Bridge: Creating a Sustainable Oral History Program” at the Southwest Oral History Association conference in March 2015 and at Oral History Association national conferences. The following videos are media links to the interviews.