Balboa Island Museum

Watch Jennifer’s interview as the Museum Director for Visit Newport Beach at 01:17 to 03:31 for the history of Balboa Island.
Address: 210 Marine Ave, Newport Beach, CA 92662
Hours: 10 AM-4 PM

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. They set up the museum’s social media accounts (YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) 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 Spring 2014 newsletter and the Newport Beach Indy. “To meet Keil, you’d expect that she also earned her doctorate in Enthusiasm. She came to the museum last year when she and her sister, Cindy, helped to institute the museum’s oral history project, titled “Over the Bridge.” As Balboa Island’s original cottage homes are inexorably disappearing, so are some of the more senior residents.”

The Keils interviewed long-term residents and integral leaders of this community. Today, the project contains nearly 100 interviews. These individuals interviewed are the cornerstone of the community. The Keils helped establish rapport with these community leaders who became active volunteers and donors of the museum because of this interview process. Oral histories can be an incredible part of the museum development process and support a capital campaign.

Wing Lam and Lee Family

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.