Ann Cottrell Free: Oral Histories
- Telling Their Story is All I Can Do
This extensive interview with Ann Cottrell Free was conducted in 2000 for the Animal Advocates Oral History Project and is housed at Columbia University. It focuses particularly on Free's lifelong involvement with animals and animal protection and her work as a journalist covering animal welfare and environmental issues.
Free discusses subjects including the Humane Slaughter Act, Animal Welfare Act, laboratory animals, Rachel Carson, Albert Schweitzer, humane organizations and the development of the modern animal-protection movement. Her animal reporting helped build support for federal humane legislation, and she was instrumental in the campaign that resulted in establishment of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine.
Read the full transcript here.
Listen to the audio here.
- The Eleanor Roosevelt Press Conferences: A videotaped group interview with Ann Cottrell Free, Frances Lide, Ruth Montgomery, Malvina Stephenson by the Washington Press Club Foundation
On May 22, 1989, Ann Cottrell Free participated with journalists Frances Lide, Ruth Montgomery and Malvina Stephenson in this videotaped group oral history about Eleanor Roosevelt's women-only press conferences.
Ann Cottrell (Free) attended Eleanor Roosevelt's women-only press conferences beginning in 1941 and was the second chairwoman of the Eleanor Roosevelt Press Conference Association. The press conferences played an important role in opening opportunities for women journalists in Washington at a time when women faced substantial barriers in the profession.
Read the full transcript here. - Personal Oral History of Ann Cottrell Free, recorded 1997-1998.
This extensive oral history covers Ann Cottrell Free's childhood and career as a Washington and foreign correspondent, including Newsweek, the Chicago Sun and New York Herald Tribune; Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt; Winston Churchill; World War II; UNRRA and postwar China; the Marshall Plan; animal welfare; Rachel Carson; and Albert Schweitzer.
Free discusses working for Newsweek, the Chicago Sun and New York Herald Tribune; covering Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt; Pearl Harbor and wartime Washington; encountering Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt at Foundry Methodist Church on Christmas Day 1941; joining UNRRA and traveling through China; meeting Chou En-lai; traveling through Asia, the Middle East and Europe; covering the Marshall Plan; and her later work involving humane slaughter, laboratory animals, Rachel Carson, Albert Schweitzer, and Ingrid Newkirk.
Read the full transcript here.
Search the complete index of people, places and subjects here.
Read a summary here.
Requests to quote from the transcript should be sent to [email protected]
- National Press Club Oral History — 1992
Ann Cottrell Free was interviewed by Florence Parrish St. John at Free's home in Bethesda, Maryland, on June 10 and June 19, 1992, for the National Press Club Oral History Committee.
This interview provides another account of Free's career in Washington journalism and her experiences as a woman in the Washington press corps.
Read the transcript here. - National Press Club Oral History — 1998
On February 25, 1998, Florence Parrish St. John conducted a videotaped oral history with Ann Cottrell Free at the National Press Club in Washington.
Read the transcript here.
- Covering World War II Washington by Tomas Dinges, April 13, 1994.
Ann Cottrell Free was interviewed by Tomas Dinges on April 13, 1994 about her experiences as a Washington journalist during World War II. Free's wartime journalism included reporting on the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, America's entry into World War II, military and home-front mobilization, women in the armed forces and wartime production.
Read the transcript here. - Headline Edition: Microphone from Berlin, ABC News radio interview
On December 17, 1947, ABC News interviewed Ann Cottrell and Verna Feuerhelm. They discussed their extraordinary postwar trip around the world. Free's personal oral history describes traveling around the world with Feuerhelm through China, Hong Kong, Indochina, Burma, Thailand, India, the Middle East and Europe.
Read the transcript here.
