The goal of the Preservation of Historical Documentation (PoHD) project was to make collections of printed research and oral histories available in an electronic format. It is our hope that by making these collections of often hard to find documents electronic, they will be have a broader reach.
We have been collaborating with the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), the Divers Alert Network (DAN)
Through these collaborations we have built the collections:
Undersea Biomedical Research (1974 to 1992) in cooperation with GUE
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine (1993 to current) in cooperation with GUE
UHMS Workshops supported by DAN
Underwater Medicine and Related Sciences supported by UHMS
Hyperbaric Oxygen Review (1980 to 1985)
Journal of Hyperbaric Medicine (1986 to 1992)
Oral History Preservation and Digitization
-This is a part of the Archive Project CAPT Willard F. Searle, Jr. (USN) ret.
In his initial Navy career, which began during World War II, and in his subsequent civilian activities “Bill” Searle has been an active force for development and progress in international maritime salvage, diving and work under the sea – in Ocean Engineering. Practically no phase of those activities has been untouched by his review, supervision or active participation. Divers with modern protective equipment and effective tools work at previously only dreamed-of depths and times to accomplish once impossible tasks. Archaeologists can investigate history hidden underwater for centuries and millennia. Underwater structures for an amazing number of useful and necessary purposes are now installed in previously impossible locations. From among the technical development programs initiated by him in the 1960′s have arisen Remotely Operated Vehicles {ROV’s} and Autonomous Undersea Vehicle’s {AUV’s} which safely [and quietly in necessary] penetrate all areas and depths of the ocean and perform important tasks which are emblazoned in newspapers and headlines [or never mentioned]. All these are the result of a truly prodigious career.
We Digitized Nineteen Oral History Interviews were taken by John T Mason, Jr. from 1971 to 1974. They remain in draft form but are made available by the efforts of CAPT Robert C. Bornmann MD, USN (ret.) and CAPT Richard D. Vann, PhD, USNR (ret.) to ensure their preservation. More information about CAPT Willard F. Searle, Jr. and the oral histories can be found on the Searle Project page.
Other Completed Work
The “Physiology of Breath-hold Diving and the AMA of Japan” edited by Herman Rahn and Tetsuro Yokoyama (RRR ID: 3279) to the Diver’s Alert Network for inclusion in the course materials of the Breath-hold Diving Symposium and Pre-course held on June 20-21, 2006. The book was published by the International Union of Physiological Sciences, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council of the United States following a symposium on August 31 to September 1, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan. Each of the participants of the 2006 Breath-hold Diving Symposium receives a copy of this scanned book. We would like to thank Drs. William and Caroline Fife for their donation of this work.
