The NAMM Oral History Program is a collection of one-on-one interviews with people involved in the music products industry, including music instrument retailers, instrument and product creators, suppliers and sales representatives, music educators and advocates, publishers, live sound and recording pioneers, innovators, founders, and artists. The mission of the program is to preserve the history of the music products industry, including industry innovations, the evolution of musical instruments and music retail, as well as improving music education worldwide. The program was established by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) in 2000. History The program was founded in 2000 with Daniel Del Fiorentino as the lead interviewer. Fiorentino had worked at NAMM since 1998 as the first curator of the NAMM Foundations Museum of Making Music before becoming the NAMM Music Historian. The NAMM Resource Center, which curates the program, was approved by the NAMM Board of Directors in 1996, five years before the association's 100th anniversary. The first NAMM Oral History was conducted on March 5, 2000, with professional harmonica player, Bill Walden. Purpose The NAMM Oral History program seeks to capture one-on-one interviews with those involved with the music products industry to cover innovative creations, the evolution of musical instruments, and music retail, for the purpose of improving music education around the globe. Among those interviewed as part of this collection include but are not limited to music retailers, manufacturers, arrangers, and composers, designers, as well as music publishers, engineers, and artists closely associated with the industry. Participants have come from over 80 different countries and all 50 U.S. states who have been born between 1903 and 2001. The collection also includes the stories of those who have inspired others to make music. As a result, interviews with innovators such as Hartley Peavey and Remo Belli have been captured. In addition, the stories of these and similar companies have their histories archived through the use of those associated with the companies including person(s) in roles such as musicians, composers, method book authors, factory workers and salesman. The collection also includes music retailers and the history of such store chains as Sam Ash and Guitar Center, as well as independent music stores around the world such as Daynes Music and Andertons Music Co. The first music retailer interviewed for the collection was Chip Averwater of Amro Music in 2000. Over the years the scope of the Collection has expanded