The creation of a history of Harpur College was discussed in earnest in 1969 and then implemented in 1970. The initial project was named the Harpur College Oral History Project and was overseen by University administrators, primarily S. Stewart Gordon, then Vice President for Academic Affairs, with support from others such as former President Glenn G. Bartle, and President C. Peter Magrath.

The first iteration of the Project was a recording of persons attending a 25th anniversary round table. This interview was recorded by Laura House, Community Relations Director, and featured eight members of the faculty and the first University President, who shared their recollections of the early days of Harpur College and Triple Cities College (Harpur's predecessor).

Discussions soon thereafter called for additional steps to record the history, and in 1971 William Langlois, an undergraduate history student at the University, was hired as director of the Harpur College Oral History Project. Over the next several months, Langlois conducted 55 hours of interviews, concentrating on early members of the faculty, administration and staff.

In 1972 Stephen McIntire, a graduate student at the University, replaced Langlois (who had graduated), and was named Director of the Harpur College History Project. This project was largely administered by S. Stewart Gordon, then Vice President for Planning, and Norman Cantor, Distinguished Professor of History and Provost for Graduate Studies and Research. McIntire was charged with writing a history of the University and he utilized the interviews undertaken by Langlois, information from archival records kept by S. Stewart Gordon, and surveys of former faculty that he would conduct in 1972. His manuscript, titled Harpur College in the Bartle Era, covered the years 1946 to 1964. 1964 was selected as a stopping point as it marked the retirement of Glenn G. Bartle as president and the beginning of the school’s transformation into a University Center. Another manuscript was created around the same time by Stephen Hambalek, a local journalist, at the request of the Advisory Committee on the History of Harpur College Project. This was called Alma Mater: a popular history of Harpur College 1946-1964. The two were published together in 1975 by the Foundation of The State University of New York at Binghamton.

In 1984 and 1985 a third but shorter oral history project was undertaken, with interviews conducted by C. Peter Gruber, Professor Emeritus in English, General Literature, and Rhetoric, S. Stewart Gordon and Laura House. Interviews completed featured Wanda Bartle, wife of Glenn G. Bartle, as well as some faculty members and longtime staff.

In 2005, Binghamton University Libraries’ Special Collections Department participated in the New York State Audiotape Project which undertook preservation reformatting of the reel to reel tapes created in the 1970s and created compact discs for patron use.