The idea of establishing an oral history collection as an adjunct to the Dulles Papers was first explored in 1963 in conversations between William S. Dix, Princeton University Librarian, and John W. Hanes, Jr., and Roderic L. O'Connor, former assistants to Secretary Dulles, who had been active in the negotiations that led to the presentation of the Papers to Princeton. The idea became a reality a little less than a year later when the Rockefeller Foundation awarded the Princeton University Library a grant (later supplemented by private donations) to launch the Dulles Oral History Project.

In January 1964, a professional Advisory Committee of Historians and former colleagues of Mr. Dulles was named by Princeton's President Robert F. Goheen. Chaired by Ambassador Hugh S. Cumming, Jr., the Committee offered suggestions concerning the topics that should be covered in the Project's program and helped in drawing up a list of the individuals to be invited to participate in interviews.

All in all, at the conclusion of the project, the interviewers had traveled to seventeen foreign countries and sixteen states across the nation, including the District of Columbia, and taped 315 hours of testimony from 285 men and women.

A complete account of those involved in the project can be found in the printed catalog for this collection under "Guides to the Collection."