The Mountain Drive Oral History Collection contains thirty oral histories of people who experienced the early days of Mountain Drive, Santa Barbara's bohemian community. The collection originated as an advanced oral history course conducted during the summer of 1986. The success of the group project, and the feeing that it had only scratched the surface of a rich subject, caused the effort to be continued for six years. One of the envisioned outputs of the project was a publication on the history of Mountain Drive, but internal funding for the book was never realized. Twenty-two of the recorded oral histories were transcribed into electronic format using the first generation of personal computers. The collection also contains related materials such as photographs, news clippings, newsletters, an outline of the proposed publication, drafts of chapters, and project administration materials.

In 2021, an effort to improve access to the oral histories led to digitization of the audiocassettes, development of a website, and collecting of additional materials.