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During 1955-1956, at Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASES), a diverse group of scholars began a multidisciplinary project later titled The Natural History of an Interview (NHI). 1 Although frequently cited as" forthcoming" and" in press," this seminal study, which marks a turning point in the investigation of social communication, did not become publicly available until 1971, and even then only on microfilm. NHI has become well known through the academic grapevine, yet it has not received much formal discussion: many pieces of the story have been told previously, but those pieces have not been brought together, and much of the NHI material has not been published.