Some Challenges with Writing Local History

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.

Although I created www.fullertonhistory.com just last year, I have actually been researching and writing about the history of Fullerton since 2010. It started as an occasional hobby for my old blog, continued as I was editor of the Fullerton Observer newspaper, and now it’s become a fairly regular thing. I try to post at least a couple of times a week.

As I’ve begun to take the project of writing a local history book more seriously, I’ve encountered a few challenges that I don’t really have answers for, so I thought I’d write about them.

The first concerns newspaper archives. The most comprehensive of these are the microfilm archives of the Fullerton Tribune, which stretch back to 1893. In order to write a comprehensive history, I’ve felt compelled to dive into these systematically, year-by-year. One challenge is that, due to budget cuts to the Fullerton Public Library, the Local History Room, which used to be open every day until 5pm is now only open from 11am-1pm Monday through Thursday, and there is only one microfilm machine. The other challenge is: how much of the newspaper archives do I need to read to get a complete enough picture of the town’s history? Thus far, I’ve sort of been scanning the archives for interesting headlines, and then creating a year-by-year mini archive of notable stories. However, I sometimes have the sense that, by not reading the entirety of every newspaper, I am perhaps missing out on things. I suppose I don’t have the patience to read every word of every paper, so this is an issue I think about often, and I’m not sure what the best approach is.

Another minor challenge with the newspaper archives is the occasional bias of the newspaper’s editor; however, this is pretty easy to spot.

Another challenge stems from one of my other main sources of information on local history–the extensive oral history archives in the CSUF Center for Oral and Public History. I’ve been slowly reading over these and creating another mini archive of summaries of these. The challenges with these interviews are twofold–the sheer number of interviews that exist, and what to include from these interviews in my history. This brings me to another challenge. Each person’s life is interesting and, as time goes on, Fullerton’s population has grown, increasing the number of potential interview subjects. Hundreds of thousands of people have lived in Fullerton over the years and who’s to say which people are important enough to interview and include in my history? I have only conducted a few interviews myself (I’m still making my way through the archives), but this is another challenge I often think about.

When I tell people I’m researching and writing a history of the town of Fullerton, one reaction sometimes is: why pick such a narrow topic? Why not Orange County history, or California history? It’s a point well taken, but the truth is, the more I dive into the newspaper and interview archives, I’m actually overwhelmed with the breadth of my topic.

I suppose a final challenge, something I often ask myself is: who cares? Why does this even matter? Why devote so much time to this project? I don’t always have a great answer to this question, except to say that the topic interests me, and I don’t really know of anyone else doing it as comprehensively as I’m attempting to do it. Sure, there already exist some good books about Fullerton’s history, the most comprehensive of which is Bob Ziebell’s Fullerton: a Pictorial History. However, as much as I appreciate Ziebell’s work, I think I can do something much more comprehensive.

I don’t really have answers to these questions and challenges. I just thought I’d share them with you. For now, I’ll keep diving into the newspaper archives, the interview archives, and other sources I can find. I hope you enjoy following my process.