• Oral Histories: Betty Oba Masukawa

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. During World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in “internment” (i.e. concentration) camps because of the United States’ fear of Japanese spies. One such Japanese American was…

  • Orange County History @ The Bowers Museum

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. The Bowers Museum is one of the premier local repositories for artifacts of Orange County history, all the way from native Americans, through Spanish colonization and the missions, to Mexican rule, to American conquest. There are…

  • The Limits of Desegregation: A Story of Maple School

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. In 1896, Homer Plessy, who was 1/8th black, entered a whites-only railroad car in New Orleans and was arrested. The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that the doctrine of “Separate but equal” was…

  • Oral Histories: Wilson Phelps

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. As part of my ongoing research on Fullerton history, I have been reading various Oral Histories conducted by The Center for Oral and Public History at Cal State Fullerton. I read an interview with local…

  • A Brief History of the ModelMania Building

    A Brief History of the ModelMania Building

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. At the April 7 Downtown Fullerton Art Walk at ModelMania, I gave a brief presentation on the history of the ModelMania building. For those of you who missed the talk, here’s what I shared. The…

  • Oral Histories: Blanche Elder Hale

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Blanch Elder Hale was interviewed by Jackie Malone in 1980 for the Fullerton College Oral History Program. She came to California with her family in 1908 when she was ten years old. Her father, George…

  • Oral Histories: Florence Arnold (artist/community organizer)

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. “All the yesterdays, no matter how good they were, how bad, they are plowed under; there is nothing we can do about it. They are gone and forgotten. Tomorrow is the great hope. But today…

  • H. Gaylord Wilshire: The Millionaire Socialist

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. I’ve recently been reading Kevin Starr’s excellent book Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era (the second in an epic seven-volume history of California), and came across a section on a colorful character named…

  • Fullerton Tribune: 1902

    Fullerton Tribune: 1902

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense…

  • Oral Histories: Dr. Mabel Myers

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Dr. Mabel Myers was interviewed by Anne Riley for the Fullerton College Oral History Program in 1975. Myers attended Fullerton College, graduating in 1919. She returned to the college in 1926 and taught science, geology,…