Tuesday, December 13, 2011

CSUF Center for Oral and Public History: Gold Mine!

The following is an excerpt from a work-in-progress called The Town I Live In.

In researching the history of Fullerton, I have read a number of interviews from the CSUF Oral History Program, where students and faculty interviewed residents of Fullerton and transcribed them, mostly back in the 60s and 70s. The Fullerton Public Library has maybe 50 interviews that I've found. The Fullerton College Library has about the same number. But yesterday I stumbled upon The Mother Lode of Oral History Interviews! On the 3rd floor of the CSUF library is the Center for Oral and Public History, where they have over 5,000 interviews!

I felt like a kid in a candy shop, scanning the titles. There are two full shelves of interviews with Japanese Americans who were put in internment camps during WWII. That's probably a good month of reading and writing right there. Needless to say, I am pumped. Over the winter break, the CSUF Center for Oral and Public History will be my "home away from home."

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