Enhancing Access to the History of San Diego and the Border Region

Project Updates:

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4/26/13 - Project completion, right on target!

We are in the final days of our two-year project and are happy to announce we completed processing and creating finding aids for all 133 collections!  In addition to the collections we planned to complete at the onset of the project, we completed five more collections, bringing the grand total to 138 collections!  All 138 collections are available for access online on this project page as well as the Online Resources page.  Take a moment to step back and discover the diverse history of San Diego. 

4/2/13 - Over 125 Collections completed!

We have come upon the final month of this project with over 125 archival collection finding aids available for access online, on both this page and the Online Resources page.  A number of influential collections on San Diego history have been recently processed including the Colonel Ed Fletcher Collection (MS 135 finding aid) and Ephraim W. Morse Collection (MS 144 finding aid) - each providing valuable insights into the early development of San Diego, including land, water and business developments.

11/27/12 - Over 100 collections available for access online!

We've reached another milestone -- now over 100 collection finding aids are available for access on this project page, as well as on the Online Archive of California (OAC). 

Collections such as the Virgina DeMarais Anza Borrego Collection (MS 228 finding aid), uncovering her vast collection of the history of Borrego Springs and Anza Borrego Desert areas, as well as the beautifully illustrated Dutilleul Mission Valley Journal from 1912 (MS 268 finding aid) can now be easily accessed, uncovering more San Diego treasures. 

Two more engaging collections containing extensive personal diaries from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are also available: one explores the activites of land and mine surveyor Richard Stephens in San Diego and Baja California (MS 238 finding aid); and the other follows the busy and transient life of rancher Isaac N. Casner through his 14 diaries and other personal papers (MS 275 finding aid).

9/12/12 - Robert Bliss Journal

Explore the journal of Robert Bliss (MS 79 finding aid), a private who served in B Company of the Mormon Battalion, the only religiously-based unit in the history of the United States Army.  His journal records daily entries of the Mormon Battalion’s 2,000-mile trek from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego during the Mexican-American War.  It was an arduous journey and only 360 of the original 550 men reached San Diego on January 29, 1847, six months after their start on July 21, 1846. 

9/10/12 - Mario T. Garcia Chicano Papers

Learn about the Chicano and anti-war movements of the early 1970s in the papers of Chicano scholar, Mario T. Garcia (MS 205 finding aid).  Garcia’s educational papers in the collection explore his involvement in the campaign to establish a Center for Chicano Studies on-campus at San Diego State University (SDSU), his activities in the Open Admissions controversy at SDSU, and the movement surrounding Third College at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).  The collection also presents opportunities to view rare original flyers and posters related to the Delano grape boycott and other United Farm Workers activities, as well as posters and ephemera from the general Chicano movement and the Chicano anti-war movement.  Garcia’s collection additionally includes a vast compilation of local, state and national community newspapers and periodicals, as well as numerous collegiate newspapers and publications, all providing further coverage of the Chicano and anti-war movements. 

9/4/12 - Over 90 collection finding aids now complete!

Processing is now complete for over 90 archival collections and the finding aids are available for access online on this project page.  Continue to explore the diverse history of San Diego.  Here are some of the many highlights of the collections in this project. 

The administrative records for the Panama-California Exposition 1915-1916 (MS 263 finding aid) provide insight into the development and execution of the famous world’s fair that paved the way for the Balboa Park today. 

A 40-volume set of William Shakespeare’s plays, previously owned by Katherine Drummond, includes photographs from Shakespearean performances held at the Old Globe Theatre during the California Pacific International Exposition, 1935-1936 (MS 226 finding aid).

Philip Martin’s interest in water development provides a broad collection on the development of water resources in San Diego County, including the Colorado River, El Capitan Dam, water rights, and flood control (MS 188 finding aid).

Explore the orders and reports of the U.S. Navy-lead flood relief expedition following the 1916 Lower Otay Dam failure which resulted in a number of deaths and much of the population homeless (MS 264 finding aid).

San Diego’s history also includes a number of German community organizations, such as the Turners, or Turnevereins, an athletic club providing members opportunities to participate in athletic events and celebrate their heritage (MS 194 finding aid).

7/11/12 - San Diego's First Female Physician, Charlotte Baker

Processing of the Charlotte Baker Diary Collection is complete and a finding aid is now available for access online (MS 173 finding aid). The collection includes 48 personal diaries kept by Charlotte Baker from 1882 to 1934, encompassing her life as a mother and grandmother, a renowned obstetrician and the first female physician in San Diego, and as an involved local activist for women’s suffrage and prohibition, among other causes. Charlotte provides first-hand accounts of life on the frontier in New Mexico in the 1890s, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fire, victory for women’s right to vote in California in 1911, and local impact of World War I.  Some entries also detail her involvement in the Y.W.C.A., as well as her husband’s involvement in the San Diego Historical Society as one of the founding members. 

3/26/12 - March is Women's History Month

Before this month comes to a close, we'd like to take a moment to recognize just few of the many accomplished women in San Diego history who have been highlighted by this Project.  Kate Sessions, as we recognized late last year, is the renonwed horticulturalist, locally known as the "Mother of Balboa Park," of which our collection highlights her early life in college and travels to Europe in her later years (MS 38 finding aid).  Alice E. Klauber was an artist and interior designer whose travels to abroad as well as some art sketches and poetry can be explored through our collection of her papers (MS 182 finding aid).  Vesta Muehleisen was actively involved in education in San Diego from the late 1920s through the 1940s, including having a seat on the San Diego Board of Education while it dealt with fears of communism and acting as the Director of Education for the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition (MS 142 finding aid).  In addition, collections are currently being processed on Dr. Charlotte Baker (first female physician in San Diego as well as a suffragist) and Carla Kirkwood (social activist and performance artist).  Both collections, as well as many more, should be available for access in the coming months - stay tuned!

3/23/12 - Accessing more of our diverse collections online

Here are just a few highlights of the collections now available for access on this page and the Online Archive of California (OAC).  Examine the correspondence from a group of Chinese engineers, who were stationed in San Diego in the 1940s, writing to the Trask family, learning of American activities and products, as well as sharing Chinese customs and current affairs (MS 234 finding aid).  Explore San Diego County through the diary entries of Joseph Foster, a young sheep herder traveling the County in the 1870s-1880s (MS 97 finding aid).  James R. Evans’ diary accounts his prospecting activities in California’s Imperial Valley in the 1920s (MS 201 finding aid).  The papers of Jesse Shepard, also known as Francis Grierson, explore his musical and literary activities of the late 1800s to early 1900s, including involvement of his assistant Waldemar Tonner and correspondence with his diverse base of famous friends (MS 55 finding aid).  Another collection represents the San Diego Theater Organ Group’s restoration of the Fox Theatre Organ starting in 1967 as well as the many performances which followed (MS 100 finding aid).  Collections from other groups have also been posted online, including the Pastime Gun Club (MS 251 finding aid), El Cajon Horticultural Society (MS 254 finding aid), the Silvergate Riding Club and Balboa Mounted Troop (MS 207 finding aid), and the Writers Club of San Diego (MS 85 finding aid).

3/1/12 - One year down, one to go!

The past few months have been busy, but with a lot of progress to show for it.  As we've come to the close of our first year on the project, continuing on to the second, over 60 collections have been processed with almost all of those collection finding aids available for access on this page, as well as the Online Archive of California (OAC). 

11/8/11 - Happy 154th Birthday, Kate Sessions!

Today is Kate Sessions birthday.  Check out our page celebrating her birthday and visit the collection's finding aid.

9/16/11 – The Other Side to Kate Sessions

The recently processed collection on Kate Sessions uncovers a little known part of her life, revealing her personality and experiences as a young woman.  Sessions is renowned for her contributions to San Diego horticulture, especially in Balboa Park, being known affectionately as the “Mother of Balboa Park,” but little if anything has been written of her early life and activities outside of horticulture.  Our recently processed collection on Kate Sessions includes intimate diaries and correspondence spanning her early life during college at UC Berkeley in the late 1870s and her solo trip to Europe in 1925.  The college diaries present a young Sessions, her interests, personal relationships and budding independent spirit.  Although there are some early inclinations to her future horticultural success, the collection promotes a rarely seen view of Sessions.  She writes of her interests in women’s rights as early as 1876, including figures and activities of the early movement.  She mentions authors and books read as well as interests in science and political figures, enthusiastically noting a visit by Ulysses S. Grant.  Additional diaries come from her later-life travels to Europe in 1925, continuing to present her independent, adventurous spirit, recording the architecture, plants, and societies she found fascinating. 

9/7/11 - More Finding Aids Online

Processing continues on our 133 collections, and finalized collection finding aids continue to be posted on this project page.  Check out some of the new finding aids including Red Cross, Presidio Park, and the New San Diego Hotel registers.  Explore at-home first-aid and garment making guides from the Red Cross.  Uncover more information about Presidio Park’s development and excavations.  Find out who visited the New San Diego Hotel in the late 19^th century.

8/2/11 - First Collections Posted!

Our project has reached a milestone achievement!  The first finding aids created from newly processed collections are now available online.  Finding aids are posted on the Online Archive of California (OAC) as well as here on our project webpage.  Visit the finding aids and explore some of the diverse history of San Diego!

6/22/11 – Jacob Price Diary, 1912

Price Family Papers contain a diary of Jacob Price from 1912.  The first half of the diary contains text transcribed by Anzelmo Moraga of the 17^th degree of the Scottish Rite, Knight of the East and West; the diary was a gift to Jacob Price from Moraga.  The second half of the diary is a daily log composed by Jacob Price recounting his sea-voyage from San Diego to Columbia, South America, via a brief stop-over in Panama, to visit two of his children (November-December 1912).  Price’s narrative elegantly and precisely describes all the joys and discomforts of the journey, noting conditions of sea travel and culture of Panama in 1912.  This grant-funded Project has afforded us the opportunity to uncover and share items like this diary, examining first-person accounts from a century ago.

6/13/11 – Filibuster Expeditions Collection

The Filibuster Expeditions Collection is now believed to be research notes used to produce articles for the annual publications of the Historical Society of Southern California in the early part of the 20th century.  Millard Hudson, member of the Historical Society of Southern California, and others authored many articles on California history in the Society’s annual publication, including articles on filibustering.  This deduction of the Collection’s believed origin required extensive detective work, researching outside the scope of the singular collection.  The turning point came when correspondence was found in the Pioneer Society of San Diego County Collection between the Pioneers Society and the Historical Society of Southern California regarding a donation of documents, including those on filibustering, to the Pioneer Society.  This and other collections of the Pioneer Society were later transferred to the San Diego History Center in 1930. 

5/31/11 - Denton Family Papers

Elaborate hand-drawn maps from the 19^th century by William Denton found in our Denton Family Papers.  Maps showcase ranchos and mines owned by the Denton family as well as Baja California and the Colorado River basin.  Much of the latter maps were created during Denton’s land surveying expeditions executed during his tenure at the International Colonization Company (International Company of Mexico). 

Also included in the collection is an 1888 booklet summarizing legal allegations by a family whose land, “Punta Banda,” was unlawfully seized by the above-mentioned Company.  This may be one of the first published documents representing the native voice in this type of land dispute.  In addition, a document dated October 1886 declares the sale of a land property owned by Denton called “Punta Banda.”  Although a connection is only speculative, these documents in fact provide valuable insight into the complexities of 19^th century land claims and disputes.

5/12/11 - Fitch Family Papers and Hotel Registers

Have restored several important items to the Fitch Family Papers including the diary of Federico Fitch, son of Henry and Josefa Fitch. It narrates his professional and personal experiences during a surveying expedition of the Sea of Cortes in the Sonora region of Mexico, 1858-1860.  The diary provides interesting insights into seafaring expeditions of the mid-19^th century and records the geography of the region through text and illustrations.   

Also processing a number of hotel register collections.  These have so far produced some interesting names both of local and international recognition. 

Completed finding aids available soon.