Jump to Content
CSUSM Computers/Websites Unavailable:
11/15, 6am-12noon

Guide to San Diego Museums on the Web

Judith Downie
Humanities Librarian
CSUSM Library
KEL 3424

Office Hours: By appointment or if my door is open.
(760) 750-4374
jdownie@csusm.edu

Students in several CSUSM History courses need to visit local history collections in the course of their research. The following lists should help you get started.

Getting Started
Local Museums
Historical Societies
Special-Interest Museums
Newspapers (San Diego & California)
Need More?

 

Getting Started

Know your topic! This is done by researching the variety of resources in the library print collection, scholarly articles and resources mentioned in your text and in lecture. Note personal names, place name variants, and the types of local history topics you will need to find information on. The more specific you can be, the more time you save when faced with a historical collection and you help the staff who are there to help you better.

Even though these examples use local (San Diego) examples, the same search strategies apply to other regions.

Here are some examples of what you could be looking for:

  • Personal names
    • You are researching the city of Vista, CA. Cave Couts was a Spanish land-grant holder in the Oceanside/Vista area. This will be a name to search in both the Oceanside Historical Society and Vista Historical Museum records since his holdings crossed the boundaries created later by these two cities.
  • Place names
    • You are researching the city of Temecula. As cities and places have not always had the same name, you will find that Temecula has had earlier names of Temeca, Temeko, Temecola, and Temeku in various documents you may examine. 
  • Events (specific date period)
    • You are researching the Battle of San Pasqual. You can be specific as to the date--December 6, 1846, or look at the events of December 1846 or the months preceding and following for what led up to the battle and the 'after-the-fact' newspaper accounts and more.
  • Developments
    • You are researching the effects of the railroad's development into an area. This rarely has a specifically identifiable time period as the effects of such a development will generally accrue over time. Scanning records from the census, local businesses, and newspapers before the identified finish date will lead to material on the activities that were part of this growth and discussion as to what expectations were for this growth. Some additional resources would be to look at real estate advertisements and sales, census tract counts for both population and economic growth, and when an area incorporated.

Historical newspaper research in the backfiles (the term for archival newspapers) is likely to require that you visit a newspaper 'morgue', the library for the area you are researching, or the local historical society. Any of these organizations may provide access to older issues. Many newspapers are not yet indexed or digitized and will require consultation with a librarian or history expert to locate pertinent materials.

Checking the web page or by phone for hours and collection access is highly advised
before visiting any of these sites in person!

 
Local History Museums
Many of the local museums are run by historical society volunteers and will have limited hours and access to their collections. If you are looking for specific information, advise the staff helping you of your need. They may not have what you expect, but may know where to find it. Communities not listed here do not seem to have a historical society or museum. Lists of museums, historical societies and more for LA County and SD County are available through the Art & Architecture Library at UCSD.
 
Historical Societies
 Are frequently affiliated with museums or other physical locations, here are a few of the larger societies that may include San Diego regional history.
 

Special-Interest Museums
This is just a sample, there are many, many more. See Resources list at UCSD's Civic Collaborative Home or San Diego Historical Society's Local History Societies and Museums page. Also try an internet search using terms like histor*, museum, your subject interest, and a region or community name to see if there are others not yet listed.
 

Newspapers
These are found on on the internet, research databases or the 4th floor of the Kellogg Library, as noted. For papers without extensive archives, contact information has been posted for possible archive access.

General

News Archives
Lists maintained by the Special Library Association for US and foreign newspaper archives. Some are free-access while others are fee-based access, but most indexes are free.

Ancestry.com Historical California Newspapers
Requires registration but you can view the list of titles and date ranges available without registration.

National coverage

Los Angeles Times (1881- on)
Paper index (1960-on) in NEWSPAPERS area at AI21.L65 L67, older issues in the CSUSM Microfilm Collection F-2
Los Angeles Times Index (1972- on)
Paper index located in the NEWSPAPERS area at AI21.L65 L67. Updates received monthly.  

Fairfax County Public Library Historical Newspaper Index
Although full text must be ordered (at a fee) from this site, the resources indexed are a valuable collection of material from the 18th, 19th and 20th century Virginia newspapers.

New York Times (1857-on)
 Paper index for 1960-on located in the NEWSPAPERS area at AI21 .N44. Updates received monthly. Microfiche index for 1851-1959 found at C-503
Online Article Index for 1996-on (will not provide access to full text unless you purchase, but we have the microfilm for access.)
Online Article Archive for 1851-1995 (will not provide access to full text unless you purchase, but we have the microfilm for access.)

San Diego Union Tribune (1871-on) Note this title has had several changes over the years.
Latest in paper, older issues in the Microfilm Collection F-1
Currently, there is no index for this title prior to December 5, 1983. What indexing is available is found in the Research Database, ProQuest Direct. For earlier periods, if the event was of enough importance, you should be able to check the Los Angeles Times or New York Times indexes to narrow the publication dates.

Texas Newspapers Collection
Online index to a large number of Texas newspapers. The main index must be downloaded for access. Fees are charged for copies of specific articles.

U.S. Newspaper Project
A Federally-funded project for each state and affiliated territory to microfilm its newspaper holdings. Some projects are working on indexes or fully-searchable images. Different projects are at different stages of completion, check the website provided under each participating institution for what is available. Good examples are Georgia and Illinois. The Illinois project provides a search page that can be used for all the projects. Some projects have full text and are listed in the full text section.

Wall Street Journal (1980-on)
Paper Index for 1980-on is located in the NEWSPAPERS area at HG1 .W26

Community or Special Interest Coverage

North County Times (San Marcos city edition, latest 2 months in paper only)
207 Pennsylvania Ave. Escondido, CA 92025  (760) 745-6611

San Diego Voice and Viewpoint (Latest 2 months in paper only)
1729 N. Euclid Ave. San Diego, CA 92105  (619) 266-2233

Other San Diego newspapers' contact information can be found on the San Diego Convention and Visitor Center's Local Media List

Student Newspapers (in San Diego area, for others in California, check the USPNL list)

  • Pride: The Student Newspaper (California State University San Marcos) Library Microfiche collection C-937 (no index). Previous names were Pioneer and You Name It. See the CSUSM Library Catalog for links to current and archived sources.
  • Daily Aztec (San Diego State University) search the archive from 1996. Previous names for the SDSU student newspaper were the Normal News, the Paper Lantern, and The Aztec and most are found in the SDSU Special Collections.
  • UCSD Guardian (University of California San Diego) has archives available online from January 2002. Older holdings would be available at the Social Sciences and Humanities Library.

 

Need More?
New materials are constantly being added to our holdings, those of local libraries, and on the internet. Ask for help in navigating the constantly changing landscape.

Judith Downie, Humanities Librarian
(760) 750-4374 OR come by my office (KEL 3424), I am available if my door is open (most of the time).