About this site
San Diego Yesterday is an archive of the local history column I once wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune. But it’s more than that. It’s a place where students, historians, writers, and history buffs can share knowledge, questions, and ideas about San Diego history. I hope this site will become a resource for local history, as well as an interesting place to visit.
A bit about me. I came to San Diego in the fall of 1973 as a junior at San Diego State University. After getting an undergraduate degree in history I stayed in school for the M.A. program in history. As I was finishing that program I began working at the San Diego Historical Society, where I stayed for the next eighteen years as archivist and eventually, Editor of the Journal of San Diego History. In 1999 I moved to the San Diego Public Library, where I supervised the department of Special Collections until my retirement in July 2020.
I’ve done some writing over the years. Stranger Than Fiction was a compilation of local history articles published by the Historical Society in 1995. I wrote the weekly “Way We Were” column for the Union-Tribune from 2008-2011. A list of all 150+ columns is included on the site. I’ve also published two books since finishing the newspaper column: The Way We Were in San Diego and San Diego Yesterday, both published by The History Press (Charleston, SC) and available at Amazon.com.
–Rick Crawford