Good local history makes its evidence easy to follow. Begin with a narrow question, preserve the details of what you find, and distinguish an observation from an explanation.
Useful starting points
Pomona Public Library
The Digital Collections include local photographs, portraits, homes, landmarks, citrus imagery, and other materials. Read each item’s description and use conditions. Online access alone does not establish permission to republish an image.
Cal Poly Pomona
The Pomona Valley Historical Collection introduces regional archival material. Its collection descriptions help identify promising records before a research visit.
City and preservation records
Use the City’s historic preservation pages and historic properties list when researching designations and individual places.
Historical Society of Pomona Valley
The Historical Society publishes histories of properties in its care. Verify dates and interpretations against additional records when a detail is central to your argument.
Community histories
Densho’s Pomona detention facility article provides a documented entry point into Japanese American incarceration at the fairgrounds. Seek community-authored resources and individual testimony alongside institutional records.
A useful research note
- Write the question and the exact place or person you are investigating.
- Record the author, collection, title, date, item number, and stable source link.
- Note whether a date is exact, estimated, or supplied by a later cataloger.
- Keep your transcription separate from your interpretation.
- Record unresolved contradictions instead of silently choosing the most convenient account.
Images and corrections
The bundled demo pictures are generated illustrations, not archival evidence. For a published historical image, keep its attribution, permission information, and descriptive context together at the point of use. When a factual correction changes an article’s meaning, explain the change within that article.