San Diego History Center's hundred-year mission has been to preserve and present the history of the southern California and northern Baja region. For much of this time, we focused on a narrow part of San Diego's history, but in the past decade recognized the need to include new perspectives into our narrative.

Launched in 2024, the ALL-IN San Diego Community History Archiving Project seeks to uncover the richness and complexity of our community. This is a real-time community engagement project that aims to bring untold stories to the San Diego History Center. ALL-IN listens, documents, shares, and disseminates through various physical and digital spaces.

By acknowledging the past's positive and negative aspects, and creating an inclusive dialogue about the historical record, ALL-IN San Diego contributes to our community’s well-being.

The stories and materials collected by the ALL-IN Project will be incorporated into the History Center’s new core exhibition, digital repositories, and traveling displays.

Ongoing ALL-IN projects include: City Heights Community Archive, La Neighbor, Missing Pieces Project, Rap Diego, and the Ueno-Obayashi Family Collection.

Participatory and Collaborative

We have many rings of stakeholders, and actively engage all relevant parties in defining the needs, developing questions, collecting data, and writing historical narratives.

Deep Listening

Within our forums and the community, we proactively listen for what is being said and not said. We listen more than we talk.

Attending to Power at All Levels

We seek to be sensitive to power dynamics by recognizing that there are inherent imbalances in any group of people, both internal and external to our work.

Asking Questions

Questions get us from point A to point B. Sometimes questions are bothersome, but they are often useful in elucidating hidden narratives.

It’s Messy

Community is complex. Collecting and writing history is complex. We have no illusions that this process is straightforward or easy.

Incrementalism

The work of collecting, documenting and writing community history happens in small steps, and from the outside looks slow. However, historical knowledge is built cumulatively.

Digital First

Though most historic material is in physical formats, our primary means of collecting is through digitization. We aim to digitize collected materials using best archival practices.

Post-Custodial Stewardship

Post-custodial stewardship emphasizes digital repositories and crowdsourcing, allowing community control of records.

History is a Contact Sport

Understanding and engaging with the past should not be left to academics. Creating an accurate historical record requires everyone's active participation.

Ready to make history? This short video tutorial guides you step by step on how to explore the Missing Pieces archive and contribute your own story, photo, or memory. Have questions? Contact us at community@sandiegohistory.org

Experience Missing Pieces

Explore the latest additions and discover the rich stories being preserved. There’s still time to contribute—help us fill in the missing pieces with your lived experiences of life in San Diego!

The Missing Pieces Project is a partnership between the San Diego History Center and the San Diego County Black Chamber of Commerce.

Rap Diego

Curated by Parker Edison

"Rap Diego" reveals the untold story of San Diego's underground rap scene, a pivotal music moment that launched numerous artists into the mainstream and shaped music culture.  Presented in four acts, this narrative features insights from key figures who experienced it firsthand. Audiences will have the opportunity to hear previously unheard early music and performances, showcasing the rich history of San Diego's Rap and Hip Hop scene. "Rap Diego" is an original podcast by Parker Edison and KPBS.