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W. H. Hutchinson Local History & Politics Collection
MSS 066
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Title: W. H. Hutchinson Local History & Politics Collection
Dates: 1934-1989
Collection Number: MSS 066
Creator/Collector:
W. H. Hutchinson, 1910--1990
Extent: Items: 13 boxes Linear Feet: 4.5
Repository:
California State University, Chico
Chico, California 95929-0295
Abstract: The collection contains research materials on Chico and Butte County civic and political activities.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research without restriction.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
W. H. Hutchinson Local History & Politics Collection. California State University, Chico
J. Walter Rogers Jr.
Biography/Administrative History
William Henry (“Old Hutch”) Hutchinson was born on August 13, 1911, in Denver, Colorado. He attended school in Oxford, Mississippi;
Newark, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado, and Redondo Beach, California. He earned his master’s degree from Chico State College
in 1961.
He worked at various times as a horse wrangler, a cowboy, a boiler fireman, and a mucker in mines. During the Depression,
Hutchinson worked as Chief Purser on passenger vessels. During World War II, he served as a Lieutenant Commander in the United
States Maritime Service where he saw duty in the South Pacific, North Atlantic, and Mediterranean.
After the war, Hutchinson moved to Butte County and became a freelance writer. He sold more than 150 fact and fiction articles
to a variety of popular magazines. He also wrote, narrated, and produced several historical pageants on California, and had
his own weekly radio and television shows. Hutchinson authored 15 books, one of which, Oil, Land and Politics: The California
Career of Thomas R. Bard, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also worked as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle
and frequently contributed to the Chico Enterprise-Record. Hutchinson taught part-time at Chico State College, Sonoma State
College, and San Francisco State between 1953 and 1964. Hutchinson served as a full-time faculty member at Chico from fall
1964 until his retirement in 1978.
Hutchinson died of a heart attack in Chico on March 11, 1990.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains personal correspondence, a large sample of Chico and Butte County civic and political activities (1965-1989),
Chico and Butte County history, Butte County Republican party material (1965-1970), material on faculty issues at California
State University, Chico (CSUC), and papers relating to various CSUC student protests, primarily Vietnam War related.
California State University, Chico.
California State University, Chico -- Faculty.
Republican Party (Calif.)
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Protest movements -- United States.
Chico (Calif.) -- History.
Butte County (Calif.) -- History.