Sunnyvale History aims to make local history inviting, understandable, and traceable to its sources. The following approach guides how articles, captions, comparisons, and supporting resources should be prepared.
Start with a clear question
Each article should establish the place, subject, and period it discusses. A focused question helps readers understand the purpose of a story and makes it easier to determine whether the available evidence supports its conclusions.
Show the basis for historical statements
Use relevant records, archives, institutional research, and other identifiable sources. Link to the material where practical. Record enough detail to locate a document or image again, including its title, date, creator or collection, and item or page number.
A source’s purpose matters. A newspaper advertisement, an institutional account, and a personal recollection can each contribute useful evidence while presenting different perspectives. Where accounts conflict, explain the disagreement rather than choosing a convenient version without support.
Distinguish evidence from interpretation
Separate what a source directly shows from an inference drawn from it. Preserve approximate dates and other uncertainties. Do not add precise names, dates, quotations, locations, or numerical claims unless the source supports them.
Treat images as part of the evidence
Historical photographs and maps need accurate captions, source credits, and appropriate reuse permission or terms. Restorations, colorization, composites, reconstructions, and AI-generated illustrations should be identified clearly. A decorative illustration must not be presented as an archival record.
The images supplied with this starter design are AI-generated illustrations. This includes the paired Then & Now concepts. They demonstrate the layout and do not establish a historical comparison, document an exact location, or verify a date.
Include context and a range of experiences
Place an individual story within its relevant community and historical setting. Seek sources that help explain varied experiences, including those that may be less visible in familiar accounts. Avoid treating one person’s recollection as representative of everyone in a place or period.
Review and correct
Check names, dates, links, quotations, captions, and the relationship between a claim and its source before publication. When an error is identified, correct it and add a dated explanation where the change materially affects the account. Update practical information when it is reviewed, and make clear when an older source is being discussed.
Further reading
The Resources page collects starting points for research. Our guide to neighborhood history offers a simple way to organize evidence and open questions.