Fullerton : The Egg Came Before Library History Exhibit

If it’s possible for an ostrich egg to attain celebrity status, then Fullerton has just the one.

The egg is housed at the public library and is a relic of an ostrich farm that went out of business in the 1920s.

Next month, the egg--with its new 8-by-14-inch walnut and glass display case, complete with brass hinges and lock--will be part of a special exhibit that will include photos of the Atherton Ostrich farm, which was located on what now is Dorothy Lane. Edward Atherton, who arrived in Fullerton during the mid-1880s, at one time had more than 200 of the birds on his land.

The egg, now hollow inside, was donated by Charles Knowlton, a Fullerton pioneer,

“It’s part of our city’s history,” librarian and archivist Evelyn Cadman explained.

The egg comes from a time when ostrich races drew families to downtown Fullerton on Sunday afternoons. Or a time when “ladies on their lovely big hats had ostrich plumes,” said Dora May Sim, author of the Fullerton history “Ostrich Eggs for Breakfast.”

“The ostrich farm was sort of like Disneyland,” said Sim, who plans to update her book for Fullerton’s centennial in 1987. “If we have people in town, we might say today, ‘We’ll take you to Disneyland.’ Then, we would have said, ‘Let’s go to the ostrich farm.’ ”

Sim, who retired as librarian last year, said that more than 22,000 third-graders have seen the egg over the past 25 years as part of her presentation on local history.

During that time, the egg’s home was a variety of cardboard or wooden boxes. But better times were ahead for the white oval egg. During a visit to the library, Mayor Alan (Buck) Catlin saw the egg in its shoe-box home and become concerned for its safety.

“Seeing where it was stored in a shoe box gave me the shakes,” said Catlin, who arranged for the egg’s new display case. “This is a priceless bit of Fullerton history.”