Frances Fuller Victor

Frances Auretta Victor ( Fuller; formerly Barritt; pen names: Florence Fane, Dorothy D.) (May 23, 1826 – November 14, 1902) was an American historian and historical novelist. She was known for her books about western United States, and especially Oregon history.

Early life She was born as Frances Auretta Fuller in Rome, New York, on May 23, 1826, She was a "close relative" of judge Reuben H. Walworth.

She and her sister Metta Victoria Fuller became widely known for their writing while growing up in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The sisters both published stories and poems in the Home Journal, published by Morris & Willis. In 1848 the sisters moved together to New York City.

In May 1862, she married Henry Clay Victor,

She also continued to write about women's rights. Among the publications she wrote for was Abigail Scott Duniway's The New Northwest. She was a member of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.

Henry C. Victor died on November 4, 1875, in the wreck of the steamship Pacific off Cape Flattery. In need of money, Fuller Victor moved back to San Francisco to accept a 10-year contract offered by historian Hubert Howe Bancroft. The terms of the contract required her to turn over to him her extensive collections and research. She contributed major portions of Bancroft's monumental work, The History of the West,

Fuller Victor returned to Oregon in 1886. She was commissioned by the Oregon Legislative Assembly to write a history of the Anglo-Indian wars, which was titled The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.

In regards to surnames and personal identity, she said, "What an awkward thing it is for literary women to be deprived of their own names! I furnished my biography to an encyclopedia the other day under the F for Fuller heading, believing that Fuller is my rightful name."

Death and legacy Victor View, a viewpoint at Crater Lake, was formally named in 1945. Fuller Victor visited Crater Lake in 1872. Fuller Victor died on November 14, 1902. The initial grave marker was made of wood, and did not last long. In 1947, the Daughters of the American Revolution supplied a permanent grave marker.

Fuller Victor has been described as "the first Oregon historian to gain regional and national attention." In many respects though, her legacy continued to be overshadowed by that of historian Hubert Howe Bancroft,

Fuller Victor's name was included among the names of significant Oregonians on the walls of the Oregon State Capitol, which was completed in 1938. In 1945 Crater Lake National Park formalized the name of "Victor View," a viewpoint on the rim of the park, in her honor.

She was included (along with several other women) in a list of "Noted Leaders of the Oregonian's First 100 Years" in 1950.

Beginning in 1951, Randall Mills began researching Fuller Victor's life and work. He enlisted the help of Hazel Emery Mills, his wife; the work became her lifelong passion following Randall's death shortly after the project began. With assistance and encouragement over the years from Thomas Vaughan of the Oregon Historical Society, Constance Bordwell of the University of Oregon, and (after Hazel Mills' death in 1999) Bordwell's assistants Priscilla Knuth and Bruce Taylor Hamilton, and Vaughan's associate Marguerite Wright, a biography was published by the OHS Press in 2003. (aka Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction).

In 2005, the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission selected The River of the West as one of the 100 books that best define the state and its people.

In 2021, Storybound released the pilot of Florence Fane in San Francisco, written by playwright Brianna Barrett and produced by Jude Brewer, officially funded by a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council in 2019. The pilot is a radio drama adaptation of Barrett's historical fiction play based on the life of Fuller Victor, specifically, her years spent working for The Golden Era in San Francisco during the Civil War.

Works by Frances Fuller Victor Fuller Victor published some works under the name Florence Fane. ) Under contract with Hubert Howe Bancroft: Several volumes of the series History of the Pacific states of North America, inaccurately attributed to Bancroft. Atlantis Arisen: or, Talks of a Tourist about Oregon and Washington (1891) (an edited version of All Over Oregon… The Early Indian Wars of Oregon (1894) Autobiographical Sketch (1895) Poems (1900)