Traditional histories of American college composition instruction in the 19th and 20th centuries examine primarily the textbooks used in those courses, then draw conclusions based on the content of those textbooks about the activities and attitudes expressed in the classroom. The canon of composition historiography is lacking in several ways: the experiences of students and teachers at many schools across the United States have been neglected; a text-based approach seems to be the primary, if not the only, method used to evaluate past course instruction; and many assumptions about the level of instruction and the types of activities offered have been based on these previous accounts. This paper describes a dissertation project which: (1) adopts a case history approach to investigate three different types of institutions in Tennessee and Kentucky; (2) triangulates data--documentary analysis, interviews, and a focus on individual personalities--to achieve a more complex history of the period between 1930 and 1945; and (3) examines the experiences of students and teachers to see if broad generalizations made about the era are accurate in specific instances. Using a case study/qualitative approach may detect trends in the cultural, social, and political arena which may have influenced writing instruction. Despite the problems of generalizability and the dangers of biased interview selection, oral interviews within the case history approach offer many advantages. Such a study has the potential to increase the knowledge base of the rapidly growing composition historiography field. (A 44-item selected bibliography of works related to historical and ethnographic research is attached. Contains 14 references.) (RS)