Guide to the Documents of the College of California
Processed by The Bancroft Library staff
University Archives
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/bancroft/university-archives
© 2000
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Documents of the College of California
Collection number: 308y.d
University Archives, The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Contact Information:
- University Archives
- The Bancroft Library
- University of California, Berkeley
- Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
- Phone: (510) 642-2933
- Fax: (510) 642-7589
- Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
- URL: https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/bancroft/university-archives/
- Processed by:
- The Bancroft Library staff
- Date Completed:
- 1999
- Encoded by:
- Brooke Dykman Dockter
© 2000 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Collection Title: Documents of the College of California
Collection Number: 308y.d
Creator:
College of California
Extent:
1 box (.4 linear feet)
Repository: The
Bancroft Library. University Archives.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Documents of the College of California, 308y.d, University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University
of California, Berkeley.
Related Collections
- Letter book of the College of California (308y.let)
- Transfer of the College of California to the University of California (308y.tr)
- Reports to the Board of Trustees of the College of California (308y.r)
Brief History
The College of California was chartered in 1855 and operated in Oakland, California until 1869. Initially it functioned as
a preparatory academy, under the name of College School, and the first college class of ten freshmen began in 1860. The aspirations
of the College led it to search for a larger site as early as 1856, and this search gradually led to the acquisition of land
north of Oakland at a site the trustees named Berkeley, after George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.
In 1866, California took advantage of the Morrill Land Grant Act and created the Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts
College. The trustees of the College of California realized the implications for their own institution's lack of financial
support and offered all the college's assets if the legislature would create a University of California combining the aims
of the Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College and the more humanities-oriented College of California. An act to
found the university was passed by the California legislature and was signed into law on March 23, 1868. The College of California
offered no instruction after the 1868/69 academic year.
Scope and Content
This collection includes notebooks relating to the founding of the College of California, to its properties, and to donors
to the college, as well as papers relating to the transfer of the college properties to the state for the use of the University
of California.
item 1
Letters; transferred in 1964 to 308y.let. See separate finding aid.
item 2
Notebook of memoranda by S.H. Willey re transfer of College of California to the University of California
item 3
Notebook containing a list of donors and donations to the College of California before 1869
item 4
Notebook with property estimates and statistics of the California college water co., 1869
item 5
Account book of S.H. Willey with the College of California, 1862-67
item 6
Notebook with lists of taxable incomes and property in California. Also memoranda re appointments with legislators re UC,
1866
item 7
Subscription lists, site of proposed College of California, petitions to incorporate; 8 documents, 1850-55
item 8
Documents re legal method of transfer of College of California property to University of California; 14 documents, 1869
item 9
Report of S.H. Willey as vice-president of the College of California, 1869 July
item 10
Letter of S.H. Willey to Theron Baldwin of Western College Society with details of transfer of property, 1869
item 11
Promissory note to F.K. Shattuck, 1865 Sept. 1
item 12
Certificate of scholarship for William Hillegass, 1862 Nov 19
