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Guide to the Letter book of the College of California, 1849-1867
308y.let
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Letter Book of the College of California,
Date (inclusive): 1849-1867
Collection Number: 308y.let
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
Collection is open for research.
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.
[Identification of item], Letter book of the College of California, 308y.let, University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University
of California, Berkeley.
Documents of the College of California (308y.d)
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)
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.
This collection consists of letters addressed primarily to Samuel H. Willey relating to faculty and trustee appointments of
the College of California. Included also are some early letters and memoranda concerning the establishment of a college at
Benicia, California, and at the end there are specifications of the sale of part of the Oakland, California, property to Isaac
Brayton. The collection also contains three letters by Frederick Law Olmsted concerning the college property in Berkeley,
California.