Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Letter Book of the College of California,
- Dates:
- 1849-1867
- Creators:
- College of California
- Extent:
- 1 box (.4 linear feet)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Letter book of the College of California, 308y.let, University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
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.
- Biographical / historical:
-
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.
- Physical location:
- For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 2000
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Access; finding aid encoded by Xiuzhi Zhou. Date of source: 1999.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
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], Letter book of the College of California, 308y.let, University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
- Location of this collection:
-
University of California, Berkeley, University Archives, The Bancroft LibraryBerkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
- Contact:
- (510) 642-6481