Day: August 20, 2012

March 8th – August 29th
The Brown Gallery, Doe Library

This exhibition explores the lives of students at the University of California, as told through the clothing they once wore. From junior plugs (top hats) and lettermen's jackets to charm bracelets and African American graduation stoles, from cashmere sweater sets to denim jackets festooned with anti-war buttons, Cal students have always made fashion, political and gender statements through their choice of clothing and accessories. This exhibition draws from the University Archives, and from numerous other campus collections, and includes many items never before on display.

September 14, 2008 – February 28, 2009
Bernice Layne Brown Gallery
Doe (Main) Library

The vast photographic archives of the San Francisco Examiner were donated in 2006 to the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. Numbering over four million items, the archives constitute an unparalleled visual record of the San Francisco Bay Area through the 20th century.

This exhibit in Doe Library is the first public display from the archive’s treasures, focusing on historic events from 1935 through 1960: migrant worker camps, labor unrest, the Japanese American internment, women in the war effort, the signing of the UN Charter, the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, the Marilyn Monroe-Joe Di Maggio marriage, the execution of Caryl Chessman, and much more.

The exhibit was developed by Jack von Euw, Curator of The Bancroft Library Pictorial Collection.

Amazing Gate: Rescuing a Campus Icon

May 18 – December 23, 2009
Rowell Cases, Doe Library Corridor

When a close inspection revealed that Sather Gate had sustained
substantial damage from rust and corrosion, the campus launched a major
restoration effort for the century-old landmark. In an exhibition
co-sponsored by the University History Museum Project and The
University Archives, “Amazing Gate” looks at the history of Sather
Gate, gives details of the restoration process, and displays actual
pieces of the original gate showing how it had deteriorated over the
years. The exhibition also tells the story of the eight nudes featured
on the controversial bas-relief panels, from censorship to celebration.

The exhibit is open during the operating hours of the Doe Library.

California Gold: The Nobel Tradition at UC Berkeley

The Helen Kennedy Cahill Reference Center, The Bancroft Library

Nobel gold has been "mined" by twenty members of the Berkeley faculty and twenty-four alumni. Four of these are alumni and faculty. Fifty-five Nobel medals have been awarded to faculty and researchers affiliated with eight UC campuses and laboratories, twenty-two of these since 1995.

Berkeley’s Nobel tradition reflects the distinguished culture of creativity flourishing in the Bay Area, where dozens of laureates have been affiliated with the three major universities and with industry, government, and independent laboratories. UC Berkeley is particularly notable for the large number of chemistry, physics and, more recently, economic laureates, and for the very first Nobel laureate from a public university, Ernest O. Lawrence.

The Bancroft Library has also developed its own Nobel tradition, collecting the papers of fourteen Nobel Laureates, including two who were not Berkeleyans: Emil Fischer (Chemistry, 1902) and Otto Stern (Physics, 1943).

Featured in this exhibit are the Nobel medals of William F. Giauque (Chemistry, 1949) and Gerard Debreu (Economics, 1983).  Also on display are facsimiles of photographs and letters drawn from The Bancroft Library’s Nobel Laureates collections.

Darwin and the Evolution of a Theory

An exhibition of rare books, manuscripts, images and scientific specimens from the collections of UC Berkeley’s Libraries and Museums.

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 10AM – 4PM.

March 1 – September 1, 2010
Rowell Cases (2nd floor corridor between Doe Library and Bancroft Library)

Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832-1918) was a “literary industrialist” — bookseller, publisher, historian, author, and editor — who built the collection that is at the heart of our great library. This exhibition, together with the “Bancroft to the Core” exhibition in the Bancroft Gallery and a symposium in March 2010, celebrates the sesquicentennial of the library Bancroft began in 1860.

The documents, images, and other materials displayed here are drawn from the records of the Regents and presidents of the university, the departmental records of the University Libraries, and the papers and publications of Bancroft and others. They first recount the story of Bancroft’s early life, his relocation to California, and the development of his San Francisco business. They further trace the establishment and growth of his library, the negotiations that brought the landmark collection to the University of California in 1906, its subsequent expansion, and its move into newly renovated quarters in 2008.

The exhibit is open during the operating hours of The Doe Library.

March 5 – May 21, 2010
The Bancroft Corridor Gallery

Drawn primarily from library materials in the Gardner (Main) Stacks’ extraordinary collection of books, journals and official publications, the exhibit celebrates Portugal’s first centennial as a republic – Europe’s third oldest only to France and Switzerland. As is true of most national histories, much of the scholarship surrounding such an achievement remains accessible only through the vernacular languages of the respective countries, in this case Portuguese, the sixth most spoken language in the world.

In June, most of the exhibit will travel to the Portuguese Historical Museum in San José, California. See: http://www.portuguesemuseum.org/

The exhibit is open during the operating hours of The Bancroft Library.