The building and its origins

Haviland Hall was completed in 1924, one of a collection of buildings by campus architect John Galen Howard (1864-1931) that transformed the Berkeley campus.

Inspired by California’s growing importance, and with the backing of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a major benefactor of the early university, the university launched an international competition in 1898-99 for master plans for the development of the campus. French architect Emile Bernard won the competition -- Howard placed fourth -- but differences with Bernard led to his departure in 1900, and Howard was appointed as supervising architect in 1901.

Howard's designs reflect his training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Although originally appointed to implement Bernard’s plan, Howard reshaped it into his own, developing a "City of Learning" that turned the central axis of the campus back toward the Golden Gate, as originally envisioned by Frederick Law Olmsted's 1865 campus plan. Among the campus landmarks built during his tenure were the Hearst Memorial Mining Building (1902-7), the Hearst Greek Theatre (1903), California Hall (1905), Doe Library (1911-17), Sather Gate (1910), Durant Hall (1912), Wellman (formerly Agriculture) Hall (1912), the Campanile (1914), Wheeler Hall (1917), Gilman Hall (1917), and Hilgard Hall (1918).

Haviland Hall was one of the final buildings of the Howard era. It bears an uncanny resemblance to a design for new North Hall on the site of an earlier North Hall, just east of Doe Library, which had been demolished in 1916. Haviland Hall was conceived in its present location as a symmetrical balance to California Hall across the central axis of the campus, in accordance with Howard's master plan for the campus.

Haviland Hall is named after Hannah N. Haviland, wife of John T. Haviland, a San Francisco banker. Her sister was the first wife of industrialist Collis P. Huntington. Upon her death in 1919 at the age of 94, she bequeathed $250,000 to Berkeley for the construction of the building. (Perhaps foreshadowing the building's eventual home for the School of Social Welfare, Haviland also left $20,000 to the San Francisco Protestant Orphan Asylum.) In 1921, the California legislature contributed an additional $100,000. Haviland Hall was built specifically to house the School of Education and Lange Library of Education, which occupied the building from 1924 to 1963.

The newly constructed Haviland Hall, c. 1924

The building was formally dedicated on March 25, 1924, in a ceremony featuring a speech by Dr. WW Campbell, president of the University of California, and appearances by the dean of the School of Education, the Oakland superintendant of schools, the state superintendant of public instruction, and other notables. The program included an exhibition of work of the Berkeley public schools in the 3rd floor exhibition room and an informal talk on "Haviland Hall as a clearing house for educators."

The building is ornamented with details relating to its original purpose. Open books and medallions of Pegasus, regarded as the horse of the Muses, decorate the exterior. The neoclassical reading room was done in the "Adams Style," after Robert Adams, 18th-century Scottish architect.

Haviland Hall was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1981. In 1982, it was also added to the National Register of Historic Places (#82002161).

Social Research Library

Until 1961, the Lange Education Library occupied the site of the present Social Research Library.

Lange Education Library reading room, 1950s; view from the rear of the reading room.

Reading room looking toward site of present circulation desk

Looking into the seminar room.

Detail of lamps and ceiling

The Social Research Library was originally established in 1957 as the Social Welfare Library, a unit of the Social Sciences Library, and was located in Stephens Hall where the Ethnic Studies Library is currently situated.

Upon relocation of the School of Education to Tolman Hall in 1963, the chambers at either end of the reading room were walled off, as was the main second-floor corridor. The library was installed in the spaces currently occupied by rooms 215-218. Emptied of books, cavernous, and lit by graceless fluorescent lights that replaced the Beaux Arts originals, the reading room became little more than a passageway through the building.

Studying in the vacant reading room, c. 1980
(Photo by Lora Graham)

The reading room languished until 1986, when a major renovation led by the School of Social Welfare restored the space. The reading room now "is among the significant remaining interiors of Howard's campus buildings." (University of California, Berkeley : an architectural tour and photographs. Harvey Helfand. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.)

In 2014, the library was renovated, its facilities were upgraded for the 21st century, and its focus was broadened to become the Social Research Library.

School of Social Welfare

The School of Social Welfare took up residence in Haviland Hall in 1963 after almost twenty years in makeshift campus buildings. Although the School was formally organized in 1944, a social welfare certificate program began in the 1920s, and antecedents of the social welfare curricula stretch back to 1904, when economics professor Jessica Peixotto first began teaching courses in social welfare. A comprehensive history of the School was published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in Social Welfare at Berkeley, v.6:1 (fall 1994), HV11.C322.

Architectural hairnets

Visitors to Haviland sometimes remark on the netting installed over the decorative details -- quoins, bas reliefs, and cornices -- on the exterior of the building. An analysis in 2004 revealed that chemical changes in the cast stone was causing the underlying steel reinforcing bars to corrode. Corrosion caused them to expand, cracking and spalling the concrete and causing it to come loose. Netting was installed for the safety of pedestrians, pending repair. Renovation will require new molds and castings of the ornaments, at an estimated cost of at least $2 million.

Rockin' and rollin'

For years, Haviland Hall has been used as a seismic recording station. Buried deep in Haviland's subbasement, nestled into the Franciscan sandstone, is the station BRK seismograph, part of the Berkeley Digital Seismic Network. You can take a peek at the seismograph recordings of the previous 24 hours for the stations around the state, including Haviland Hall (Station BRK). The entrance to the subbasement seismic station is next to the CSSR office.

Seismographs have been located on the campus since 1887. During the Cold War, the Haviland Hall seismograph played a small part in the nuclear arms race. Nuclear physicist Edward Teller, known as the "father of the hydrogen bomb," recalled descending to the Haviland Hall seismograph in October 1952 to monitor the detonation of the first hydrogen bomb "Mike" on the island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll, 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. The seismograph rested on a concrete pier, dimly lit by a red lamp:

After my eyes became accustomed to the darkness I noticed that the light spot seemed quite unsteady. Clearly, this was more than what could be due to the continuous trembling of the Earth -- the microseisms . . . So I braced a pencil on a piece of the apparatus and held it close to the luminous point. Now the point seemed steady and I felt as if I had come back to solid ground again. This was about the time of the actual shot . . . About quarter of an hour was required for the shot [waves] to travel from deep under the Pacific basin to the California coast. I waited with little patience, the seismograph making at each minute a clearly visible vibration which served as a time signal. At last the time signal came that had to be followed by the shock from the explosion. There it semeed to be: the luminous point appeared to dance wildly and irregularly. Was it only that the pencil which I held as a marker trembled in my hand? Finally the film was taken off and developed. Then the trace appeared on the photographic plate. It was clear and big and unmistakable. It had been made by the wave of compression that had traveled for thousands of miles and brought the positive assurance that Mike was a success.
(Nuclear explosions and earthquakes: the parted veil, by Bruce A. Bolt. SF : Freeman & Co., 1976)

The enormous blast created a crater more than mile wide, obliterating the island, and marked a major escalation in the nuclear arms race.

Berkeley Conservatory

Nestled against Observatory Hill for 30 years, on the site of what is now the Chang-Lin Tien East Asia Center, was the UC Berkeley conservatory. Built in 1894 by Lord and Burnham, the conservatory was modeled after the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, which was built by the same firm. It was the result of a 1880s campaign by agriculture professor Eugene Hilgard, who lobbied the Berkeley Regents for the its construction and was closely involved in its planning. Hilgard, regarded as the father of soil science, even traveled to Europe in 1893, delaying work on the project while he inspected prominent conservatories across the continent.

The main part of the conservatory housed palm trees, and the wings included a cellar, potting shed, and a boiler room. It was the centerpiece of a 7-acre university botanical garden, created by the Regents for "a garden distinctively botanical" similar to "a part of the pride of almost every university in Europe at the present time." The conservatory and grounds appear in an 1897 campus plan, and the early garden is visible in an 1899 view from just about where Haviland Hall's southeast corner is today. A 1924 photo shows a fully developed garden. In 1924, as part of the campus's expansion, including the construction of Haviland Hall, the botanical garden was relocated and the conservatory torn down. By 1928, Haviland Hall was alone in this part of campus, with only the Chancellor's house and Observatory Hill as neighbors. Aerial photos from 1928, 1939, 1946, 1956, 1985, and 1994 show that for more than 80 years, Haviland Hall enjoyed solitude among the trees and the creek.

The site of the conservatory eventually became a parking lot. In 2005, in anticipation of the construction of the Tien Center, anthropology students excavated the site. Findings included thermometer fragments, flower pots of various sizes, plant tags, glass droppers, a watch-chain loop, a number of marbles, an antique brass button featuring a bas-relief of Minerva from the Great Seal of California, and a 116-year-old dime, minted just 18 years after the campus opened its doors.

About Morrison Library events

Morrison Library may be reserved by groups directly affiliated with UC Berkeley for evening and public events that support the Library’s mission and initiatives. Requests must be submitted via the Morrison Reservation Request Form at least one month ahead of your requested date.

Event size

Morrison Library can accommodate events with:

• Up to 200 people for a reception
• Up to 120 people for a lecture

Note: While there are currently no state guidelines limiting capacity due to COVID-19, hosts are encouraged to limit attendance and to keep in mind this could change based on time-sensitive health and safety considerations. 

Event specifications

• Preference is given to events open to the campus community and the public, and that fit within the mission of the Library.
• Requests may be denied for a number of reasons, such as timing in the academic year, availability of staff, scope of event, security concerns, and facility limitations.
• Events may take place 5-8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Morrison Library can be closed at 4 p.m. for events starting at 5 p.m. and all events must finish by 8:30 p.m. (to allow time for clean up).
• Respecting Morrison Library’s primary role as a library space and collection, requests to schedule the library during its regular public service hours (10 a.m.-5 p.m. during the academic year) will not be considered. Requests will not be considered for days the Morrison Library is closed (weekends/holidays).
• A room rental fee of $1,000 is charged for rental of this space. The rental fee will cover the use of the room, set up, and use of additional equipment items (folding chairs, microphone, moving furniture, etc.) and resetting the room to its original layout. These fees are subject to change and will be confirmed before final agreement with both parties.
• If an event is canceled within two (2) weeks of the event date, the host will be charged a fee of $300. All cancellations must be confirmed in writing or via email.
• The event host must be present throughout the entire rental.
• Please note the Morrison Library is not equipped for hybrid events. 

Event equipment

Equipment available for use with the rental includes:

• 75 folding chairs
• 1 folding table (4’x2’)
• Podium with microphone (cannot be moved)
• Projector (cannot be moved)
• Projection screen (cannot be moved)

Audio/visual support

If you need additional audio/visual support, please contact Berkeley Audio Visual (BAV) for quotes and rental equipment available through that department. They can provide video recording and webcasting services as well as rent additional microphones and speakers. 

Catering

You may only use Berkeley Catering — Cal Dining or I-House Catering for full service events where food preparation and/or labor services (such as pouring wine, serving or preparing plates for guests, setup or cleanup) are provided by catering staff on site. You may not use another caterer to provide these services, even if Berkeley Catering and I-House Catering are not able to provide onsite catering services. 

These restrictions do not apply to drop-off catering of pre-prepared or packaged food delivered to the libraries from other caterers, restaurants or approved campus vendors. You may also pick up prepared food for your event. Event hosts are responsible for clean up and trash removal. 

Policy: Article 5/Regents Policy 5402 and AFSCME collective bargaining agreements (Service — SX & Patient Care Technical — EX) impose limitations on the use of third-party suppliers to perform “covered services” work. “Covered services” are broadly defined as work traditionally performed by AFSCME-represented University employees. CA Senate Bill SB 820 prohibits the contracting out of any and all “covered services” in University buildings that receive capital state funding. Doe (where Morrison Library is located) and Moffitt libraries are UCB state-funded buildings.

Alcohol permit

If you plan to host an event that will include alcohol, please refer to the campus alcohol policy and submit the alcohol permit request form for approval to libraryevents@berkeley.edu. You must submit the alcohol request form at least two (2) weeks prior to the event date as UCPD needs at least seven (7) business days to process.

The University’s Major Events Policy, authored by the VC of Student Affairs, provides all campus users direction for planning special events, including events serving alcohol. If you want to host a special event with alcohol and/or you need a security assessment, you’ll need to follow the Special Event and Security Assessments policy.

If you are a department, questions about the policy should be directed to Risk Services, 510-642-5171.

If you are a non-department user, call OASIS at 510.703.4115 and view the Major Events Hosted by Non-Departmental Users policy.

Health and safety protocols: COVID-19

The sponsoring unit is responsible for maintaining all health and safety protocols. For the most up-to-date campus guidance, please refer to the campus events and coronavirus page. 

Room layout

Morrison Library reception layout

Morrison Library lecture layout
 

The C. V. Starr East Asian Library and Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies are a fortress of granite and white, covered with dazzling bronze lattice. But it is what’s inside that makes the library truly special. Bursting with treasures — including manuscripts, thousands of woodblock editions, and an oracle bone bearing some of the oldest written Chinese script — the library is home to one of the largest collections of East Asian materials in North America. The Fong Yun Wah Rare Book Room holds about 40,000 items, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean manuscripts and imprints; Japanese historical maps; and early Buddhist scriptures. Served by librarians dedicated to opening the library’s resources to researchers around the world, EAL acts as a bridge between East and West, connecting California with its neighbors across the Pacific. Gifts to the East Asian Library Fund support the growth and preservation of the library’s programs and collections. Explore the collections. 

History

Berkeley’s East Asian collection was seeded by the deposit in 1896 of John Fryer’s Chinese library, which Fryer later bequeathed to the university. Other early gifts and acquisitions, beginning with the Kiang Kang-hu library in 1916, the Horace G. Carpentier Endowment in 1919, and the E. T. Williams collection in the 1920s, sustained the quality and distinction of the library at a time when UC Berkeley was almost alone among American campuses in offering a broad program in East Asian studies.

The East Asiatic Library (renamed “East Asian” in 1991) was established in 1947 as a branch within the UC Berkeley Library system. By the early 1950s, the library’s Japanese holdings ranked first among American university collections due in large part to the acquisition of 100,000 items from the Mitsui Library and the 8,850-volume Murakami Library.

The Center for Chinese Studies Library began as an off-campus reading room under the auspices of the Center for Chinese Studies in 1957. Eventually it became affiliated with the Institute of East Asian Studies, relocated to campus, and developed into one of the largest academic repositories of materials on contemporary China outside of China.

In 2008, the East Asian Library and Center for Chinese Studies Library merged and integrated their collections in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library. The merger consolidated Berkeley’s Chinese language holdings. The move into new quarters improved accessibility to the entire collection and ensured that the library would have room for growth in the coming decades. It also provided the technological infrastructure and facilities that will allow the library to address the scholarly community’s needs into the 21st century.

Past newsletters 

Number 6, Spring 2011

Number 5, Winter 2009

Number 4, Winter 2008

Number 3, Winter 2007

Number 1, Spring 2006

About the Latin Americana Collection

The Bancroft Library's Latin Americana Collection grew out of Hubert Howe Bancroft's publishing enterprises related to the "Pacific States," covering the region from Panama to Alaska. Building on Hubert Howe Bancroft’s original 19th-century holdings of important Mexican collections, the Bancroft Collection of Latin American manuscripts, imprints, newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets is one of the world's great repositories for historical and contemporary research on Mexico and Central America. As a specialized area collection, it contains all forms of primary and secondary sources, including printed material, microfilm bibliographical and reference sources, and critical editions of major historical texts.

Native Mexico and Central America

The Bancroft Library holds indigenous manuscript materials related to history, religious instruction, linguistics, and conflicts surrounding Christianization, land, and labor.

Among the historical works are Fernando de Alba Ixtlilxochitl's history of New Spain, Ramón de Ordoñez y Aguiar's and Francisco Ximénez's manuscripts on Chiapas and Guatemala, Juan Franco's writings on Panama, and other materials related to Quiche, Mosquito, Mayo, and Yaqui history.

There are vocabularies, grammars, and catechisms in Nahuatl, Opata, Tzeltal, Quiche, Tzutujil, Cakchikel, Pocoman, Ixil, Zapoteca, Mixtec, Otomí, Pima, Choco, and other indigenous languages. Especially rich are the Nahuatl manuscript materials attributed to Alonso de Molina, Andrés de Olmos, and Faustino Chimalpopoca Galicia, as well as the Alphonse Pinart and Brasseur de Bourbourg linguistic materials. Note: spelling of indigenous groups and languages varies in catalog records.

There are also significant collections of legal materials, documents reflecting relations of Indians and Spaniards, and religious materials, including numerous records of the different orders of the Catholic Church.

See also the Western Americana.

Codex Fernández Leal

This nearly 20-foot long Cuicatec scroll from Oaxaca is a rich source of information on Mesoamerican history and culture.

Drawn on native amatl paper, the codex documents origins, religious rites, warfare, and lineages. The Fernández Leal Codex is linked to the Porfirio Díaz Codex in the Museo Naciónal de Antropología y Historia in Mexico City. Both texts were produced in the 16th century but are thought to be based on pre-Columbian predecessors.

Colonial Period

The holdings for Colonial Spanish America, and Central Mexico, in particular, constitute the richest portion of the Latin Americana Collection. Included are extensive holdings of manuscripts, imprints, broadsides, and pamphlets (sometimes grouped as "Papeles Varios") for this period.

Many of the manuscripts and imprints are of an official or religious nature, such as the reales cédulas and ordenes de la corona, Inquisition documents, genealogical records, various account books, records of local government (for example, ayuntamientos and cabildos), and church and convent records.

Early scholarship is also documented in texts such as Diego Duran's Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y Islas de Tierra Firme (1579-1581), Fernando de Alba Ixtlixochitl's Sumaria relación de todas las cosas que han sucedido en la Nueva España, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas's Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano (1601-1615), Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora's Anotaciones criticas sobre el Primer Apostol de Nueva España y sobre el Imagen de Guadalupe (ca. 1699), Juan de Palafox y Mendoza's Obras, and Juan Bautista Muñoz's Historia del Nuevo Mundo (1793).

Mexican Inquisition

The Bancroft Library's collection of Inquisition documents, the largest in the United States, includes some of the most significant cases brought before the Inquisition, such as the charges brought against Leonor and Isabel de Carvajal for practicing Judaism.

These procesos, or trials, include such materials as genealogical and property records as evidence in charges of breaches of orthodoxy and sexual misconduct, including blasphemy, relapsed Judaism, witchcraft, superstition, bigamy, and solicitation.

Guide to the Bancroft Mexican Inquisition Original Documents in the Online Archive of California (OAC)

The Spanish Borderlands and Northern Mexico

The Borderlands are a primary collecting area for The Bancroft Library, which holds manuscripts related to exploration and settlement of the territories from Florida to California.

Documents relating to Nueva Vizcaya and the Provincias Internas include records of the Jesuit and Franciscan orders; materials from the Pinart Collections from New Mexico, Chihuahua, Sonora, and other Northern Mexican states; and the Archives of California.

Among the administrators and missionaries represented are many governors of New Mexico and California, numerous viceroys, and missionaries and explorers such as Nicolás de Cardona, Francisco de Ortega, Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pedro Font, Gaspar de Portolá, and Juan Bautista de Anza.

See also the Western Americana.

Newspapers and gazettes

Newspaper holdings include colonial gazettes such as Gaceta de México, Gazeta de México, Gazeta del Gobierno de México, and Gaceta del Gobierno Imperial de México, as well as early newspapers such as El Diario de México, El Conductor Eléctrico, El Pensador Mexicano, Correo Semanario de México, Diario del Imperio, El Republicano, El Federalista, La Voz de la Patria, and others.

There are also substantial collections of newspapers from the Revolutionary period, regional newspapers, Central American newspapers and gazettes, and Spanish-language newspapers from the United States.

National Period

The Bancroft Library has numerous official and personal records related to the Wars of Independence, the Mexican-American War, travel to California for the Gold Rush, the French Intervention, and filibustering activities. Other materials include documents related to the administration of Emperor Maximilian, the archives of La Commission Scientifique du Mexique, newspapers, and exile presses such as La Voz de Méjico in San Francisco.

The library holds a complete run of the Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística (beginning in 1839), surveys and maps produced by the Comisión Geográfico-Exploradora and Ferrocarriles Naciónales de México, and business records of Northern Mexican mining companies.

As with the Colonial period, the library holds materials from key scholars of the National period, including José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Carlos María de Bustamante, Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, José Luis Mora, Lorenzo de Zavala, Lucas Alamán, José Gómez de la Cortina, and others.

See also the Western Americana.

Revolutionary Period

The Bancroft Library has letters, pamphlets, and books from key figures in the Mexican Revolution, including Porfirio Díaz, Francisco Madero, Ricardo Flores Magón, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and Venustiano Carranza.

The Silvestre Terrazas Collection consists of more than 100 boxes of letters, documents, and photos related to Terrazas’s career as a newspaper editor in Chihuahua.

Alternative sources include the collection of corridos from the Mexican Revolution and the James Wallace Wilkie collection of oral histories with political leaders of the Revolutionary Period.

There are also extensive photographic collections in this area, including prominent families’ photographs of the Mexican Revolution and documentation related to Red Cross activities with refugees along the border.

As with the National period, there are records of U.S. business interests in Mexico, such as the maps and blueprints of engineer Emil Bronimann, the Byron R. Janes papers, the correspondence of Irving and Luella Winship Herr, the B. A. Ogden papers, and the Bours, Tomas Robinson & Co. business papers.

See also the Western Americana.

Central America

Central American holdings from the early Colonial period include records of Dominican, Franciscan, and Jesuit activity in the region as well as materials by figures such as Pedro de Alvarado, Alonso Díaz de Reguera, Andrés de Cereceda, Juan Gavarrete Escobar, García de Valverde, Clemente Arauz, Francisco Morazán, and Rafael Carrera.

Bancroft’s Central American collections include those of Brasseur de Bourbourg, Alphonse Pinart, Ephraim George Squier, John Lloyd Stephens, and Alfred Keane Moe.

Also significant are Bancroft's Reference Notes on Central America and numerous papers and memoirs of U.S. travelers, merchants, and filibuster participants.

More recent records include interviews concerning Guatemalan history and politics (1930-1968), the Nicaragua Information Center Records (1980-1991), and the Data Center Records (1950s-1990s).

Photography and graphic arts

The Bancroft Library pictorial holdings on Mexico and Central America include sketchbooks, lithographs, photographs, drawings, stereographs, postcards, and posters.

Among the early lithographs and drawings are Claudio Linati's Costumes Civils, Militaires et Religieux du Mexique, Frederick Catherwood's Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, Casimiro Castro's México y sus Alrededores, and Andrew Jackson Grayson's Birds of the Pacific Slope.

Photographic collections include Desiré Charnay's Cités et Ruines Americaines, a military album from the French occupation titled Souvenirs du Mexique de 1861 à 1867, Abel Briquet's Vistas Mexicanas, photographs of Yaqui Indians, albums from Mexico and Central America, and various collections from the Revolutionary period.

The Bancroft Library also has a substantial collection of Latin American poster art from Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, and other parts of Latin America. More recent collections include some 1,000 posters relating to Central American politics in the 1970s and 1980s and the Juan Pascoe Collection of books and ephemera.

Faculty research materials

The Bancroft Library holds the papers and research materials of a number of influential Latin Americanists, including Herbert Eugene Bolton's and George Peter Hammond's research materials on borderlands history, Woodrow Wilson Borah's and Sherburne Friend Cook's research materials on historical demography, Carl Ortwin Sauer's papers and research notebooks on historical geography, Lesley Byrd Simpson's papers on colonial Mexico, and Engel Sluiter's documents related to economic and political history in Latin America.

Archival Manuscript Collections on Microfilm

Built around The Bancroft Library's manuscript collection, the microfilm collection of manuscripts from foreign archives is one of the largest in the country, capturing documents from archives in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany.

Documents microfilmed are largely related to Western North America and the Pacific coast. Mexico's Archivo General de la Nación and Spain's Archivo General de Indias are especially well represented.

A preliminary guide is available in the Bancroft Library Reading Room.

Guide to Archival Manuscripts on Microfilm

Guide to the Bancroft Latin Americana Collections in the Online Archive of California (OAC)

Collection guides and reference

Dale L. Morgan and George P. Hammond. A Guide to the Manuscript Collections of the Bancroft Library. Vol. 2: Manuscripts Relating Chiefly to México and Central America. 2 vols. Berkeley: Published for The Bancroft Library by the University of California Press, 1963-1972. Z6621.B2.B2, various holdings.

Latin American Collections of The Bancroft Library: Guides and Catalogs

• Latin Americana Reference Works in the Bancroft Library Reading Room
• Mexican and Borderlands History: Catalogs, Guides, and Directories for Archival and Manuscript Sources
• Latin American Studies: Guides, Library Catalogs, Indexes, and Bibliographies

Local collections

Latin American and Iberian collections at Stanford Libraries

Mexicana Collections at the Sutro Library
 

About the Rare Book Collection

The UC Berkeley Library’s Rare Book Collection was founded in 1954 and transferred to The Bancroft Library in 1970. The library is responsible for collecting, preserving, and making accessible old, rare, fragile, and sensitive materials on a wide range of subjects. As a rule, the Rare Book Collection avoids the subject areas of law, medicine, music, and East Asian languages, since other campus libraries specialize in these areas.

Medieval manuscripts

Bancroft houses about 300 codices and hundreds of paleographical specimens dating from circa 1000 C.E. to 1600. Of particular note are the French vernacular romances of the 14th and 15th centuries. Representative images from BANC MSS UCB 001 through 177 are available at Digital Scriptorium.

Incunabula

The library has more than 400 books from the 15th century, including classical, historical, literary, and scientific works. Notable among them are copies of the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle in both Latin and German and Euclid’s Elementa Geometriae from 1482. The library’s earliest printed book dates to 1466.

Fernán-Nuñéz Collection

This collection includes 225 manuscript volumes, circa 1490-1800, from the archives of the Dukes of Fernán-Nuñéz (south of Córdoba in southern Spain). It comprises literary, political, diplomatic, and historical texts.

Classical authors

Bancroft has very strong collections of classical texts printed in the 15th through 18th centuries. Of these, the most comprehensive is the Horace Collection, featuring hundreds of editions of the author's works, commentaries on them, and translations into most Western languages. The collection of Aldine editions is particularly noteworthy.

Renaissance books

Sixteenth- and early 17th-century holdings are especially strong in Italian and Spanish, with significant collections of French and German imprints. There are fine examples of the works of Erasmus, Luther, the Italian humanists, and productions of the scholar printers, for example, Aldus Manutius, the Estiennes, Johann Froben, and Christophe Plantin.

English literature

The library holds a wide range of material in this field, including all four Shakespeare folios as well as early editions of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, and other medieval, Elizabethan, and Jacobean writers.

The John Milton Collection is particularly strong and includes nearly all the variants of the first edition of Paradise Lost.

There are also important collections of certain 18th-century authors, the Romantics, and selected contemporary writers.

The library's strongest collections of 19th- and 20th-century authors include the works of William Blake, Lord Byron, Joseph Conrad, Walter de la Mare, Charles Dickens, Norman Douglas, H. Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, John Mortimer, Sean O'Faolain, the Rossettis, Walter Scott, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Stephen Spender, Tom Stoppard, H. G. Wells, and William Butler Yeats. Manuscripts of many of these authors are also held by the library.

American literature

The library is especially strong in writers identified with California, for example, Gertrude Atherton, Mary Austin, William Everson, Bret Harte, Robinson Jeffers, Jack London, Frank Norris, George Sterling, and William Saroyan.

There are important collections of other American authors, including Richard Brautigan, Willa Cather, T. S. Eliot, Faulkner, Frost, Julian and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sidney Howard, William Dean Howells, Henry James, William McFee, Wright Morris, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, Thornton Wilder, William Carlos Williams, and Harry Leon Wilson.

History of science

Bancroft holds many important first editions and other works in the history of science. Visit the archived pages at History of Science and Technology Collections to learn more.

History of books and printing

The library is keenly interested in documenting the history of books and printing. The collection includes important examples of printing techniques and landmarks in the history of publishing, from sumptuous deluxe editions to dime novels and chapbooks. The Strouse Collection on the Art & History of the Book is a treasure trove of fine bindings and private press books. It contains exquisite examples of the printer's and binder's art with special emphasis on Cobden-Sanderson, William Morris, and printed books of hours. In addition, the library maintains a collection known by the acronym "BART" (Bancroft Artifacts Relating to Typography) which documents the history of writing and printing from hieroglyphics and cuneiform writing to desktop publishing. The Press Room in Bancroft houses a 19th-century Albion hand press, a half-sized replica of a 17th-century English common press, type cases, galleys, and all the equipment necessary for a print shop.

Bransten Coffee and Tea Collection

This is one of the most complete collections in existence on the subjects of coffee and tea. It also includes many books on chocolate. The works included range in date from the 16th century to the present.

French Revolution

Bancroft holds nearly 10,000 pamphlets and numerous other sources (monographs, periodicals, and posters) from the late 1780s through the end of the Revolutionary era.

African American writers

This collection includes the work of black American writers from the 18th century to the present. In addition to first editions of writers such as Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, Bancroft also houses archival collections of Gwendolyn Brooks and Eldridge Cleaver.

American wit and humor

Named for its creator, Theodore Koundakjian, this collection is particularly strong in 19th-century American imprints. It includes jest books, books in dialect, and humor books by hundreds of American authors.

Fine printing

With special emphasis on the Bay Area, this collection contains nearly complete collections of such notable private presses as Grabhorn, L.& D. Allen, John Henry Nash, Adrian Wilson, Greenwood, and many more. British and European private presses from the 18th century to the present are also well represented. The documentary archives of a number of presses are held at Bancroft.

Bancroft Poetry Archive

The library's collection of modern poetry concentrates particularly on Bay Area poets since World War II. It includes rare periodicals as well as monographs, and a number of manuscript collections (for example, City Lights Publishing Company, Auerhahn Press, and the papers of several individual poets), making it a rich resource for research.

Judaica

Judaica, Jewish cultural history, and Western American Jewish history are well represented at The Bancroft Library. Early donated collections at the UC Berkeley Library provided a strong foundation that has been built upon through the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, formerly known as the Judah L. Magnes Museum, added great strength to Bancroft's holdings beginning in 2010. Bancroft curators work closely with the Judaica Librarian of the UC Berkeley Library to add items that document Jewish history in the American West and reflect both historic and present-day examples of Jewish publishing and modern fine printing.

Please see Latin Americana for a description of materials relating to Mexico and Central America.

About the Western Americana Collection

In 1905, the University of California purchased the book and manuscript collections of Hubert Howe Bancroft, a successful entrepreneur, bookseller, publisher, and historian. The Western Americana collection now constitutes the largest and most diverse group of research materials within The Bancroft Library. 

The Western Americana collection documents the history of human activity in North America primarily west of the Rocky Mountains from the earliest days to the present time, with greatest emphasis on California. Thus the Western Americana collection provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore both primary and secondary sources pertaining to the social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural development of the western half of the United States.

Overview of the collections

Native American Studies/anthropology/archeology/linguistics

Documentation of the Native American experience in the Western Americana collection began with Hubert Howe Bancroft’s collection of sources gathered for use in writing the first five volumes of his Works, dedicated to the Native Races. Documents include descriptions from the colonial period to the end of the 19th century of the various Native American tribes and their encounters with missionaries, settlers, traders, and artists.

The Native American materials in the Bancroft Collection include materials gathered by important 20th-century anthropologists, such as Alfred Kroeber (1876-1960) and his students. In addition, the collection holds materials produced by Native peoples, including the personal papers of individuals as well as the records organizations they have run.

Bancroft also holds manuscript collections and printed documents on the peoples of the Plains, the Far West, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Islands.

For further information, please visit Indigenous Peoples of California: web resources at The Bancroft Library.

Spanish encounter and colonial settlement

Settlement in the American West before United States annexation is well documented, with an emphasis on materials related to California. Many points of view inform this experience, exposing the dynamic and often conflicting relationships of indigenous peoples with European explorers and settlers.

Diaries dating from 1725-1821 inform these perspectives, as do archival materials from the California missions (1776 through the mid-19th century). 

The collection includes correspondence, reports, accounts, letters, censuses, and the official records of the Spanish and Mexican government in Alta California.

Land was an important issue for Mexican Californians before and after the annexation of California, and The Bancroft Library has the Land Case Records and associated maps (diseños) on deposit from the United States District Court.  

Notably, H. H. Bancroft and his team sought out important figures within the California community and interviewed them. These "Bancroft Dictations" (also known as “Testimonios” or “Recuerdos”) provide an important counter-narrative to traditional histories. Approximately 125 dictations were conducted, including twelve with women, one of whom was a Native American.

Exploration of the Pacific coast and the American West

Narratives of discovery and exploration, including early Pacific voyages, are among the high points of the collection.

A comprehensive collection of many published works, manuscripts, and maps record the explorations of the Spanish, British, French, Russians, Americans, and others. These provide glimpses of the fur trade, relations with indigenous peoples, and settlement along the West Coast.

Documentation of Spanish colonial exploration includes material by Gaspar de Portolá, Captain Pedro Fages, Fray Junípero Serra, Pedro Font, Juan Bautista de Anza, and Alessandro Malaspina.

Publications of the exploration of other European and American explorers of the West include the works of Sir Francis Drake (1628), Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Perouse (1797), George Vancouver (1798), Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1814), Louis Choris (1822), and Charles Wilkes (1831).

Maps and atlases

Bancroft’s cartographic holdings complement the narrative sources.  More than three-quarters of them relate to the western half of North America, particularly California and Mexico.

In addition to maps from the Spanish and Mexican land grant cases, described under “Spanish Encounter and Settlement,” there are a number of significant map collections, including outstanding cartographic treasures from Carl I. Wheat, George Davidson, and Charles M. Weber.

The Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

Bancroft possesses vast holdings on the United States-Mexican War. These include both Mexican and American perspectives.  One of Bancroft’s outstanding journals is William Meyers’s narrative shipboard diary (with watercolors) concerning

Thomas ap Catesby Jones’s anticipated (and illegal) taking of Monterey, California in 1842.

The Californios’ response to the war can be found in their dictations as well as in the wealth of political and personal papers they gave to H. H. Bancroft. The collection also includes many published memoirs, diaries, journals, and regimental histories, which add depth to the testimony of these unique manuscripts. The Mexican side of the war is similarly documented in the Latin Americana Collection.

Westward migration

Between 1840 and 1860, migration westward grew exponentially.  This migration and settlement is documented in an incomparable series of diaries, letters, graphic representations, and related printed books and ephemera.

Unique narratives from the pre-United States period include those by John Bidwell, who led the first overland group of pioneers to California (1841), and Patrick Breen, a member of the ill-fated Donner Party (1846). Diaries and letters collected by, and dictations taken down for, H. H. Bancroft provide a similar history for the rest of the American West, especially Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Alaska.

The Gold Rush

On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered by James Marshall at John Sutter’s mill on the South Fork of the American River.

Bancroft holds a vast collection of Gold Rush diaries, letters, lettersheets, photographs and other pictorial material as well as books, pamphlets, and other printed material. The collection focuses on both accommodations and tensions as individuals and families from nations throughout the world and of various backgrounds came into contact with one another.

The Bancroft Dictations (often called precursors to oral histories) also provide valuable historical material related to this momentous period in California’s history. Among the prominent pioneers and settlers that H. H. Bancroft interviewed are George Nidever (1802-1883), John Bidwell (1819-1900), and Captain John Sutter (1803-1880).

Mining in the West, and its demographic consequences

The rush for mineral wealth in the West continued—in Alaska in 1849, in Colorado and Nevada in 1859, in Montana in 1864, and in the Yukon in 1896. The Western Americana collection provides a wide variety of materials documenting mineral development, with information about the establishment of mining towns, the disruption of native peoples’ lives, and the beginnings of the conflict between conservation and the exploitation of natural resources.

Land surveys and scientific expeditions

Interest in the environment and the conservation of the West’s natural resources began in the 19th century, as the United States government and its citizens attempted to document their vast new territories. Bancroft holds comprehensive government-sponsored surveys and scientific expeditions, many of which included noted naturalists. John Bartlett (1805-1856) recorded his experiences during the boundary survey after the U. S.-Mexican War. The great published surveys of the American West—conducted by Ferdinand V. Hayden (1829-1867), John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), George Wheeler (1842-1905), and Clarence King (1842-1901)—provide information on Native American cultures and reflect federal, state, and local government efforts not only to record baseline information about the West’s physical characteristics but also to establish parks and forests and to monitor and implement environmental laws.

Economic development: transport, lumber, agriculture, commerce

California grew dramatically after the discovery of gold. Bancroft holds documents of shipping enterprises and personal accounts by passengers making the arduous journey.

As travel became easier and people had more leisure time, tourism developed as an industry.  Promotional materials documenting these efforts abound at Bancroft.

The lumber industry is documented in the records of several companies, including the Pacific Lumber Company, Sonoma Lumber Company, and the extensive records of the Union Lumber Company.

The collection covers agricultural development in California from specialized crops, such as wine grapes to large-scale agricultural and ranching operations including Miller & Lux, one of the one hundred largest corporations in America in 1900.

With urban and rural development also came a need to manipulate and control water, still the limiting factor in California’s growth. The water-focused part of the collection extends from the records of early water companies to late 20th-century state documents.

Labor

Labor in California has had a complex history, often quite volatile. Political and frequently exclusionary, the early labor movement was characterized by the strong opinions of strong leaders.  Archival records related to labor contain publications, reports, studies, press releases, and other materials on union activity as well as opposition to union efforts.

Resources on California labor include extensive documentation of various unions during the 20th century.  Especially strong is documentation of the predominantly African-American Sleeping Car Porters’ Union and the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union under firebrand Harry Bridges (1901-1990), leader of the 1934 longshoremen’s strike.

The Thomas J. Mooney Papers concern the labor leader’s trial and conviction for murder in connection with the bombing at the Preparedness Day parade, San Francisco, July 22, 1916, and efforts to secure his release.

Religious and utopian communities

Bancroft materials documenting religious life in the West are both extensive and varied.

Its documentation of the Mormon experience includes the dictations that H. H. Bancroft, along with his wife Matilda and daughter Kate, conducted with principal men and women of various Mormon communities, diaries that reflect the Mormon experience in the West, and accounts from outsiders who observed Mormon activity.

The Western Americana Collection has significant material illustrating the contributions of Jews to the settlement of the West, especially in urban areas such as San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. (See also: Judah L. Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.)

The Bancroft Collection includes documentation of mainstream Protestant and Catholic missionary and church-building projects in the West.

In the late 19th century utopian and socialist communities existed throughout California, and the collection includes documentation of many of those groups, such as the Kaweah colony, the Icaria-Speranza commune, and the Fountain Grove community.

Urban Communities: emergence and growth

Urban centers such as San Francisco were fundamental to Western development. Begun as a presidio and mission, San Francisco was transformed from a small pueblo before the Gold Rush into a wealthy and busy port city and eventually into the center of the Western economy.

Architecture, urban planning, and expanding infrastructure in San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area are abundantly documented in The Bancroft Library, from the engineering papers of Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessy to the architectural papers of Julia Morgan and Timothy Pflueger.

The cataclysmic earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed San Francisco and surrounding cities. The disaster was extremely well documented—from all aspects of the earthquake and the ensuing fire, to the relief effort, and the political and social maneuvering related to the city’s recovery. First-hand accounts provide vivid documentation of these events.

After the earthquake, San Francisco rose phoenix-like from the ashes, its recovery culminating in San Francisco’s sponsorship of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). The Bancroft Library houses the records of the PPIE, as well as many other pictorial and manuscript collections related to the 1915 World’s Fair.

The Western Americana Collection also documents the industrial buildup of California throughout the 20th century. The Henry J. Kaiser papers, for example, document the physical and social/demographic transformation of the Bay Area into a major industrial region during and immediately after World War II.

Ethnic communities

Bancroft is proud of its rich resources for the study of the region’s diverse ethnic communities. Holdings address both rural and urban environments from the 19th century to the present, including the contributions of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican agricultural workers to building California.

Especially notable are the papers of Paul S. Taylor, an economist at University of California, Berkeley, who was an advocate for the rural poor. His collection provides rich documentation related to Mexican Americans and other agricultural laborers.

Bancroft is one of three official repositories of the U.S. government’s Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement records from World War II; these records are supplemented by the personal papers of Japanese Americans in the camps.

The African American experience, especially after World War II, is documented through the records of major social and political organizations such as the Western Region of the NAACP, church-affiliated groups, and the papers of private individuals.

Bancroft has rich resources related to the Chinese in California, from the 19th century to the present. One project includes a collaboration with the Pana Institute of the Pacific School of Religion to document the 150th anniversary and architectural renovation of the Presbyterian Church in San Francisco’s Chinatown. In addition, we are interested in the growing new immigrant communities, as reflected in the South Asians in North America collection.

The environmental movement in the 20th century

The environmental collections, especially the records of the Sierra Club, are The Bancroft Library’s most heavily used collections. Resources documenting the Sierra Club’s international influence include correspondence with founder John Muir (1838-1914); the club’s official records from its founding in 1892; and the personal papers of its executive directors from David Ross Brower to Carl Pope. The Bancroft also possesses photographic collections, including a large body of work by Ansel Adams (1902-1984), oral histories with and papers of leading members and staff of the club, and a comprehensive collection of publications and ephemera.

The papers of Joseph LeConte, professor of geology at UC Berkeley, and of his family members document their sustained interest in preservation of the natural environment in California.

The papers of Robert Marshall, one of the principal founders of the Wilderness Society, reveal his commitment to wilderness preservation throughout the West.

Also included among the many archival collections held by The Bancroft Library are the Records of Save-the-Redwoods League, Save the Bay, and Earth Island Institute.

Personal and family papers

H. H. Bancroft’s pioneering efforts in collecting personal and family papers like those of John and Annie Bidwell, Mariano Vallejo, and Charles M. Weber have continued to this day.

Later collections, such as those of the Hearst and De Young families, include a wide range of social, cultural, artistic, educational, and business materials.

Of particular interest are the papers of women, which reflect not only their familial and private lives but also their public and professional experiences.

Political collections

Bancroft’s extensive political collections document prominent California politicians from the Mexican period onward. They include the papers of mayors, governors, and U.S. and state senators and representatives from both major parties and many minor ones.

Francis J. Heney’s (1859-1937) and Hiram Johnson’s (1866-1945) papers document progressive era politics and the San Francisco graft trials, while those of John W. Stetson (1871-1919) highlight his tenure as president of the Roosevelt Progressive Republican Party. From the mid-20th century Bancroft holds the papers of Republican Governor Goodwin Knight (1896-1970); Democratic Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown (1905-1996); U.S. Senators William Knowland (1908-1974), Thomas Kuchel (1910-1994), and Alan Cranston (1914-2000); and U.S. Congressman Robert T. Matsui.

Women’s rights and social movements

At Bancroft one may explore the history of the women’s suffrage movement in California through oral histories conducted with women activists such as Alice Paul (1885-1977) and Sara Bard Field (1883-1974), as well as through manuscript collections, ephemera, pictorial collections, and a wide variety of printed resources including government publications.

There are also extensive holdings from women’s social clubs and personal or family papers that document suffragists’ social, cultural, professional and domestic lives. Especially strong are the collections documenting women’s political activism in favor of the peace movement, consumer advocacy, environmental quality, social equality, and justice.

Guides to the collection
Dale L. Morgan and George P. Hammond. A Guide to the Manuscript Collections of the Bancroft Library. Vol. 1: Pacific and Western Manuscripts, except California. 2 vols. Berkeley: Published for The Bancroft Library by the University of California Press, 1963-1972. Z6621.B2.B2, various holdings. Online Archive of California, 2010.

Charles Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent, eds. Exploring The Bancroft Library. Salt Lake City: The Bancroft Library in association with Signature Books, 2006. Z733.B198 E97, various holdings.

Special bibliographic files

Bancroft information file

The Information File is an index (by name or subject) to some of Bancroft's older printed resources. It includes citations to biographies in some county histories, obituaries, magazine articles, and some manuscripts. This card file is located in the reading room.

California information file, 1846-1985

The California Information File contains citations to information relating to California found in the resource collections of the California State Library. 550 microfiches, call no. Microfiche 645 (Reading Room). See also the twenty-page Users' Guide by Richard Terry, call no. Reference Counter Microfiche 645 Guide (Reading Room), and California Information File II, a web-based continuation. 

Special topics

Sanborn Insurance Maps

Collection overview

The Bancroft Library has the second largest pictorial collection at a research institution in the nation. Consisting primarily of photographic negatives and prints, the Bancroft collection also includes paintings, prints, drawings, posters, and advertising memorabilia.

Major subject areas represented significantly in the Pictorial Collection include:

• Early voyages of exploration
• Earliest visual documentation of coastal California, countless other locations along the Pacific Coast, and Hawaii
• Native Americans in California
• California missions
• Scenic views of early California
• Yosemite and other wilderness areas
• Mexico
• Californios: Mexican California before 1848
• 19th-century landscape paintings of the West
• California Gold Rush
• Mining and exploitation of natural resources in California, Nevada, Alaska, and Mexico
• Chinese in California
• Portrait photographs, prints, and paintings of individuals prominent in the history of the West and Mexico
• Transportation: clipper ships, railroads, streetcars
• San Francisco
• 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire
• Agriculture in California
• Early aviation in California
• History of environmental movements and organizations
• Major physical infrastructure projects (bridges, dams, and power plants)
• World War II in California
• War Relocation Authority photographs of the Japanese evacuation, internment, and resettlement
• Kaiser Shipyards
• African Americans in Northern California
• Protest movements: civil rights organizations, Free Speech Movement
• Police, crime, prisons, trials
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT)
• Newspaper photography and photojournalism—1920s to 1990s

Photographic material

Photography: California and the West

The technological development of photography is contemporary to the development of the American West, and photography played a significant role in the settling of the West. Federal and state governments commissioned photographic surveys that provided valuable documentation for building railroads and attracting East Coast and foreign investors who funded industrial mining, timber, and agricultural operations. Photographs by Carleton Watkins in the 1860s were critical to establishing Yosemite first as a state park and then as a national park.

Photographers

The photography collection at Bancroft spans the history of the medium from early cased photographs—including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes—to contemporary digital images. The collection contains photographs by renowned photographers such as Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange and the photographic archives of lesser known but important documentary photographers such as Michelle Vignes and Chauncey Hare.

Also significant and of great import are the many thousands of photographs, snapshots, and family photograph albums made by amateur photographers over the past 160 years, which provide researchers with a wide-ranging view of daily events, family life, and leisure activities.

Non-photographic material

The Bancroft Pictorial Collection contains a variety of non-photographic representations, including more than 400 hundred framed paintings and prints—notably bird’s-eye views, scenic views, and images of seafaring vessels. Many of them are part of the Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian Art and Western Americana, dating from the 19th century. Other significant non-photographic collections include the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a large body of political prints and broadsides from Mexico, 1937-1950. French, British, and American posters from World War I and II constitute important and voluminous collections; many of these have been digitized and are available online.

The Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian Art and Western Americana is the single most important acquisition of pictorial material for The Bancroft Library to date. It has been digitized in its entirety. The Honeyman Collection’s impressive array of 2371 items includes the visual testimony of explorers, sailors, surveyors, scientists, soldiers, fortune seekers, ship's physicians, printmakers, and painters who produced notebooks, journals, and diaries replete with pen and ink drawings as well as pencil and watercolor sketches. These are the visual documentation of the major voyages of exploration that landed on the western shores of the North American continent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Among them are the La Perouse Expedition (1769), the Malaspina Expedition (1791), the Vancouver Expeditions (1792), the Langsdorff/Rezanov Expeditions (1803-1807), and later American expeditions and surveys. In addition, the Honeyman Collection includes important works by major 19th-century painters of California.

Online access

Thousands of digital images from the collections of The Bancroft Library can be viewed in the Online Archive of California and on Calisphere. These include among others the entire Robert Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian Art and Western Americana, Cased Photographs and web Images from The Bancroft Library Pictorial Collection, the Lone Mountain Collection of Stereographs by Eadweard Muybridge, and the Rosalie Ritz Courtroom Drawings.

Generous donor giving has a long tradition in the Environmental Design Library beginning with Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s 1903 gift that created the Architecture Library.

Financial gifts 

The Elizabeth Byrne Fund for the Environmental Design Library honors former head librarian Elizabeth Byrne’s 27-year career and supports programming, collections, and facilities. We are grateful for support at all levels.

To make a gift to the Elizabeth Byrne Fund, please send a check (with Elizabeth Byrne Fund (FW6916000) written in the memo field) to:

University of California, Berkeley
Donor & Gift Services
1995 University Avenue, Suite 400
Berkeley, CA  94704-1070

To give by phone, or inquire about making a gift to the Elizabeth Byrne Fund gift by wire/ACH transfer, please call 510.643.9789, or email gifthelp@berkeley.edu.  

Financial gifts specifically for collections can be made using the Environmental Design Library Fund online gift form. If you have questions, please reach out to the CED development team at cedfund@berkeley.edu.

Donating books and journals

Gifts of scholarly and professional materials have historically represented a significant element in our outstanding research collections. We welcome individual gifts of books and journals but due to space limitations must be judicious in accepting large contributions. Please email envi-library@berkeley.edu about materials you wish to donate.

Donors should be aware that the materials offered may be duplicates or outside the scope of the collection. In these cases, the materials may be made available to students and faculty to add to their personal collections or sold and the proceeds used to purchase other materials for the collection. 

The University of Buffalo Libraries also maintains a list of International Donation Programs that you may want to consider for your book donations.

About the digital collections

Bancroft digital collections include digitized materials from Bancroft’s rich and varied holdings and born digital materials collected as part of our archival manuscript and pictorial collections. This ever-growing research collection of digital images, text, audiovisual, and other content files is made available through the California Digital Library’s Calisphere website, and through the Berkeley Library Digital Collections site.

• Bancroft Library on Calisphere
• University Archives on Calisphere
• UC Berkeley Library Digital Collections

The Bancroft also maintains the following:

• The Mark Twain Project Online
• The Oral History Center archives of videos, audio recordings, and transcripts
• The Bancroft Library’s digitized audiovisual collections on Internet Archive

Themed collections

Digital archives

• Cal Football Digital Archives*
• California Loyalty Oath Digital Collection*
• Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement*
• Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement*
• Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study*
• Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute Archives

* Site no longer maintained

Collaborative databases

• Berkeley Regional Partners Database (papyrus)
• California Art Research Archive
• Chinese Immigration to the United States, 1884-1944*
• Digital Scriptorium
• Free Speech Movement Digital Archives
• Oroville Chinese Temple
• FactGrid:PhiloBiblon 
• Rock Art Studies Bibliographic Database

* Site no longer maintained

Legacy online projects 
Sites no longer maintained

• Cased Photographs Project
• Chinese in California
• Gay Bears: The Hidden History of the Berkeley Campus
• Italian Americans in California

Overview

Northern California boasts rich natural resources, material wealth, and a culture that fosters scientific discovery and technological innovation. The Bancroft Library holds extensive collections of primary and secondary sources covering an array of scientific and technological fields, focusing on the history of science and technology in California and the American West. These collections document the region's natural history and the scientific and technological achievements of its denizens.

The Bancroft Library’s History of Science and Technology Collections contain printed works, archives, and manuscript documents such as personal papers, corporate records, oral histories, and pictorial images. Formats range from handwritten and printed to audio or video recordings and multimedia.

Faculty papers

Faculty papers collections are connected to teaching and research in science and technology at the University of California, Berkeley. With the establishment in 1972 of the History of Science and Technology Program, The Bancroft Library increased its role in acquiring Berkeley faculty papers in these fields.

• There are approximately 200 distinct collections, ranging in size from a single portfolio to more than 200 cartons each.
• The histories of many fields are represented, including physical, mathematical, earth, life, and human sciences; engineering and applied sciences; and general topics in science, technology, and the public interest.
• Special attention is given to Berkeley's Nobel laureates and to the development of the Radiation Laboratory (now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). Papers of staff scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory without appointments in teaching or research units on the Berkeley campus are out of scope.
• The focus of the collections is on the 20th and 21st centuries, although some include the late 19th century.
• Faculty papers are primarily in English, although the international, multilingual character of modern science and technology is reflected in correspondence and documents also in other (mainly European) languages.
• The primary formats found in the collection of faculty papers include manuscript materials such as writings, correspondence, course materials, records of university departments or units, records of professional organizations, grant proposals, reports and related materials, subject and research files, and research notebooks. Collections also include digital files and data, photographs and other pictorial materials, audio and videotape, film, and other media.

Manuscript collections

The manuscript collections are archival collections other than faculty papers.

• They include more than 250 collections ranging in size from one portfolio to more than 200 cartons, with special emphasis on early modern European and American science and technology, with particular strengths in the 18th century.
• Subject strengths include science and technology in California and the American West, radio and electronics (especially in the San Francisco Bay Area), development of the Radiation Laboratory (now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and Nobel laureates with a connection to California.
• Prominent 18th century collections include the papers of Rudjer Boscovich, Pierre-Simon Laplace, and the Accademia del Cimento.

Rare book collections

The collection of printed books complements the general coverage of the manuscript collections.

The collection is especially strong in early modern natural philosophy, the history of mathematics (including textbooks), early modern electricity, and publications of scientific academies and societies.

Oral histories

The History of Science and Technology Program and the Oral History Center have conducted numerous interviews with people involved in such scientific fields as physics, chemistry, medical physics, virology, operations research, aeronautics, and the development of radio and electronics, as well as innovations in technology and the development of the Radiation Laboratory (now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory).

In addition to bound, edited interview transcripts, the collection includes many tape-recorded interviews, and, in some cases, related manuscript materials.

For more information on The Bancroft Library’s oral history program, see the Oral History Center.