UC Santa Cruz Campus History in the Oral History Collection

The Regional History Project at UC Santa Cruz has been documenting campus history since 1963. Typed or printed transcripts of the audio recordings are available in the Library stacks and Special Collections. On-line versions are in PDF format in the Library's Digital Collections, as well as in eScholarship.

1960s - The Early Years at UC Santa Cruz:

• Dean E. McHenry ; Vol. II: 1958-68, Vol. III: 1958-69 (founding chancellor)
• Clark Kerr and the founding of the University of California, Santa Cruz (president of the University of California system)
• Page Smith : founding Cowell College and UCSC, 1964-73 (professor, founding provost of Cowell College)
• F.M. Glenn Willson : early UCSC history and the founding of Stevenson College, 1963-87 (founding faculty, later provost of Stevenson College)
• Kenneth V. Thimann : early UCSC history and the founding of Crown College, 1964-89 (professor, founding provost of Crown College)
• Oakes College: An Oral History with: J. Herman Blake, Roberto Crespi, James Gill, Don Rothman, Ray Charland, Gwen Lacy, and Kathy Cowan, 1966-82

UCSC dedication events, January 17, 1963: Clark Kerr, with Donald Clark and regents in a car at the site of the library -University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Special Collections, ms0090_pho_63_61a_cs2_21

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• Look'n M' Face and Hear M' Story: An Oral History with Professor J. Herman Blake, 1966-84 (professor, founding provost of Oakes College)
• John Dizikes: Reflections on a Life of Learning and Teaching at UC Santa Cruz, 1965-2000 (founding faculty)
• G. William Domhoff: The Adventures and Regrets of a Professor of Dreams and Power, 1965-94 (founding faculty)
• Andrew Todd Newberry, professor of biology, 1965-1994 : reflections on Santa Cruz (founding faculty)
• Donald T. Clark : early UCSC history and the founding of the University Library, 1962-73 (founding university librarian)
• Rita Bottoms, polyartist librarian : UC Santa Cruz 1965-2003 (reference librarian, later head of special collections)

Herman Blake's Junior Leadership Program, Summer 1967: participants on a forest walk, with a lizard -University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Special Collections, ua0050_neg_06320b_16

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• A Dual Teaching Career: An Oral History with UC Santa Cruz Professor Frank Andrews, 1967-2006
• Murray's Universe: An Oral History with UCSC Professor Murray Baumgarten, 1966-2014
• Burney LeBoeuf, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Recollections of UCSC, 1966-1994
• Michael Nauenberg, professor of physics : recollections of UCSC, 1966-1996
• Peter Scott, professor of physics : recollections of UCSC, 1966-1994 
• Professor Priscilla "Tilly" Shaw: Poet, Teacher, Administrator, 1966-93 

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Moving a redwood tree from UCSC to Cabrillo College: Vice Chancellor Harold Hyde (left) and Chancellor McHenry (right), with tree mover Joe Arnaz of Mountain View -University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Special Collections, ua0050_neg_04185a_16

• Harold A. Hyde : recollections of Santa Cruz County, 1964-75 (founding vice chancellor of business and finance)
• Louis F. Fackler : founding campus engineer, UC Santa Cruz 1963-90
• Creating a World-Class Graduate Program on a Unique Campus: An Oral History with John Wilkes, Founder of UCSC's Science Communication Program, 1965-2006
• The early history of UC Santa Cruz's Farm and Garden : interviews with Paul Lee, Phyllis Norris, Orin Martin, Dennis Tamura, 1966-85
• Growth and stewardship : Frank Zwart's four decades at UC Santa Cruz, 1967-2005 (Pioneer Class member, campus architect)

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• UC Santa Cruz Student interviews, 1967
• UC Santa Cruz Student interviews, 1969 

Cowell College Culture Break, February 1968: human chess game -University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Special Collections, ua0050_neg_04245a_17

UCSC Opens in 1965: Santa Cruz Sentinel Special Editions

The University of California campus at Santa Cruz opened in the fall of 1965 with only about 650 students, 69 faculty, and 150 staff members, but its coming changed the economy and culture of the city and county of Santa Cruz profoundly. The articles in this special edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel show the excitement of the founding, the ambitions of the chancellor and the founding faculty, and the eagerness of the select student "Pioneer Class".

Viewing Note: The "Page Flip View" lets you page through the newspaper, but to zoom in and read the text, you will need to use the default image viewer or the "View Page & Text" option.

Santa Cruz Sentinel: University of California, Santa Cruz, Opening Edition [A: UC and UCSC Administrator Profiles; Planning and Construction]

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p. 33

Santa Cruz Sentinel: University of California, Santa Cruz, Opening Edition [B: Founding Faculty Profiles]

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p. 26

Santa Cruz Sentinel: University of California, Santa Cruz, Opening Edition [C: Students]

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p. 15

Most popular items in November 2014

These were the items with the most views in November 2014:

	UCSC Campus History - Photographs and Maps. John Boit Morse, oilography exhibit opening, Stevenson Gatehouse: artist with Priscilla "Tilly" Shaw, professor of literature ua0050_neg_01669_08.tif John Boit Morse (1912-88), son of Samuel F.B. Morse, the developer of the Pebble Beach Golf Course, was a graduate of Yale University, a semi-professional hockey player, a World War II veteran, an advertising executive, and his father’s successor as president of Del Monte Properties, before he became a full-time artist in 1953. He was prominent as a philanthropist and artist in the Monterey Bay area. For more information about this exhibit, see the Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 17, 1967, p. 27, and September 24, p. 27.
Branson DeCou Digital Archive. Moscow: street scene, horse-drawn cart carrying a chest dc1_501_0071.tif Branson and Elsie DeCou visited the young Soviet Union around 1931, taking pictures in Moscow, St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Odessa, and Yalta (the latter two now in Ukraine). Although most of the images show buildings and museums, many of them are street scenes or character portraits. These offer a unique and interesting glimpse of daily life in the Soviet Union between the two world wars.
Lick Observatory Digital Archive. Photometers: Photometry is a way to study stars by measuring the intensity of their light. Dr. Joel Stebbins (1878-1966) brought the Illinois photometer to the Lick Observatory to study Beta Lyrae, a binary star system. The director of the observatory, William Campbell, sought to obtain a permanent photometer. Edith Eleanor Cummings, a Lick Fellow, designed one for her doctoral studies at Berkeley, and in 1921 used it to study Beta Cephei. Her research revealed this triple-star system as a prototype for a new class of stars, ones with brightness that varies according to pulsations on their surfaces. See Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, pp 2048-2051 for Joel Stebbins, and pp. 485-487 for Edith Eleanor Cummings.
Illinois photometer brought to the Lick Observatory during the summer of 1915 by Dr. Joel Stebbins ua0036_glp_0250.tif	Photometer made by Edith Cummings for the 12-inch refracting telescope ua0036_glp_0199.tif
	UCSC Library Map Collections. Weber's map of Santa Cruz County, California / Published by C.F. Weber & Co., 1914. g4363_s5_1914_p82.tif This map shows utility lines (gas and electric), railroads, wagon roads, schools, ranchos, townships, reclamation districts and irrigation projects. It includes insets of the cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville.