50th Anniversary

Geisel Library under construction.

Libraries' Exhibits and Web Site Celebrate UCSD's 50th Anniversary

An exhibit of materials from the UCSD Archives highlighting milestones in UCSD's 50-year history are on display from October 13, 2010 through January 30, 2011 at Geisel Library. "UCSD at 50: A Marvel Inside a Miracle," showcases a wide range of historic photographs, early maps, plans and models, press releases, and correspondence, as well as student newspapers and yearbooks. The UCSD Archives, the official repository for historical materials about UCSD, are housed in the Mandeville Special Collections Library.

Chancellor Herbert York and General Bruno Hochmuth at Camp Matthews transfer ceremony.

Photographs on display range from the quirky—the first-ever watermelon drop from Urey Hall in 1965, the university’s oldest and perhaps geekiest tradition—to the iconic—photographs, sketches, and plans showing the Geisel Library in its various stages of development in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Photos from UCSD's illustrious past include dashing movie star Gregory Peck with Muir College Provost John Stewart examining plans for the new La Jolla Playhouse. Also included are images from the tumultuous '60s, when controversial philospher Herbert Marcuse was on the UCSD faculty, and activist Angela Davis was a graduate student.

Muir College Provost John Stewart with actor Gregory Peck.

One of the documents displayed is a speech by legendary UC President Clark Kerr, who spoke at the university's 1985 convocation on UCSD's 25th anniversary. Kerr, who spearheaded the development of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, delivered his "Marvel Inside a Miracle" speech, from which the exhibit takes its name: "The advance of this campus to a peak position among the 3,200 institutions of higher education in the U.S. is one of the few academic marvels of all history," said Kerr. "The miracle behind the marvel is that these ingredients all came together at the right time and, as it turned out, the one and only right time. Ten years, or even five years later, would have been too late; and earlier would equally not have been possible. Thus we shall be looking at a marvel inside a miracle."

UCSD’s first watermelon drop.

Also on display in Geisel Library January 7 to April 1, 2011 will be “Ansel Adams at UCSD." The exhibit will feature photographs of the campus taken by Adams in the mid-1960s, when he was commissioned to photograph all of the UC campuses for UC's centennial. "Ansel Adams at UCSD" presents more than 25 of Adams' best UCSD photographs, including an iconic shot of the Scripps Pier, the breezeway between Bonner and Mayer halls, and extraordinary portraits of early UCSD faculty such as Harold Urey, John Stewart, Walter Munk, and Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge.

UC President Clark Kerr and Roger Revelle.

To help celebrate UCSD's 50th anniversary, the Mandeville Special Collections Library has developed a new and permanent UCSD History Web site that will continue to provide public access to historic UCSD photographs and other documents after the 50th anniversary is over. Check out the Web site at: https://libraries.ucsd.edu/historyofucsd.