The first Bancroft Round Table of the Spring 2013 Semester will take place on at noon, Thursday, February 21 in the Lewis-Latimer Room of the Faculty Club.  Daniel Lynch, Ph.D. candidate in the UCLA Department of History and Bancroft Library Gunther Barth Fellowship recipient will present ?Southern and Californio Convergence in Southern California: General Andrés Pico and the Chivalry Democrats, 1846-1861.?

Focusing on the life of the native-born Californio Andres Pico, this talk explores how two groups of southern Californians­Southerners and Californios­mediated the region's incorporation into the United States during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. After leading Californio insurgents to their sole victory Mexican-American War at the Battle of San Pasqual, Pico launched a successful American political career as a state legislator. He joined the pro-slavery ?Chivalry? faction of the state Democratic Party to forge a powerful regional political alliance between Southerners and Californios. This unusual alliance shared goals of keeping taxes low, protecting land ownership, masculine honor and female virtue, and maintaining hierarchies of race, class and gender.

The way in which partisans of the losing sides of two successive wars, the Mexican and U.S. Civil, found common ground and came to form the nucleus of a southern California elite political alliance is both fascinating in itself and crucial for an understanding of California politics in the ensuing century and beyond.  The community is invited to join us at this talk.  The Bancroft Round Table series aims to highlight the vast resources of our library to enrich our understanding of our historical heritage.

January 2 - July 31, 2013
The Bancroft Library Rowell Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Doe Library

This exhibition explores the earliest years of Cal's football team and playing fields, the campaign to build the original Memorial Stadium, controversies surrounding it through the decades, interesting events beyond campus sports that happened there, the life of Coach Andy Smith, and unforgettable football-related moments and traditions, including the opening of the newly renovated and seismically retrofit stadium in September 2012. The title stems from one of the oft-quoted mottos in the original stadium's promotional literature: "To Perpetuate California's Glorious Past; To Build for Her Glorious Future."

The cases feature an array of archival and manuscript material, including correspondence, photographs, football program illustrations, architectural drawings, scrapbooks, and brochures. Collections drawn from include the records of the Office of the President and the Office of the Chancellor; the Thomas Whitesides Collection of Football Programs; a scrapbook relating to the campaign to build the stadium; the Mary Rose Kaczorowski Collection of Save the Oaks Material; various pictorial collections, including the Roland Letts Oliver Photograph Collection, Views of California Memorial Stadium, and UC Berkeley Campus Events; and publications including the Blue and Gold.