The Complete History Of The University Of Berkeley
The roots of the University of Berkeley go back to the gold rush in the 19th century when the farsighted statesmen dreamed of the idea of creating an educational institute that would serve more than California’s gold and add to the glory and happiness of the generations to come.
The University of Berkeley was actually a merger of two institutes – the private College of California in Oakland, which offered courses in Latin, English, history, Greek, mathematics and natural history, and the Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College. The former college had little funding but a desirable piece of land, while the latter was state-funded but did not have a campus by then. Hence the merger served towards both the schools’ advantage.
The university initially had about 10 faculty members and only 40 students in 1869, which reached to about 200 students by 1873. Due to this increase, the then UC President Henry Durant relocated to the new campus in Berkeley right next to the Strawberry Creek.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the University of California spread out to Los Angeles and beyond (with 10 state-wide campuses today). However, the Berkeley campus remains its flagship institution till today.