open collections

Here for a Good Time, and a Long Time: Ephemera in Open Collections

Ephemera, by its very definition, was never meant to stick around. Defined as items that have been preserved despite the fact that they were not intended to be at their time of production, the term is used to describe commonplace paper objects like flyers, menus, event tickets, postcards, and more. Valentine’s card (1919) from the […]

“You Got to Speak Your Mind”: The 1960’s Berkeley Protests

In the 1960’s, tensions around free speech, civil rights, and the Vietnam War were growing at the University of California, Berkeley. Students were organizing politically and becoming increasingly emboldened in their expressions of outrage through civil disobedience. The 1960’s Berkeley protests represented the largest organized student demonstrations to date, drawing unprecedented numbers, producing tangible results, […]