History of L&S: 1908-1950

Wyatt Pavilion
Wyatt Pavilion 1908
Picnic Day 1909
Picnic Day 1909

1908

The campus that would become UC Davis first opens its doors as the University Farm, the research and science-based instruction extension of UC Berkeley.

1909

The Farm School opens in January.

The first Picnic Day is held on May 22, and more than 2,200 people attend.

1922

For the first time, the campus offers a four-year program is divided into Divisions. Among them were the Chemistry Division and the English Division.

1925

Military Science Department is established.

1927

Mathematics and Physics Department is established.

Celeste Turner Wright
Celeste Turner Wright

1928

Celeste Turner Wright becomes the first regular woman faculty member and first Ph.D. in humanities at Davis and serves as the first chair of the Department of English.

1933

German is the first foreign language to be introduced at UC Davis.

In 1933, Edward B. Roessler is sent to Davis from UC Berkeley to develop the Division of Mathematics and Physics and to create statistical services for agriculture.

1937

Vernon Puryear is named chair of the Department of History and Political Science. In the coming decades, he would play an important role in planning for the College of Letters and Science.


1938

The campus is renamed the “College of Agriculture at Davis.”

1940

Division of Chemistry holds first patents for entire University of California.