Special Collections - Anteater Antics

Early UCI Campus

Pereira’s Early Campus Plans

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William L. Pereira, the UC Irvine architect went through several proposals for the UCI campus before a plan was finalized.  Some of the initial proposals in 1962-1963 added a bell tower in the center of Campus Park.   The tower, which was never built, was named “centrum.”  Several lakes in campus park were also part of an early campus plan.  These designs did not go through as proposed, but imagine how different the landscape would be if they had?  The University Archives has numerous photographs of  Pereira’s architectural models and campus plans.  Pereira’s project workbooks ( Collection # AS-127), which document the various phases of campus planning can also be found in the University Archives.

AS-061.  Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

A conversation with Schuyler Hadley Bassett: Revisiting the history of the UCI Anteater mascot.

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UCI Libraries, Special Collections and Archives recently had a chance to sit down with Schuyler Hadley Bassett and conduct an oral history interview. Bassett was part of UCI’s first freshman class when the school’s doors first opened in 1965.   Although he did not come up with the initial idea of the anteater mascot, he spearheaded the successful campaign that decided on the anteater. In this interview he reminisces and retells the story forty-four years after the mascot election, which occurred in November of 1965.    Here is a segment from his interview.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBnMcWKei4I&hl=en&fs=1&]

First Year at Camino Hall

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Camino Hall was one of the original residence halls of Mesa Court, the first resident hall community at UC Irvine.  In 1965, the first residents of Camino Hall constructed a scrapbook which documents their experiences during UC Irvine’s inaugural year.  Below are just a few pages from that scrapbook:

Camino’s First Years: Camino, Mesa Court, UCI. AS-068. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.