Mapping 150 Years of Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is 150 years old this year. It was founded in 1868 through the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland. In 1873 the campus consisted of two buildings, the North and South halls. It is a little bit bigger today.

The Daily Californian has created a story map which allows you to view how Berkeley has grown in size from those initial two buildings. Building Berkeley consists of an interactive map and synchronized building chronology. As you scroll down through the building chronology the interactive map updates to show the building footprints as they appear in the chronology timeline.

The building footprints which appear in the current decade in the timeline are colored green on the map. Just select an individual building footprint on the map to view the building's name.

The University of Illinois began life as as the Illinois Industrial University. Established in 1867 the school’s mission was to extend higher education to members of the working-class. The University started with two faculty members and 77 students. Today it has over 47,826 students.

To accommodate this huge increase in student numbers the University has also needed to increase the size of its physical footprint over the years. A growth that you can now explore on the University's new website Mapping History at the University of Illinois. The project use historic maps, photos and interactive maps to explore and explain the history of the university and the growth of the university campus.

One part of Mapping History at the University of Illinois is a timeline map of the campus which shows how the campus has grown since its beginnings in 1867. This interactive map shows the building footprints of the campus' many buildings. The map includes a timeline slide control which allows you to show the buildings on the map by their date of construction. This timeline has playback controls which allow you to watch as the interactive map animates through the growth of the campus over the years.

A number of other maps in the Interactive Maps section of the site allow you to discover more about the history of the campus and the university's most important buildings. This section is divided into a number of story maps which focus on exploring the university buildings by the historic era when they were constructed.