University of California, Berkeley, CA. War Department image, 1/30/1919, (NARA ID 26428662).
PANDEMIC FLASHBACK! U-C BERKELEY, 1919
Often at the forefront of R&D, U-C Berkeley creatively responded to the “pandemic hair” challenge (circa 1919) with an “Open air barber shop.” Students, soldiers and staff traded overgrown locks and scruffy facial hair for the fashionable “high and tight.”
And yes, there’s been considerable debate about the location, with experts weighing in that the building was the re-roofed basement floor of North Hall, current site of the Bancroft Library (building façade matches Eastern side of the Doe Library’s North Reading Room, and windows match North Hall basement windows, shown in this 1912 postcard).
U-C Berkeley North Hall, 1912 postcard online.
See also: U-C Berkeley, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, used for housing WWI soldiers. NARA ID 26428782.
Vocational section of Student Army Training Corps, U-C Berkeley, student wires return call annunciator in the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering’s electrical lab, NARA ID 26428694.
“Famous for its Vietnam war protests, UC Berkeley is less-known for its long and unbroken tradition of military training and service. From 1870 until 1962, all male students received mandatory military instruction.” From Berkeley News.
