Museum Treasures of Berkeley

After a short introduction to the history of museums and a museum-building activity, this course offers backstage tours to three UC Berkeley museums or archives. The main goal of the course is to come to understand what curators do: how they think about organizing and presenting their materials, what stories they hope to tell, how their work and collections are part of the research mission of the university, and what they do specifically to care for their holdings. Possible excursions include visits to the historical instrument collections including demonstrations on early pianos, to the Bancroft rare book collection, archive and hand-press print shop, and to the Berkeley Art Museum.

Faculty Bio

Thomas Laqueur is the Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at UC Berkeley. He writes about the cultural history of modern Europe and the history of sexuality and the body among other topics.

This is an In-Person Course

• Classes meet in person at the Golden Bear Center, Suite 365, at 1995 University Ave., Berkeley
• Class includes in-person tours of campus museums
• Limited to 24 members
• You must be a current OLLI @Berkeley member to register. Learn about membership, including our fee assistance program.

Schedule Highlights

• Course starts on Wednesday, April 30, and ends on Wednesday, May 21
• Classes meet for 4 weeks, 2 hours per session (1–3 PM)
• All course materials will remain available to view and enjoy in Member Dashboards through May 31