The exhibit will include diaries detailing the pre-Gold
Rush slaughter of grizzlies, the original manuscript of
Theodore Hittell's "The Adventures of John Capen" ("Grizzly
Adams"), and a map and journal detailing grizzly sightings
in Berkeley. Also on view will be a beautiful, John J. Audubon
bear illustration that more closely resembles a wolf, based
on a description by Lewis and Clark. Topping off the list:
the skull of the "Richardson bear," killed in 1894 in Big
Tujunga Canyon, with a bullet hole through its lower jaw.
One of the state's most visible and enduring symbols, the
California grizzly adorns the state flag and seal, and is
UC Berkeley's longtime mascot, celebrated with song and
statues, said Bill Brown and Susan Snyder, co-curators of
The California grizzly also "serves as a fitting microcosm
for the study of California history from the 1700s to the
present," said Charles B. Faulhaber, the James D. Hart director
of The Bancroft Library. "Through the lens of time, one
can view the brutality, ignorance, romance, guilt and 'redefinition'
that characterize our treatment of this icon of California
The grizzly, a largely vegetarian omnivore, is believed
to have once numbered 10,000 within the state. With the
arrival of European explorers, gold miners and others, however,
California's growing population forced the bear, with its
diet of acorns, roots and manzanita, from coastal areas
and lowlands into inland areas in search of food.
The bear became the target of hunters who killed the bear
for sport, to assist ranchers and farmers, or for simple
bragging rights. Spanish caballeros roped grizzlies, dragging
them into doomed public battles with wild bulls. Settlers
in the late 1800s shot and poisoned bears to protect their
The first report of a bear being shot to death came in
1769, when members of Gaspar de Portola's expedition encountered
grizzlies near present-day San Luis Obispo, in a location
they named Los Osos ("The Bears" ). Three years later, trying
to decimate the regional bear population, the group sent
9,000 pounds of grizzly bear meat to Northern California
missions to help keep inhabitants from starving after food
shipments from Mexico were delayed.
Few cooks - gourmets or anyone else - developed grizzly
recipes, as bear meat was not considered particularly tasty.
The last known grizzly was shot in 1922.
"As soon as the repeating rifle appeared in 1848, the grizzly
bear was essentially dead," said Brown, coordinator for
research and instruction at The Bancroft Library.
"It's a sad story. The grizzly was here for centuries and,
in a flash, he was eradicated," added Snyder, the library's
head of access services. "They were gone before people realized
what was happening."
In that era of Teddy Roosevelt-style trophy hunting, "the
passing of the grizzly bear was not mourned," Snyder said,
"at least not immediately."
"Few photographs recorded the grizzly in the wild, except
for several photos of dead grizzlies," she added.
Ironically, as the grizzly decreased in population, it
increased in symbolic import. It became the symbol of the
Bear Flag Revolt in 1846 and decorated the state seal in
1849. Newcomers to California may have feared the grizzly,
but admired it for its incredible size, power, beauty and
determined struggle to survive.
Highlights of the exhibit will include:
* A letter describing the 1887 shooting of the last known
grizzly in the Yosemite area. Its pelt later was sold to
UC Berkeley, where it remains in carefully-controlled storage.
* "California Grizzly," a 1955 book by Tracy I. Storer,
a UC Davis zoologist who also taught and conducted research
at UC Berkeley. It is considered the "Bible on the California
Grizzly," Snyder said.
* A John J. Audubon illustration of two grizzlies, based
on descriptions by explorers Lewis and Clark
* The campus's recently-acquired original manuscript of
Hittell's 1860 landmark biography, "The Adventures of James
Capen Adams," or "Grizzly Adams." It contains several hundred
handwritten pages and records Hittell's personal interviews
with Adams in the 1850s. Adams hunted and trapped grizzlies
and kept some as pets. He even trained bears, such as his
"pet," Ben Franklin, to walk with him down San Francisco
* Writings by naturalist John Muir about the grizzly. "They
would meet and respectfully walk away from each other,"
Snyder said. Muir also wrote about the hunter who killed
the last grizzly near Yosemite in 1887 and gave the pelt
to painter Thomas Hill.
* William H. Davis' diaries of the pre-Gold Rush slaughter
of grizzlies in the Emeryville area.
* An interview by Hubert Howe Bancroft (founder of The
Bancroft Library) with hunter George Nidever, who said he
killed more than 200 grizzlies in the 1840s and 1850s. A
paper used by Nidever for bear target practice also will
be on display.
* A 1772 map and diary by Franciscan monk Juan Crespi that
detail grizzly sightings along Strawberry Creek, which runs
through UC Berkeley.
Other items in the exhibit will include a Robert B. Honeyman,
Jr. Collection lithograph of a bear at the edge of a mountain
river; a portrait of a wig-wearing Mariposa man who lost
his real hair in a grizzly encounter; and a statuette of
"Oski," UC Berkeley's costumed mascot introduced in 1941
after the use of real bears at athletic events was discontinued.
Visitors will find an abundance of information about the
California grizzly bear, a religious, political, social
and economic symbol in the state for more than 100 years.
The Bancroft Library is working with several local museums
and other institutions around the state in hopes of taking
the exhibit on the road. Tentative plans are for the library
to show some of its materials, and for local institutions
to find Grizzly bear items within their collections to display
in joint exhibits.
"Bear in Mind" will be free and open to the public Monday
through Friday, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and on Saturdays from