Greetings from Davis: Views from Local Postcards

Before smartphones and social media, postcards offered a way to send pictures and short messages that recorded important parts of daily life. This exhibit presents a selection of local postcards which offer a visual history of campus and the City of Davis.

Peruse the display cases and you’ll discover street scenes, civic institutions, landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and campus buildings. The images capture aspects of the city and the campus that have changed or stayed the same over time. As you view the images, note how many places you can identify. How many of these buildings are still standing?

The postcards, which were produced during the decades of 1910-2010, are drawn from the following collections:

• D-473 John Lofland Papers
• O-001 Postcard Collection
• AR-181 Postcards of UC Davis

You can view digitized versions of these regional postcards, and others, below and at our Digital Collections site.

Then and Now

The photographs below show how examples of downtown Davis has grown and changed in the past century. All of the historical images are drawn from the Regional Postcard Collection, which features postcards of local scenes, attractions, and important historical events in Yolo and Solano Counties.

Souvenir Postcard

Visitors are welcome to take home a free souvenir postcard that was created for the exhibit!