Picnic Day: By the Decade

Celebrating Picnic Day

The Picnic Day tradition started in 1909 with a “Dedication Basket Picnic,” said to have been suggested by Mrs. Carolee Shields, to honor the opening of North Hall, the first dormitory on the campus of the University Farm (now the University of California, Davis). Visitors came to inspect the University Farm and join faculty and students in a picnic lunch sponsored by the faculty. By 1911 Picnic Day was a firmly established annual event, a combination educational exhibit and annual spring festival. In 1914 it became a student-organized activity run by a special committee appointed by the Executive Committee of the Associated Students. After the opening of the Yolo Causeway in 1915, allowing thousands of automobiles to descend on Davis each Picnic Day, Yolo County for several years declared the date a public holiday.

Picnic Day has been cancelled six times in its history: in 1924 because of a statewide hoof-and-mouth disease epidemic that threatened livestock herds, in 1938 after the old classroom building was torn down, from 1943-1945 during World War II and finally this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

*Featured image from 1909 Picnic Day

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