Visit Special Collections During Picnic Day Open House

Special Collections will be participating in Picnic Day as part of the Shields Library Open House. Shields Library and Special Collections will be open from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

On display will be selections from the Colby E. “Babe” Slater Collection. Slater, a 1917 graduate of the University Farm School (now the University of California, Davis),  won Olympic gold medals for rugby in 1920 and 1924. Slater’s daughter, Marilyn Slater McCapes, graduated from UC Davis in 1955. Her husband Dick McCapes graduated from UC Davis in 1956 and received a DVM from the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1958. The McCapes are this year’s Picnic Day parade marshals. Dick will represent Marilyn who passed away in 2012. Babe Slater is also being honored as a parade marshal.

On display in the cases in front of Special Collections is the exhibit, Maynard Amerine: In His Own Words. Amerine, a professor in the Viticulture and Enology Department, was an acknowledged authority on both the cultural and technical aspects of grape growing and wine making. Amerine left a legacy to the State of California and the world through the hundreds of students he trained who have become wine makers and grape growers. In addition to the exhibit, you can also view Professor Amerine’s 1973 class lectures for his course Sensory Analysis of Wine. These historic videos were recently converted to digital files.

Stop by to see these “snapshots” in the history of UC Davis. We hope to see you on Picnic Day!