Donna Taylor and her husband Dana donated their Fresno State memorabilia collection to the library.
See the video here.

The University Archives is a treasure trove full of unique items documenting Fresno State’s long history. It is not a hidden, dusty archive full of dilapidated boxes in some dark basement, but part of the newly remodeled Special Collections Research Center featuring an exhibit area, a research room and stacks on the fourth floor of the Library’s South wing.

It includes, for example, the plaque dedicating the very first building (the Administration Building, now called the Old Administration Building on the Fresno City College campus) on the Fresno School Normal School campus in 1916. It also includes a 1937 history of Fresno State written by Charles L. McLane, the first president and the minutes of the very first meeting on campus in 1911. The personal papers of every past president is represented as well as the papers of a number of faculty members and some prominent alumni such as Malinda Chouinard (co-founder of the Patagonia Inc.), Dr. M. Carolyn Dobbs (a pioneer of Special Education in the U.S.) and Virginia Sager Jansen (the first female student body president of Fresno State College). There are also historical records from various colleges/schools, departments, programs, student clubs and other units on campus. Information about all of these collections can be found online at the Archives website: http://scrc.lib.csufresno.edu/?page_id=44.

Covering the more modern era, the Archives recently received an extensive collection of Fresno State sports memorabilia from longtime Bulldog boosters, Dana and Donna Taylor. Donna recently retired from the Henry Madden Library, but throughout her working life she and husband Dana were faithful and proud supporters of Bulldog sports, basketball in particular. Dana served as president of the Tip-Off Club for women’s basketball as well as the Timeout Club for men’s basketball. He was also a member of the Bulldog Dugout Club and a trustee of the Bulldog Foundation.

Among the treasures in their collection were three ceramic figures designed by artist Joe Garcia for a series of fundraising dinners in the 1980s, a photograph of the beginning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game with Pete Verhoeven, dozens of collectible pins (and a special gold Bulldog charm from Roger’s Jewelers given to Donna from Dana), some embroidered Bulldog neckties, a basketball jersey, two ceramic bulldogs and a baseball that Donna got in Hawaii as a foul ball that she had all of the players and the coach sign. Many of these items were put on display in the university’s opening Centennial exhibit in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse in the Library during the month of September. Several of them will again be featured in the University Archives’ Centennial exhibit in the Special Collections Research Center from January to May 2011.

Perhaps most impressively, the Archives houses upwards of 20,000 photographs depicting the campus and campus life over the past 100 years. About half of these photographs have been scanned so far and will be available online at the Library’s eCollections site in the near future.

The University Archives has helped different departments and schools research their respective histories for the Centennial celebration. As the University celebrates its 100th anniversary throughout the year, the University Archives stands as a resource to everyone on campus and to our alumni throughout the world.

University Archivist Tammy Lau says she hopes that people think about the Sesquicentennial celebration to come in 2061 as well as the Bicentennial in 2111.

"What we save and preserve now determines what becomes part of the historical legacy of Fresno State and what our successors will have to research and use in the future," she says.

Please contact Lau at tammyl@csufresno.edu or at 278-2595 to donate all non-current, historical materials to the Archives.