Dr. Orville J. Golub came to the University of California, Berkeley in 1937 as a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Bacteriology Department. As a Navy officer during World War II, he did research in the U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit #1, stationed in the Life Sciences Building on campus. Following the war, Dr. Golub spent two years in government service in Maryland, where he met some friends in the laboratory field and they joined together to open a scientific diagnostic laboratory in Los Angeles. Bio-Science Laboratories performed specialized clinical analyses for hospitals and physicians throughout the country. In the early 1960s Dr. Golub started collecting for the company museum antique microscopes, books, and other items of interest in the field of clinical laboratory science. Thus began Dr. Golub's love affair with antique microscopes, for which he searched throughout Europe and the United States to build his personal collection.

In 1995, the Golubs donated 32 antique microscopes from their collection to the Regents of the University of California as a gift to the Berkeley campus. In 2003 The Golubs donated an additional 16 microscopes; and in 2005 they kindly donated 46 more antique instruments. All are now on permanent display as The Golub Collection.

The majority of these microscopes are on display in the Onderdonk Lobby (East end, 2nd floor) of the Valley Life Sciences Building at the University of California, Berkeley.

See the displays

Locate Valley Life Sciences on the Berkeley Campus