Editing Hubert Howe Bancroft

{{short description|19th and 20th-century American historian and ethnologist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{Redirect|H. H. Bancroft|the botanist|Nellie Bancroft}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hubert Howe Bancroft
| image = Hubert Howe Bancroft.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = May 5, 1832
| birth_place = [[Granville, Ohio]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1918|3|2|1832|5|5}}
| death_place = [[Walnut Creek, California]]
| other_names =
| known_for = Early histories of the North American west
| occupation = Historian
| signature = Signature of Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832–1918).png
}}

'''Hubert Howe Bancroft''' (May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918) was an American historian and [[ethnologist]] who wrote, published, and collected works concerning the [[Western United States]], [[Texas]], [[California]], [[Alaska]], [[Mexico]], [[Central America]], and [[British Columbia]].

==Early life==
Hubert Howe Bancroft was born on May 5, 1832, in [[Granville, Ohio]], to Azariah Ashley Bancroft and Lucy Howe Bancroft. The Howe and Bancroft families originally hailed from the [[New England]] states of [[Vermont]] and [[Massachusetts]], respectively.<ref name=MWA>''[https://archive.org/details/menwomenofameric00newy/page/86 Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries].'' New York: L.R. Hamersly and Co., 1910; p. 87.</ref> Bancroft's parents were staunch [[abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] and the family home was a station on the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p535 |title=Bancroft House, The Council of Independent Colleges |access-date=June 12, 2016}}</ref>

Bancroft attended the Doane Academy in Granville for a year, and he then became a clerk in his brother-in-law's bookstore in [[Buffalo, New York]].<ref>Ann Natalie Hansen, "Hubert Howe Bancroft, Historian of the West", ''The Historical Times: Newsletter of the Granville, Ohio, Historical Society'', vol. 9, no 4. (Fall 1997).</ref>
[[File:Bancroft House (80003135).JPG|left|thumb|Bancroft Birthplace, Granville, Ohio]]

==Move to California==
In March 1852, Bancroft was provided with an inventory of books to sell and was sent to the booming [[California]] city of [[San Francisco]] to set up a West Coast regional office of the firm.<ref name=MWA /> Bancroft was successful in building his company, entering the world of publishing in the process.<ref name=MWA /> He also became a serious collector of books, building a collection numbering into the tens of thousands of volumes.<ref name=MWA />

In 1868, he resigned from his business in favor of his brother, A.L. Bancroft.  He had accumulated a great library of historical material and abandoned business to devote himself entirely to writing and publishing history.<ref name="appletons">{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Bancroft, Hubert Howe|year=1900}}</ref>

Bancroft's library consisted of books, maps, and printed and manuscript documents, including a large number of narratives dictated to Bancroft or his assistants by pioneers, settlers, and statesmen. The indexing of the vast collection employed six persons for ten years. The library was moved in 1881 to a fireproof building and, in 1900, numbered about 45,000 volumes.<ref name="appletons"/>

He developed a plan to publish a history in 39 volumes of the entire Pacific coast region of North America, from Central America to Alaska. He employed writers and wrote some of the material himself, though he credited only himself as an author. In 1886, the publishing establishment of A.L. Bancroft & Company burned, and the sheets of seven volumes of the history he had written were destroyed.<ref name="appletons"/>

==Personal life==
Bancroft's first marriage was to Emily Ketchum in 1859.  They had one child, a daughter named Kate who was born in 1859. Emily died in childbirth in 1869. In 1879, Bancroft married his second wife, Matilda Coley Griffing, with whom he had four children.<ref name=MWA />

Although he never graduated from college, in 1875 Bancroft was awarded an honorary [[Master of Arts]] degree from [[Yale University|Yale]] in recognition of his massive historical work on ''Native Races of the Pacific States.''<ref name=Summoned>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2232962/hubert_howe_bancroft_historian_is/ "H.H. Bancroft, Historian, is Summoned: Greatest Writer of California's Achievements is Stricken at Home"], ''Oakland Tribune'', vol. 139, no. 11 (March 3, 1918), pp. 27, 30.</ref> He was also elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]] in 1875.

==Death==
He died on March 2, 1918, at his country home in [[Walnut Creek, California]].<ref name=Chron>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2233469/hubert_howe_bancroft_historian_dies/ "H.H. Bancroft, Historian, Dies at Age of 85: Prolific American Writer Passes Away at His Home in Walnut Creek"], ''San Francisco Chronicle'', vol. 112, no. 47 (March 3, 1918), p. 1.</ref> "Acute [[peritonitis]]" was blamed as the cause of death in published
newspaper reports.<ref name=Summoned /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=RDP19180304.2.78&srpos=4&e=01-03-1918-11-11-1918--en--20--1--txt-txIN-Bancroft-------1|title=Riverside Daily Press 4 March 1918 — California Digital Newspaper Collection|website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SRPD19180303.2.7&srpos=9&dliv=none|title=NOTED HISTORIAN HAS PASSED AWAY Herbert Howe Bancroft Had Great Career and Succeeded in Spite of Difficulties Ul/ Associated Fret». — Press Democrat 3 March 1918 — California Digital Newspaper Collection|website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref> Bancroft was 85 at his death. His body was interred in the [[Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]] in [[Colma, California]].

==Legacy==
[[File:Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley - DSC04902.JPG|thumb|left|Bancroft Library – University of California, Berkeley]]
In the late 19th century, it was determined that much of the work of which Bancroft claimed authorship had in fact been written by others. This tainted his legacy in the eyes of some scholars, on the principle "false in one thing, false in all."<ref>{{cite journal | title=[[s:en:Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 4/The Origin and Authorship of the Bancroft Pacific States Publications: A History of a History (part 1)|The Origin and Authorship of the Bancroft Pacific States Publications: A History of a History (part 1)]] | first=William Alfred |last=Morris | journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly | volume= 4 | date=1903 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=[[s:en:Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/News and Comment number 1|Hubert Howe Bancroft obituary]] | journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly | date=March 1918 }}</ref> The ''Salt Lake Tribune'' called him a "purloiner of other peoples' brains" in 1893.<ref>Salt Lake Tribune, February 16, 1893 (as quoted by Morris, above)</ref>

The [[Bancroft Library]] at [[UC Berkeley]], reflects the collector's name. The [[University of California]] purchased his 60,000-volume book collection in 1905. 

[[File:Bancroft House, 9050 Memory Lane, Spring Valley (San Diego County, California).jpg|thumb|Bancroft House, Spring Valley CA]]
In 1885 Bancroft purchased a ranch with an adobe cottage located in [[Spring Valley, San Diego County, California|Spring Valley]], in San Diego County, as a retirement home. The [[Hubert H. Bancroft Ranch House]] is now a [[National Historic Landmark]]. In addition, part of a property Bancroft bought around 1880 in [[Contra Costa County, California]], later became the [[Ruth Bancroft Garden]], when three acres of the remaining farm land was given by Bancroft's grandson Philip to his wife, [[Ruth Bancroft]].<ref name="silver">{{cite book |last= Silver|first= Johanna|date= 2016|title= The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden|location= Portland, Oregon|publisher= Timber Press|isbn= 9781604696707}}</ref>

Several schools are named for Bancroft, including [[Bancroft Middle School (Long Beach, California)]], [[Bancroft Middle School (Los Angeles, California)]], Hubert H. Bancroft Elementary School in [[Sacramento, California]], Bancroft Middle School in [[San Leandro, California]], Bancroft Elementary School in [[Walnut Creek, California]], and Bancroft Community School in [[Spring Valley, San Diego County, California|Spring Valley, California]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lmsvschools.org/|title=La Mesa-Spring Valley Schools}}</ref>

Contrary to some sources, including Bancroft's own obituary,<ref name=Summoned /> Bancroft Way in [[Berkeley, California]] is not named for Hubert Howe Bancroft, but rather for historian and statesman [[George Bancroft]].<ref name="Hutchinson">{{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=Fred C. |title=Street names of the city of Berkeley |date=1962 |publisher=Berkeley Public Library |location=Berkeley, Calif. |page=15 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c034014185&seq=3 |access-date=17 September 2023}}</ref>

An archive of Bancroft family correspondence, collected by his daughter Kate, is held in Special Collections and Archives at [[Geisel Library]] at the [[University of California, San Diego]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = Register of Bancroft Family Correspondence, – MSS 39|url = http://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/findingaids/mss0039.html|website = libraries.ucsd.edu|access-date = June 7, 2015}}</ref>

''Recollections of Hubert Howe Bancroft and the Bancroft Family'', an oral history interview with [[Margaret Wood Bancroft]], widow of Bancroft's son Griffing, is held in the [[Regional Oral History Office|Oral History Center]] of the [[Bancroft Library]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bancroft|first1=Margaret Wood|last2=Hart|first2=James D.|last3=Smith|first3=Virginia M.|last4=Baum|first4=Willa K.|title=Recollections of Hubert Howe Bancroft and the Bancroft family : oral history transcript / and related material, 1977–1980|date=1980|publisher=Regents of the University of California|location=Berkeley|url=https://archive.org/details/margaretwoodreco00bancrich}}</ref>

==Published works==
{{wikisource author}}
Bancroft's written works include the following, with the 39-volume set of The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (pub. 1874–1890):<ref>''[https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Bancroft%2C+Hubert+Howe%2C+1832-1918%22 Historical Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft]''. [[Internet Archive]] (retrieved September 24, 2012)</ref>
* {{cite book|title=The Native Races: Wild tribes|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41070|volume=I|year=1875|publisher=D. Appleton}}
* {{cite book|title=The Native Races: Civilized nations|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42808|volume=II|year=1875|publisher=D. Appleton}}
* {{cite book|title=The Native Races: Myths and languages|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43123|volume=III|year=1875|publisher=Appleton}}
* {{cite book|title=The Native Races: Antiquities|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44104|volume=IV|year=1875|publisher=D. Appleton}} (Remains and Ruins)
* {{cite book|title=The Native Races: Primitive History|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45268|volume=V|year=1876|publisher=D. Appleton}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Central America. 1501–1530|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHl0AAAAMAAJ|volume=VI|year=1888|publisher=History Company}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Central America. 1530–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQ8TAAAAYAAJ|volume=VII|year=1883|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Central America: 1801–1887|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kw8TAAAAYAAJ|volume=VIII|year=1887|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 1|History of Mexico: 1516–1521]]|volume=IX|year=1882|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 2|History of Mexico: 1521–1600]]|volume=X|year=1883|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 3|History of Mexico: 1600–1803]]|volume=XI|year=1883|publisher= Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 4|History of Mexico: 1804–1824]]|volume=XII|year=1885|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 5|History of Mexico: 1824–1861]]|volume=XIII|year=1885|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=[[wikisource:en:History of Mexico (Bancroft)/Volume 6|History of Mexico: 1861–1887]]|volume=XIV|year=1888|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of the North Mexican States and Texas: 1531–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcZQAQAAIAAJ|volume=XV|year=1884|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of the North Mexican States and Texas: 1801–1889|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rgh1AAAAMAAJ|volume=XVI|year=1889|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Arizona and New Mexico: 1530–1888|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9gYAQAAIAAJ|volume=XVII|year=1889|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1542–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9gRFAQAAMAAJ|volume=XVIII|year=1884|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1801–1824|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bwUAAAAYAAJ|volume=XIX|year=1885|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1825–1840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MgITAAAAYAAJ|volume=XX|year=1886|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1840–1845|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgVFAQAAMAAJ|volume=XXI|year=1886|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1846–1848|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kL0UAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXII|year=1886|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1848–1859|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOoNAAAAIAAJ|volume=XXIII|year=1888|publisher=History Co.}} (the Gold Rush years)
* {{cite book|title=History of California: 1860–1890|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTAPAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXIV|year=1890|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming: 1540–1888|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jj4JAQAAMAAJ|volume=XXV|year=1890|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Utah: 1540–1886|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtJQAQAAIAAJ|volume=XXVI|year=1889|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of the Northwest Coast: 1543–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3gtAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXVII|year=1884|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of the Northwest Coast: 1800–1846|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwsTAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXVIII|year=1890|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Oregon. 1834–1848|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXoQAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXIX|year=1886|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Oregon: 1848–1888|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwZFAQAAMAAJ|volume=XXX|year=1888|publisher=History Co.}}<ref>{{cite journal | title=[[s:en:The English Historical Review/Volume 3/Review: The History of the Pacific States (Oregon)|Review: The History of the Pacific States (Oregon)]] |journal= The English Historical Review |year=1888 |first=John Andrew |last=Doyle}}</ref>
* {{cite book|title=History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana: 1845–1889|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0I6AQAAMAAJ|volume=XXXI|year=1890|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of British Columbia: 1792–1887|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vh9tCsWrjJ4C|volume=XXXII|year=1887|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=History of Alaska: 1730–1885|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQ51AAAAMAAJ|volume=XXXIII|year=1886|publisher=History Co.}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''History of Alaska'' by Hubert Howe Bancroft|journal=Science|date=March 26, 1886|volume=VII|issue=164|page=292|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015015749206;view=1up;seq=338}}</ref>
* {{cite book|title=California Pastoral: 1769–1848|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7sUAAAAYAAJ|volume=XXXIV|year=1888|publisher=Bancroft & Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=California Inter Pocula|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esVQAQAAIAAJ|volume=XXXV|year=1888|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=Popular Tribunals |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhU1AQAAMAAJ|volume=XXXVI|year=1887|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=Popular Tribunals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdFQAQAAIAAJ|volume=XXXVII|year=1887|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=Essays and Miscellany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9sYAQAAIAAJ|volume=XXXVIII|year=1890|publisher=History Co.}}
* {{cite book|title=Literary Industries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tsYAQAAIAAJ|volume=XXXIX|year=1891|publisher=History Co.}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(calbk195))|title=American Memory from the Library of Congress|website=lcweb2.loc.gov}}</ref> This volume gives an account of his methods of work.<ref name="eb1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bancroft, Hubert Howe}}</ref>
* ''The Early American Chroniclers'' (1883)
* ''Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth: Historical Character Study'' (1891–1892)
* ''Book of the Fair'' (1893)
* ''Resources and Development of Mexico'' (1893)
* ''The Book of Wealth'' (1896)
* {{cite book
|year=1913
|title=The New Pacific
|url=https://archive.org/details/newpacific01unkngoog/
|edition=Revised
|location=New York
|publisher=The Bancroft Company
|oclc=19919362}}
* ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Retrospection%20Political%20and%20Personal/sztDAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Retrospection, Political and Personal]'' (1912, 1915)
* ''Why a World Centre of Industry at San Francisco Bay'' (1916)
* ''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/In%20These%20Latter%20Days/NCksAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 In These Latter Days]'' (1917)

===Note on production methods===
Bancroft made use of [[index card]]s in the organization and compilation of facts for his lengthy and massive series of historical volumes.<ref name=Chron /> In the course of his organization of source material and writing, Bancroft made use of scores of research assistants, the contributions of some of whom amounted to the output of co-writers.<ref name=Chron />

Originally he seems to have intended to use topical sections of writing produced by his assistants as the basis of a broad narrative which he himself would write, but as the work progressed he came to use the statements as they were, with only slight changes. He said his assistants were capable investigators, and there is evidence that some of them deserved his confidence; [[Frances Fuller Victor]], in particular, was a well-known author. However, his failure to acknowledge each contribution created doubt about the quality of the work. Overall, although Bancroft considered himself the author of his works, in contemporary terms it is more accurate to consider him an editor and compiler.<ref>[https://mythebookofwealth.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/biography-of-hubert-how-bancroft/ "Hubert Howe Bancroft – Author or Editor?"], March 12, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2013.</ref>

Neither Bancroft, nor most of his assistants, had enough training to avoid stating their personal opinions and enthusiasms, but their works were generally well received in their time. Historian [[Francis Parkman]] praised Bancroft's ''The Native Races'' in ''[[The North American Review]].   Lewis Henry Morgan's essay, "Montezuma's Dinner,"  rebuts Lewis Henry Morgan's ideas about gradations of civilization.  In turn, Morgan's essay was based on Friedrick Engel's "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: in the Light of the Researches of Lewis H. Morgan."  Bancroft critiqued Morgan's understanding of stages of civilization and savagery.  Both Morgan's and Engel's ideas are most certainly antiquated and reveal a profound and mechanistic understanding of human development.

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Bancroft, Hubert Howe |volume= 1 |page= 204 |short=}}
* John Walton Caughey, ''Hubert Howe Bancroft: Historian of the West.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1946.
* Harry Clark, ''A Venture in History: The Production, Publication, and Sale of the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft.'' Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1973.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}

* {{Gutenberg author |id=944| name=Hubert Howe Bancroft}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Hubert Howe Bancroft}}
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?query=Hubert%20Howe%20Bancroft;idT=UCb106619391 Hubert Howe Bancroft family papers, circa 1835–1960] at [[The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=worksbancroft The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft]: The complete 39-volume set online

* [https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv96527 Robert E. Burke Collection.] 1892-1994. 60.43 cubic feet (68 boxes plus two oversize folders and one oversize vertical file). At the [http://lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/laws Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.] Contains Burke's background notes on H.H. Bancroft.

* {{cite book|title=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft|oclc=00166846}}
* {{cite book|title=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft|oclc=02539133}}
* {{cite book|title=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft|oclc=09592481}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancroft, Hubert Howe}}
[[Category:1832 births]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:American book and manuscript collectors]]
[[Category:Deaths from peritonitis]]
[[Category:Historians of the American West]]
[[Category:Historians of California]]
[[Category:Historians of Alaska]]
[[Category:Historians of Mexico]]
[[Category:Historians of British Columbia]]
[[Category:People from Granville, Ohio]]
[[Category:Writers from California]]
[[Category:People from Spring Valley, San Diego County, California]]
[[Category:Historians of Baja California]]
[[Category:People from Walnut Creek, California]]
[[Category:Academics from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Historians from Ohio]]
[[Category:Historians from California]]
[[Category:Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]]