Bancroft Library
Encyclopedia
The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library of the University of California, Berkeley
. It was acquired as a gift/purchase (November 25, 1905) from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft
, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. The collection consisted of 50,000 volumes of historical materials on the history of California
and the North American West, from the Isthmus of Panama
to Alaska
and from the Trans-Mississippi
West to Hawaii
, including the great Pacific voyages of discovery of Cook
, Malaspina
, Vancouver
, La Pérouse
, and Otto von Kotzebue
. At the time it was the largest such collection in the world, and remains so today.
In the 1950s and 1960s Bancroft added the University of California archives and the Regional Oral History Office
, both significant to the history of California. In 1970, under new director James D. Hart
(1970–1990), Bancroft's scope expanded dramatically when the University Library's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections was merged into it. These included the Tebtunis
Archive of ancient papyri, excavated by an Egyptian expedition funded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst in 1899-1900 and the largest such collection in the Western Hemisphere; the papers of Mark Twain
, the object of the Mark Twain Project, which since 1965 has been editing everything written by him; a large collection of medieval manuscripts, incunabula, and rare printed books from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries; and the literary manuscripts of such California writers as Ina Coolbrith
, California's first poet laureate, George Sterling
, figures associated with the Beat Generation
in San Francisco, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, Michael McClure
, Philip Lamantia
, Philip Whalen
, and William Everson
(Brother Antoninus), and contemporary authors such as John Mortimer
, Sean O'Faolain, Maxine Hong Kingston
and Joan Didion
.
From June 2005 to October 2008, the library underwent a total renovation and seismic retrofitting. Normal operations have resumed since January 20, 2009. The library's director from 1995 through June 2011 was Charles B. Faulhaber, professor of medieval Spanish literature at Berkeley. In September 2011, Elaine Tennant, a medieval and early modern specialist in the German and Scandinavian departments at the University of California, Berkeley, became the James D. Hart Director of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
Although the library itself is open to anyone who wishes to use it, access to some of its more valuable materials is restricted to researchers with a demonstrated need. The library website and the Online Archive of California offer access to online catalogs as well as to numerous collections in digital form.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. It was acquired as a gift/purchase (November 25, 1905) from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft
Hubert Howe Bancroft
Hubert Howe Bancroft was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote and published works concerning the western United States, Texas, Mexico, Central America, British Columbia and Alaska.-Biography:...
, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. The collection consisted of 50,000 volumes of historical materials on the history of California
History of California
The history of California can be divided into several periods: the Native American period; European exploration period from 1542 to 1769; the Spanish colonial period, 1769 to 1821; the Mexican period, 1821 to 1848; and United States statehood, which continues to the present day...
and the North American West, from the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and from the Trans-Mississippi
Trans-Mississippi
The Trans-Mississippi was the geographic area west of the Mississippi River during the 19th century, containing the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas, and the Indian Territory . The term was especially used by the Confederate States of America as the designation for the theater of...
West to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, including the great Pacific voyages of discovery of Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
, Malaspina
Alessandro Malaspina
Alessandro Malaspina was an Italian nobleman who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer and explorer...
, Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
, La Pérouse
La Perouse
La Perouse may refer to* Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a French naval officer and explorer,and the following places which were named after him:* La Perouse, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney...
, and Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
. At the time it was the largest such collection in the world, and remains so today.
Later history
Until the decade of the 1960s, The Bancroft Library continued to focus exclusively on the history of the American West, particularly the borderlands of northern Mexico and the southern United States, from Florida to California, an area associated with the research interests of long-time directors Herbert E. Bolton (1918–1940) and George P. Hammond (1946–1966).In the 1950s and 1960s Bancroft added the University of California archives and the Regional Oral History Office
Regional Oral History Office
The Regional Oral History Office is part of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. The office was founded in 1954. ROHO conducts, analyzes, teaches about, and preserves oral history interviews on a wide range of topics related to the history of California and the United...
, both significant to the history of California. In 1970, under new director James D. Hart
James D. Hart
James David Hart, CBE was an American literary scholar and professor at University of California, Berkeley for fifty-four years. He is most notable for writing The Oxford Companion to American Literature and A Companion to California.-Biography:Hart was born in San Francisco, California...
(1970–1990), Bancroft's scope expanded dramatically when the University Library's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections was merged into it. These included the Tebtunis
Tebtunis
Tebtunis is an Ancient Egyptian city. Its modern site is the village of Tell Umm el-Baragat in the Al Fayyum Governorate. It was also known as Theodosiopolis during the Greco-Roman period.-History:...
Archive of ancient papyri, excavated by an Egyptian expedition funded by Phoebe Apperson Hearst in 1899-1900 and the largest such collection in the Western Hemisphere; the papers of Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, the object of the Mark Twain Project, which since 1965 has been editing everything written by him; a large collection of medieval manuscripts, incunabula, and rare printed books from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries; and the literary manuscripts of such California writers as Ina Coolbrith
Ina Coolbrith
Ina Donna Coolbrith was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community...
, California's first poet laureate, George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...
, figures associated with the Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
in San Francisco, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, Michael McClure
Michael McClure
Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums...
, Philip Lamantia
Philip Lamantia
Philip Lamantia was an American poet and lecturer. Lamantia's visionary poems were ecstatic, terror-filled, and erotic which explored the subconscious world of dreams and linked it to the experience of daily life.-Biography:...
, Philip Whalen
Philip Whalen
Philip Glenn Whalen was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation.-Biography:...
, and William Everson
William Everson
William Everson , also known as Brother Antoninus, was an American poet of the San Francisco Renaissance and was also a literary critic and small press printer.-Beginnings:Everson was born in Sacramento, California...
(Brother Antoninus), and contemporary authors such as John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, Sean O'Faolain, Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
and Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
.
From June 2005 to October 2008, the library underwent a total renovation and seismic retrofitting. Normal operations have resumed since January 20, 2009. The library's director from 1995 through June 2011 was Charles B. Faulhaber, professor of medieval Spanish literature at Berkeley. In September 2011, Elaine Tennant, a medieval and early modern specialist in the German and Scandinavian departments at the University of California, Berkeley, became the James D. Hart Director of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.
Holdings and services
Bancroft is one of the largest special collections libraries in the United States. In 2009 it holds approximately 600,000 books, 55,000 linear feet of archival and manuscript collections, almost 8 million photographic prints and negatives (including the photographic morgues of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin and the San Francisco Examiner), and over 20,000 historical maps.Although the library itself is open to anyone who wishes to use it, access to some of its more valuable materials is restricted to researchers with a demonstrated need. The library website and the Online Archive of California offer access to online catalogs as well as to numerous collections in digital form.
Further reading
- Exploring the Bancroft Library, co-edited by Charles Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent, Signature BooksSignature BooksSignature Books is a press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D...
, Salt Lake City, 2006. ISBN 1893663183- Complete Table of Contents (Full title: "Exploring the Bancroft Library: The Centennial Guide to Its Extraordinary History, Spectacular Special Collections, Research Pleasures, Its Amazing Future & How It All Works")
External links
- Bancroft Library website
- Bancroft Library location
- Online Archive of California
- Radio interview of library director Charles Faulhaber on KPFAKPFAKPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
's Cover to Cover with Denny Smithson, March 3, 2008 - Teachinghistory.org review of Bancroft Library web resource California Heritage Collection