Hubert Howe Bancroft

Hubert Howe Bancroft was born in Granville, Ohio on May 5, 1832. After attending the Doane Academy in Granville he became a clerk in his brother's bookstore in Buffalo, NY. In 1852 Bancroft traveled to San Francisco where he opened a regional office of the bookstore, and also began a publishing house. In 1868, having amassed a large amount of historical material, Bancroft turned the publishing house over to his brother and began writing a multi-volume history of the Pacific region of North America, employing many collaborators but overseeing the finished project himself. Bancroft died in Walnut Creek on March 2, 1918. His book collection was donated to UC Berkeley in 1905 and became the nucleus of the Bancroft Library.