Hubert Howe Bancroft

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Hubert Howe Bancroft bigraphy, stories - American historian and ethnologist

Hubert Howe Bancroft : biography

May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918

Hubert Howe Bancroft ( – 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.

Published works

Bancroft’s written works include the following:. Internet Archive (retrieved September 24, 2012)

  • Native Races of the Pacific States (vols. 1–5, 1874)
  • History of Central America (vols. 6–8, 1883–87)Bancroft 1887, , THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS SAN FRANCISCO, 1887
  • History of Mexico (vols. 9–14, 1883–87)
  • History of Texas, and the North Mexican States (vols. 15–16, 1884–89)
  • History of Arizona and New Mexico (vol. 17, 1889)
  • History of California (vols. 18–24, 1884–90)
  • History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming (vol. 25, 1890)
  • History of Utah (vol. 26, 1889)
  • History of the Northwest Coast (vols. 27–28, 1884)
  • History of Oregon (vols. 29–30, 1886–88)
  • History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana (vol. 31, 1890)
  • History of British Columbia (vol. 32, 1887)
  • History of Alaska (vol. 33, 1886)
  • California Pastoral (vol. 34, 1888)
  • California inter Pocula (vol. 35, 1888)
  • Popular Tribunals (vols. 36–37, 1887)
  • Essays and Miscellany (vol. 38, 1890)
  • Literary Industries (vol. 39, 1890) This volume gives an account of his methods of work.
  • 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)
  • Achievements of civilization; the book of wealth (1896–1905)
  • The New Pacific (1912)
  • Retrospection, political and personal (1912, 1915)
  • Why a world centre of industry at San Francisco Bay (1916)
  • In these latter days (1917)

Critique of production methods

Bancroft published a well-known group of local histories. Having formed a large collection of materials concerning the history of the Pacific coast, he then employed research and writing assistants to organize and produce statements of facts for large sections of a proposed general history. Originally he seems to have intended to use these statements of facts as the basis of a 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, it is more accurate to consider him as editor and compiler.The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21) (VOLUME XVII. Later National Literature, Part II: XV. Later Historians: § 27. Hubert Howe Bancroft.)

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, but Lewis H. Morgan was more critical, based on his newly published theory of Indian culture, in an article named Montezuma’s Dinner. Bancroft’s response to Morgan’s criticism suggests that he did not understand Morgan’s theory, which is now generally accepted by scholars.

Biography

Bancroft was born in Granville, Ohio to Azariah Ashley Bancroft and Lucy Howe Bancroft. His parents were staunch abolitionists. The family home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and is now a dormitory on the campus of Denison University. He 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.Hubert Howe Bancroft: Historian of the West. The Historical Times, Newsletter of the Granville, Ohio, Historical Society Vol. 9, no 4. (Fall 1997). In March 1852, he was sent to San Francisco, California, where he initiated and managed a regional office of the business. He also began his own publishing house. 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.