Report submitted to the President and Regents of the University of California upon the condition of She "Bancroft Library REUVEN G. THWAITES Superintendent of the Wisconsin Historical Library THE BANCROFT LIBRARY A REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE PRESIDENT AND REGENTS OP THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UPON THE BANCROFT LIBRARY BY % REUBEN G. THWAITES SUPERINTENDENT OF THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL LIBRARY BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER 14, 1005 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/bancroftlibraryrOOthwa ©*T2!SU 0 ir REPOST ON THE BANCROFT LIBRARY To President and Honorable Board of Regents of the University of California: —In accordance with your invitation, I have just completed a careful examination of the H. H. Bancroft Library, with a view to ascertaining its condition and, so far as may be, its marketable value, and beg leave to report as follows: The collection is contained in an isolated two-story brick building, apparently of slow-burning construction, near the corner of Valencia and Army streets. The building is said to be frequently aired; but I found it extremely musty— «r$nd while the library is still in good condition, another ^ decade of neglect in this environment will undoubtedly s work to the irreparable injury from damp of very much s of its contents, particularly in newspaper files, mounted . |f manuscripts, and volumes of pasted newspaper scraps, which £ classes of matter are peculiarly susceptible to the ravages of mildew and insects. I had read numerous published and manuscript descrip- o tions of this library, particularly the accounts thereof in Hubert Howe Bancroft’s own works— Essays and Miscel¬ lany (chaps, xv-xviii), and Literary Industries (particu¬ larly chaps, viii, x, xxi, xxiii). These had prepared me for a considerable collection; nevertheless, I approached the present task of appraisal with the fear that, although doubt¬ less important, the library had, in the natural enthusiasm of the owner, probably been over-estimated by him. But 15309 4 I arise from my examination with the firm conviction that Mr. Bancroft’s several statements have in no sense been exaggerations of the fact. In the main, his range of collec¬ tion was the vast region of the Pacific slope, from Alaska down through the Central American States; but he also assiduously collected material upon the entire Rocky Moun¬ tain district—Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado. Ari¬ zona, New Mexico, and Western Texas. There is also much material—of very great value, although not so inclusive— upon Louisiana under Spanish dominion, and most of the islands of the West Indies: the latter an interesting side excursion, of which no account has been taken in his pub¬ lished descriptions of the library. I take profound satisfaction in reporting that the collec¬ tion is found to be astonishingly large and complete, easily first Jn its own field, and taking high rank among the fa¬ mous general collections of Americana, such as exist at Harvard University, the Boston Public Library, the Library of Congress, the New York State Library, and the Wisconsin Historical Library. Mr. Bancroft’s services to American historical scholarship, in amassing this re¬ markable array of manuscript and printed sources, entitle his name to be mentioned in connection with those of Force, Draper, Sparks, Prince, George Bancroft, and other great collectors of materials for American history. You will, I am sure, hardly expect me here to enter into anything ap¬ proaching a detailed description of the Bancroft Library— such a task would require the dimensions of a bulky pam¬ phlet. You have but invited me to give you an appraisal, and this infers an account of the property couched only in general terms. I. MANUSCRIPTS. When soliciting the purchase of the library by the State of California, in 1886-87, Mr. Bancroft estimated that he had accumulated 1,200 volumes of manuscripts. This is. however, a curious under-estimate; possibly he included only those that w T ere bound. I think, however, that of un¬ bound manuscripts of importance, scattered through the library in shoals, there are sufficient to make perhaps an additional 200 or 300 stout folio volumes. These manuscripts are, as a rule, of the first importance. So wide is their range that it will be a difficult task even to classify them, and I can here convey but a suggestion as to their character. In the first place, there are numerous manuscript books, such as missals, service books, and early grammars and dictionaries of aboriginal languages. Many of these are valuable chiefly as curiosities—the sort of ma¬ terial suitable for a bibliographical museum, which of itself would obviously be desirable at the University. Also val¬ uable for such a museum are the numerous parchment broadsides—papal bulls and rescripts, governmental proc¬ lamations, royal edicts, land deeds, etc., many of them bear¬ ing rare and interesting seals. Such documents are often of much historical value, and many could be utilized in connection with the study of paleography, a branch of learning for which we have in our country a relatively small store of material, necessitating the treasuring of what little we possess. In manuscript material for direct original study of the particular field covered by the Bancroft histories, the collec¬ tion is surprisingly large. Extremely important in this de¬ partment are the archives of the Spanish missions. These are, for the most part, apparently careful transcripts of the original mission record books; but there are also many of the original records themselves;—for instance, those of the old San Francisco mission—and these are supplemented by numerous letters and other documents. So far as I can judge, from the amount of time at my command, the mis¬ sion records appear to be at least fairly complete. When to these manuscripts are added the vast mass of printed ecclesiastical material, in the Bancroft collection, it is seen 6 that from this library can for the first time be prepared that great desideratum, a satisfactory study—historical, economic, and social—of the Franciscan and Jesuit coast missions. Closely associated with the mission archives, for purposes of research, are the original presidio records, of which there is a large and interesting collection. There is also much manuscript material upon Spanish governmental and commercial affairs in North and Central America, and relative to the later Mexican regime. Ac¬ counts and letter-books of Russian, Canadian, and Ameri¬ can fur companies are numerous. We have here consular papers, originals and transcripts of diaries of early Ameri¬ can trappers, traders, overland pioneers, and gold hunters, and the log books of early trading craft—in fact, valuable miscellaneous papers bearing upon every phase of life in the Rockies and upon the Coast. Preeminent in this field, are the very remarkable collections of M. G. Vallejo (50 folio volumes), J. B. Alvarado, Thomas 0. Larkin, A. M. Osio, Juan Bandini, A. F. Coronel, Pio Pico, Manuel Cas¬ tro, I. M. Amador, and Benjamin Hayes—to mention but a few of those absorbed into the Bancroft collection—all of them incomparable store-houses of contemporary Mexi¬ can and American letters, accounts, and other documentary material, giving the very heart of California life during the Americanizing process. Obviously these will grow in value as the years pass. Of great practical importance, also, are several hun¬ dreds of the dictated narratives of California and other Rocky Mountain pioneers, some of them covering hundreds of foolscap pages. The historical investigator soon learns to view such personal statements with becoming caution, as generally prepared in the declining years of the narrators, as more or less colored by prejudice, and weakened by faulty perspective. Nevertheless, a fair conclusion may generally be reached in the court of history by striking a mean between the conflicting testimony of a cloud of wit- 7 nesses; especially when, running parallel to this, exists such a mass of corrective contemporary documents as is con¬ tained in the Bancroft collection. Most of the actors in the drama of Pacific Coast pioneering have now passed away, so that these apparently careful records of their own state¬ ments constitute, with all their possible error, a really price¬ less possession to the historians of this district. As incidentally illustrating the wide grasp of Mr. Ban¬ croft’s energy as a collector, I was interested in stumbling across several large bundles of important documents bear¬ ing upon the Spanish dominion in Louisiana, a field of collection distinctly out of his domain. In short, wherever one turns in the library, manuscripts of often very consid¬ erable value appear in bound form, tied up into bundles, or slipped into manila envelopes, until the searcher fairly gasps in astonishment at the enterprise and persistence of the man who could gather into his own possession so com¬ prehensive and far-reaching an accumulation of contem¬ porary records. These 1,400 or 1,500 volumes of manuscripts, of which about 600 appear to bear strictly upon California, are in fact priceless. I hesitate to place upon them a market value. To such an institution, however, as the Library of Congress, which aims at a general collection of Americana, it is, I think, a conservative estimate to say that they would be considered as worth at least $80,000; this would be ex¬ clusive of the dictated statements of the pioneers, which might appear to be of too local a character for an Eastern collection. But to California, the natural home of the Ban¬ croft Library, the value is obviously far greater—if you will, any sum available to that end. In my judgment it would be a serious blow to historical scholarship upon the entire Pacific Coast, for the State of California to allow this material to go elsewhere. The Draper Manuscript Collection, in the Wisconsin Historical Library, numbers but 400 folio volumes, cover- 8 ing the origin of trans-Alleghaney settlement, a field geo¬ graphically much more restricted than that represented in the Bancroft collection. Yet it annually attracts large numbers of graduate students in history, economics, and social science, involves a very considerable daily corre¬ spondence with genealogical investigators in all parts of the country, and has added immensely to the general repu¬ tation of the library. Wisconsin could probably not be in¬ duced even to estimate the marketable value of this unique collection, even were its sale possible; but rather than lose it, we should be willing to sacrifice any sum whatever, that the Wisconsin legislature might be induced to appropriate. From this statement, it will be seen that my estimate of the cash value of the Bancroft collection is conservative. II. GENERAL PRINTED SOURCES. Mr. Bancroft fortified his collection with a very consid¬ erable array of the great printed sources more or less affect¬ ing his wide geographical field. For studying the Old World roots of Spanish-American affairs, the library con¬ tains such important and expensive sets as are exampled by the Coleccion de los decretos y ordenes, the Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos, the Ueales Ordenes, the works of Men¬ doza, Las Siete Partidas, and the Biarios of the Cortes. These volumes are scattered through the library, but I be¬ lieve the stretches to be complete. The sets of United States government documents (chiefly in sheep bindings), Parly Laws, Congressional Globe, and American State Poppers, apparently are complete between 1805 and 1895. When it is recollected that the University of California’s set of these now highly prized publications is weak, and that Mr. Bancroft’s constitute, I should judge, among the best half dozen documentary collections in the country, the impor¬ tance of utilizing his volumes for filling gaps in the General Library will be appreciated. 9 I should say that the collection of leading Mexican offi¬ cial and historical sets is probably complete—it certainly is voluminous. His sets of laws, journals, debates, trans¬ actions of learned societies, etc., of Central America and the various American states and Canadian provinces within his field of collection, are generally in excellent condition; and there is also considerable material of this character bearing upon the West Indies and Brazil. Early voyages are prominent features of the Bancroft library. I find upon its shelves the numerous and costly sets of most of the great editors and voyagers: Malte-Brun, Hakluyt, Pinkerton, Saint-Martin, Pieter Yander Aa, Kru- senstern, Wilkes, Burney, Richarderie, La Harpe, Langs- dorff, Lisiansky, Kotzebue, Cook, Roquefeuil, Perit-Thouars, Beechy, Vancouver, La Perouse, Meares, etc.; and such other famous collections as the Annales des Voyages and Lettres Edifiantes. In short, this collection of voyages— works always eagerly sought by students of history—is undoubtedly one of the best and most valuable now extant in America. It was interesting, for instance, to find among his rarities the first (1625) edition of Purchas, his Pilgrimes, now worth several hundred dollars. The maps, atlases, and cosmographies are especially nu¬ merous. Not only does one discover here practically all of the celebrated geographies of the seventeenth and eight¬ eenth centuries, but there is a collection of some 1,200 loose maps, chiefly bearing upon the Pacific Coast of America and the Gulf of Mexico, that is surprisingly rich in rarities. In addition to these are the French and British admiralty charts, and the United States and Russian coast charts within the same field; also about 50 roller maps—state, county, and local—some of them early and rare. The collection of general printed sources, as above out¬ lined, some of which are available for the University’s Gen¬ eral Library, as distinct from the Bancroft Library, is prob¬ ably worth at least $25,000. Portions thereof could not now be bought in open market at any price. 10 III. NEWSPAPER FILES, PERIODICALS, TRANSACTIONS, AND SCRAP BOOKS. Newspaper files are among the most valuable sources for the economic, social, and political phases of history. The largest collections now extant in America, are those of the Library of Congress and the Wisconsin Historical Library —the latter containing 15,000 bound volumes, and the for¬ mer possibly a few more. The Bancroft Library embraces the equivalent of something over 5,000 volumes, of which 500 or 600 are already bound, the others being tied up in bundles upon the shelves. The majority of these journals range from about 1868 to 1886; but piled in an unassorted heap upon the first floor, are about three cords of miscel¬ laneous Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain papers, ranging from January 1, 1887, to about 1895. The California branch of the collection includes the earliest as well as the most important files; among them the California Star ' (1847), Alta Californian (1849-1885), Sacramento Daily Union (75 volumes, 1856-1871), San Francisco Bulletin (vol. I, no. 1, Oct. 8, 1865 through 1885), San Francisco Call (1863-1884), Californian (1847- 1848), California Farmer (1860-1881), Advocate (1864- 1880), and Chronicle (1868-1885). There are also upon the shelves such files as those of the Salt Lake Tribune (1871-1879) and Telegraph (1868) ; Carson City Nevada Tribune (1873-1880) ; Denver Tribune, Miners’ Gazette, Rocky Mountain News, Rocky Mountain Herald and Times, and notable journals in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. The sets of periodical literature are numerous and im¬ portant. Not only do we here find many of the standard popular and specialized sets, all of them valuable in filling gaps in the General Library, but there are a large collection of costly Mexican and Spanish sets, seldom seen in the United States. Among the 550 Mexican volumes of this character—many of them of an official or semi-official char¬ acter, and thus especially valuable as sources—may be cited 11 the Diario de Avisos, Le Vox de Mexico, El Universal, El Constitucional, El Mansage, El Pajaro Verde, El Eco Na¬ tional, Diaro Oftcial, and El Monitor Republicano. In this connection may be mentioned many valuable sets of transactions of learned societies and institutions in North and Central America, especially those containing monographs bearing upon the history, resources, and com¬ merce of the Pacific Slope. An interesting and eminently practical feature of the Bancroft Library is the collection of classified newspaper and magazine scraps touching upon its particular field. Some 300 volumes, prominent among them the Hayes Col¬ lection, are either bound or mounted on manila sheets ready for binding; and there are also large masses of similar scraps in loose form, thrust into manila envelopes. These scraps are an asset of considerable practical value to schol¬ ars, and in time should be carefully indexed for ready reference. I estimate the marketable value of the newspapers, pe¬ riodicals, transactions, and scrap books of classified printed matter, at $50,000. IV. EARLY IMPRINTS, AND OTHER RARE BOOKS. It is difficult to differentiate these from other classes in the library. Mr. Bancroft has collected into one tier of shelves some 400 volumes under the general label, ‘‘Bare Books. ’ ’ But other books, pamphlets, and broadsides, prop¬ erly coming under this head, are, under his alphabetical arrangement by authors, scattered throughout the library. However, considering only this special collection of rarities, culled by himself, we find them consisting chiefly of biblio¬ graphical curiosities, specimens of early Pacific Coast and Spanish-American printing, and material for the study of early linguistics. I have no reason whatever to doubt his published statement (see Literary Industries, p. 112), that these selected examples cost him from $35 to $800 each—a 12 value surely much enhanced since he acquired them. It would, I am sure, not be unfair to place upon them—al¬ though many of these examples would now be considered priceless by scholars—an average trade value of $50 each, a total of $20,000. V. MATERIAL IN SPECIAL FIELDS OF STUDY. This extraordinary collection is of course richest in manuscripts and in local history material—by local history, meaning the annals of the several states and territories embraced in the great region which he sought to cover. Nevertheless there is here a vast mass of data available for several other fields of human study, more or less related to history. In the department of American ethnology, par¬ ticularly the aborigines of the trans-Missouri, the Pacific States, Alaska, Mexico, and the Central American States, the opening of this collection to general research will be an incalculable boon, for there is much therein that has not heretofore been available. The study of American abo¬ riginal linguistics is certain, from the unlocking of this long-closed storehouse, to receive a new impetus. The col¬ lection will prove a revelation to scholars who wish to enter this broad field, for the mass of manuscript and printed material thereon is simply astonishing. We have here, also, opportunities for original research along many other lines —exploration, naval and military affairs, colonization, mis¬ sions and general ecclesiastical interests, political develop¬ ment, the first fruits of scientific inquiry, the beginnings of literature and other arts: in short, the growth of culture in Western North America and along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea, during four cen¬ turies of the civilizing process. This special material, exclusive of that previously enu¬ merated, I should consider worth in the book markets of the world, say $20,000. 13 VI. CALIFORNIA PRINTED MATERIAL. Much of Mr. Bancroft’s valuable material for the his¬ tory of California has already been alluded to under pre¬ vious classes, such as the priceless records of the Spanish missions and presidios; the mammoth collections made by Vallejo, Larkin, Alvarado, Hayes, and others; files of the best and now excessively rare California newspapers and magazines; the wealth of newspaper scrap books; and, bib- liographically curious, most of the first impressions from the earliest California presses at Monterey and elsewhere. There have also been previously touched upon the several hundreds of dictated narratives of leading California pio¬ neers—of great practical service, locally, but which I have preferred not to appraise as a cash asset, for the reason that they probably have small marketable value outside of the state. In addition to this great mass of manuscript and printed California sources, there is a surprisingly complete collec¬ tion of printed books and pamphlets relative to the state— journals and debates of constitutional conventions and legislatures, state and local public documents of every sort, books and pamphlets printed in California, travels and de¬ scriptions, directories, publications of educational and re¬ ligious institutions and learned societies, a shoal of state and local histories, statistical data in a hundred forms, mis¬ cellaneous leaflets innumerable, portraits of pioneers—in brief, practically everything printed in or about the com¬ monwealth, local or general. All of which is probably com¬ plete up to 1887, and fairly representative of later publica¬ tions to 1895. This comprehensive collection is of itself worth $50,000 at a low estimate; for probably no state in the Union, out¬ side of Massachusetts and Wisconsin, has been so carefully gleaned for historical purposes. The possession of this California material alone, places the Bancroft Library on a par, from the local standpoint, with the best state histor¬ ical collections extant. 14 VII. OTHER LOCAL HISTORY MATERIAL. The Bancroft Library is of course not as rich for any of the other states and countries in its special field, as for California; local opportunities for collection were obviously greater here. Nevertheless, so wide was the theatre of its owner’s activities, that the total mass of local history mate¬ rial outside of California—more particularly for Mexico and the Western American states, with rather surprising excursions into the West Indies—is quite remarkable. The Mexican material of this character is probably as comprehensive as could be found on the shelves of any one library in that country—possibly it is even more numerous. It appears to include all of the standard histories and chronicles like those of Zamacois, Orozco y Berra, Alarnan, and Bustamane; and such early chronicles as Bernal Diaz, Cavo, Clavigero, Cortes, Herrara, Las Casas, De Laet, Gar- cilasso de la Vega, Sortozano, and Solis. A collection of over 200 bound volumes of rare and often extremely val¬ uable pamphlets is noticeable as one feature of the Mexican department. In general, these local history collections are similar in scope and desirability to that already described under Cali¬ fornia, and the total bulk is naturally much greater. I estimate its market value at $55,000. VIII. CATALOGUES AND INDICES. Highly desirable assets in connection with the Bancroft Library are the several manuscript catalogues of and in¬ dices to the collection. To facilitate the preparation of the Bancroft histories, its owner had prepared by his as¬ sistants several ready-reference lists of this character. Dur¬ ing the quarter of a century occupied in making and using this collection, these labor-saving devices took on different forms, the fruits of accumulating experiences: 15 (а) A card catalogue of books, pamphlets, and news¬ paper files, is contained in a cupboard on the second floor. The size of these cards is not that now used by librarians, and the terminology is somewhat out of date; but for the time being, until a catalogue can be prepared along modern lines, this will be found fairly useful in the administration of the collection. (б) Two large blank-books, ledger size, contain a one- line finding-list of the library—Yol. I being an alphabet¬ ical arrangement by authors, up to about 1880; Yol. II, a supplemental list of like character, up to about 1882. (c) In a similar blank-book is a list of the newspaper files, with (in most cases) an apparently careful enumera¬ tion of the actual dates of the individual issues in each set. The entries are chiefly in lead pencil, and the arrangement appears to be irregular; but it is not difficult to use, and the list will be found serviceable in checking up the papers preparatory to binding and scientifically cataloguing. (d) Two large cupboards on the first floor are filled with a classified card index, under brief subject headings, to the principal contents of the books and pamphlets in the collection. This work appears to have been done with care and judgment. The cards approximate the present library standard; they can easily be arranged vertically in trays, and at once be made available to students. The preparation of this index has undoubtedly cost a large sum of money, and will prove an important time-saving inven¬ tion to those using the library. (e) Three large ledger volumes are filled with manu¬ script notes upon the cartography of Mexico and of the Pacific Coast generally. The method was curiously labor¬ ious—that of alphabetically recording every geographical name found on each of the old maps, and tracing changes in spelling, location, etc. For purposes of detailed carto¬ graphical study, of the analytic order, these painstaking notes are surely of considerable practical value. 16 (/) It was the custom of the Bancroft Library staff to prepare notes—sometimes in outline, but often in detail— upon all imaginable data that might possibly be needed in the histories they were writing. Generally these were upon strips of foolscap of varying length. After being used by the compilers of the books, this skeleton material was either mounted on manila sheets ready for binding, or stowed away in manila envelopes, upon which were penciled memo¬ randa as to the contents, the envelopes being also num¬ bered to accord with their respective subject cards in the index described above, under (d). These envelopes are to be found in all portions of the library. They should be carefully examined, and the slips preserved and systemat¬ ically arranged and perhaps mounted; it seems likely that in time they will be considered useful to many. ( g) Another form of rough note-making was the mount¬ ing of newspaper and magazine scraps upon manila sheets. Those thought by Mr. Bancroft to be worth binding have already been described under Newspaper Scrap-Books; there is still a considerable number stowed in manila en¬ velopes, together with the foolscap notes already described under (/). All should be preserved, and eventually ar¬ ranged in better condition. Despite the great cost and considerable practical value of these several manuscript catalogues and indices, in a working library of this character, they obviously are of little use save to the purchaser of the entire Bancroft col¬ lection, hence would bring small returns at any sale where¬ at the library were sold piecemeal. I have, therefore, thought it best not even to attempt to appraise them for the present purpose; it is sufficient if we consider them merely as desirable makeweights. NUMERICAL STRENGTH. Mr. Bancroft’s own estimate of the size of his Library, fifteen years ago (Ms. letter to A. R. Spofford, October 21, 1890), was as follows: 17 Printed books and pamphlets. 40,000 Volumes of newspapers . 4,000 Maps, atlases, engravings, etc. 2,000 Original manuscripts . 3,700 Copied manuscripts . 300 50,000 As he collected in a desultory manner for about five years after that date, his printed books and pamphlets now probably number 43,000. His newspaper volumes (bound and unbound) will, I think, number somewhat over 5,000. The cartographical estimate is substantially correct. But his estimate of the manuscripts perplexes me; for besides the very large collection of important unbound papers, we have some 1,200 bound volumes (generally stout folios), and these must contain far more than an average of 100 manuscripts each—I should say that there must be fully 125,000 of what may legitimately be styled manuscripts. DUPLICATES. It is quite impossible at the present juncture, prior to a detailed checking up, to arrive at any close estimate of the duplicates. Mr. Bancroft often bought large collec¬ tions en bloc, besides purchasing freely at auctions from such great Spanish-American lots as the Andrade-Maxi- milian collection (Leipsic, 1869), the famous London sale of the same year, the E. G. Squier collection (1876), the Caleb Cushing sale (1879), and the Ramirez sale (London, 1880). During the most active period of his purchases (1868-1882), he necessarily bought and otherwise accumu¬ lated duplicates, and these he several times weeded from his shelves. Some of the duplicates he placed aside, and marked as such; others, I have found still upon the shelves. Again, it is highly probable that the University General Library already possesses, especially of modern Califor- niana, many of the more easily obtainable volumes in the Bancroft Library. 18 The final checking is sure to reveal a considerable dupli¬ cate collection, among them some very great rarities. These will be of a character readily salable to libraries and other collectors of Americana. It is, in my judgment, a safe estimate to value them at $15,000—provided care is used, and time allowed, in disposing of them. Thrown into the auction room, or sold en bloc to dealers, they probably would not net more than half that sum. Perhaps I may be permitted, out of my own experience, to make the sug¬ gestion that the library could most profitably utilize these duplicates in effecting exchanges with other libraries, along the line of the Bancroft collection. Further, it will doubt¬ less be found desirable, in the administration of the latter, to preserve therein many volumes duplicated in the Gen¬ eral Library. RECAPITULATION OF APPRAISAL. I Manuscripts (exclusive of dictated narratives, unap¬ praised) . $80,000 II General Printed Sources . 25,000 III Newspaper files, periodicals, transactions, and news¬ paper scrap-books . 50,000 IV Early imprints and rare books. 20,000 V Material in special fields of study (not local history) . . 20,000 VI California material . 50,000 VII Other local history material . 55,000 Catalogues and indices .Unappraised $300,000 Duplicates available for sale or exchange, and to be consid¬ ered an offset. $15,000 If, as I am informed, Mr. Bancroft’s estimate still re¬ mains at $250,000, the same as in 1887, I consider it a moderate one for the present day; in all probability, it is based upon his knowledge of what the material cost him. But Americana is advancing rapidly in value; prices ob¬ tainable in 1887 might in many cases be doubled in 1905. And if, as I am still further informed, Mr. Bancroft now 19 offers to donate to the University the difference between his estimate of value ($250,000), and his asking price ($150,000), I am clearly of the opinion that the Bancroft Library is a bargain which, in the interest of Pacific Coast scholarship, should be taken advantage of. SUGGESTIONS. Assuming that the University will acquire the Bancroft Library, I trust that I may be permitted to close with a few suggestions relative to the future of the collection. A great library of this highly specialized character should, I think, be separately administered, as is the Presi¬ dent White Library at Cornell. It is going to take time, patience, and much skill to get this vast mass of material into good working order, available for the specialists who no doubt will soon wish to examine it. Library workers who are especially trained to the administration of maps, manuscripts, and other historical and economic sources, should if possible at once be placed in charge. Such a collection could not, in my judgment, attain its highest measure of usefulness in the hands of any not qualified in this department. The Bancroft Library will at once attract to the Uni¬ versity a body of graduate students in American and Span- ish-American history and allied studies, who are to find here a practically unique collection of material of the high¬ est order of excellence. Facilities for this sort of graduate work will be unsurpassed elsewhere in the United States. It would be wise, not only to keep the collection well abreast of the times, along its present lines, but, as means and op¬ portunity permit, to extend its scope, looking towards the eventual accumulation at Berkeley of a great storehouse of material for all of Spanish America, thus making this the natural centre of that vast and fruitful field of study, which as yet remains practically untilled. 20 The Bancroft Library may, under proper administra¬ tion, at once enter the field of historical publication, with results highly creditable to the University. In its great manuscript stores are documents that should, as speedily as possible, be given to the world. In the mission and pre¬ sidio archives alone, there is abundant material for a high grade of editorial work; these could be followed by the Vallejo, Larkin, and other collections of papers, bearing upon every phase of Pacific Coast life—Spanish, Russian, and American. The opportunity for scholarly work in this direction is, both in freshness and breadth, quite unex¬ ampled elsewhere in America. When asked to undertake this appraisal, I at once in¬ vited the expert cooperation of Mr. Frederick J. Teggart, Librarian of the Mechanics’ Institute, and a member of the University Extension staff. Mr. Teggart’s critical knowledge of early Californiana has been of the greatest value; I have throughout had his constant daily assistance in the difficult and somewhat strenuous work of examining the collection. I have also had welcome assistance from Mr. D. E. Smith, likewise of the University Extension staff. Respectfully submitted, Reuben G. Thwaites. Faculty Club, Berkeley, October 14, 1905.