The Californian/Volume 6/The Bancroft Historical Library
THE CALIFORNIAN
AND
OVERLAND MONTHLY.
A WESTERN MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
VOL. VI.-DECEMBER, 1882.-No. 36.
THE BANCROFT HISTORICAL LIBRARY.
Lofty purposes, great achievements, and grand natural or architectural objects require distance to give them the atmosphere essential to a proper view. A thing which is too recent or of too quick a growth fails to impress us as we are impressed by other things made venerable by time, and about which cluster the accumulated sentiment of passing ages. Could the Alexandrian library have escaped destruction until to-day, the wealth of Christendom could not purchase it.
With what veneration does the student regard an ancient manuscript in Hindostanee, Hebrew, Greek, or even in Latin, which was once the every-day topic or literary pastime of the men of its own day! Did we know the history of some of those priceless rolls, we might discover that the ignorance of the masses, or the rivalry of the few scholarly men of the time, made almost hopeless the ambition of the author to be recognized as the benefactor of his race or the historian of his people. Jeremiah the eloquent, whose scribe accompanied him to make copies of his lamentations over the perverseness of his generation, sold few copies, very likely, as he complains that a prophet hath honor except in his own country. The poet Job desired nothing worse for his enemy than to have written a book; and truly, an author who was obliged to go from door to door reciting his verses, or who must teach to public audiences, very much as a college professor lectures to his class, the contents of his manuscript volume, led a laborious life.
Yet the productions of the world's early brain-workers, which have survived the ravages of barbarian warfare and the vindictiveness of religious persecution-how high they stand! and how crystal clear is our perception of their truths and beauties, seen through the atmosphere of centuries of time, and without the belittling associations of contemporaneous rivalry or each day's needs! So great are the fascinations of objects seen through the rarified air of antiquity, that the modern, unless it be something absolutely new-if such a thing there be-affords us comparatively little pleasure, and elicits little interest. To be recent is to be valueless.
The littérateurs of a new State are liable to be snubbed or patronized by the littérateurs of the older States. To give interest to the fiction of California, for instance, it was necessary for a Bret Harte to represent its pioneers as a class at once peculiar and outré; as if all the men who were pioneers were not from the older States, instead of being indigenous to California; so that now the early Californians have passed into the literature of half a dozen different nations, as a people half-ruffians and half-montebanks; when every one knows that no new State under the sun ever possessed so intellectual, energetic, or educated a population; and that, with the exception of a brief period when a criminal class, following in the wake of the intelligent and industrious, made it necessary for the latter to organize for self-defense, nowhere on the continent was there a better-ordered city than San Francisco.
The glamour of the gold excitement passed away with the first fifteen years of marvelous growth, and California was simply a new State, with, for a new State, a large class of wealthy men with the habits of men of business everywhere. Then it became the reproach of Californians that they were money makers and money lovers only; that they expended their millions, more or less, upon fine houses and furniture, fine equipages and good dinners, upon visits to Paris, and fashionable ways in general, without contributing to the intellectual advancement of the Commonwealth. They were called upon to endow colleges, aid in the cultivation of the fine arts, and found public institutions.
While it may be true, since the rapid accumulation of money often bewilders the possessor as to its best use, that many of the rich men of California have been selfishly addicted to their own pleasures and to pleasing their personal favorites, still a comparison of the public institutions of California founded or assisted by private means with those of other States of the same age would probably show a creditable munificence on their part. Our colleges, literary and special, our Academy of Science, our State Library, our hospitals, libraries, and Golden Gate Park Conservatory, with many other helps to the public intelligence and happiness, refute at least the charge of parsimony.
Nor is California lacking in literary talent, as the fame of some of our authors who have gone abroad and the conscientious work of many who remain at home suffciently prove. Our scientific men are as alert and enthusiastic as those of the older States; and in the matter of art, it may reasonably be doubted whether any States except Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio have bestowed so liberal a patronage on painters, or sent so many young men to the art schools of Europe.
In the ordinary course of things, it is not expected that men engaged in the active pursuits of business should devote themselves either to art or literature. It is generally thought enough that one generation of men should make a fortune, another should devote themselves to self-culture, and the third should be prepared to contribute something to the world's stock of knowledge. To this rule there have been as many exceptions in California as elsewhere. One of the most notable of these instances of surmounting the obstacles which it usually occupies two generations to remove has been furnished by the founder of the Bancroft Library.
Hubert Howe Bancroft was born at Granville, Ohio, May 5th, 1832, his ancestors being of the stanch and stern New England stock who believed in and feared God, and knew the value of money and brains in the world. In his boyhood he assisted in the labors of the usual western farm, and studied assiduously in his hours of relaxation from labor. Fortunately he possessed an unusually fine constitution, which would bear almost any amount of strain put upon it. At sixteen he went to Buffalo, New York, and entered the employ of his brother-inlaw, George H. Derby, bookseller, who sent him, in 1852, to California to establish a bookstore. The times were propitious, Mr. Bancroft was untiringly ambitious and enterprising, and success crowned his undertaking in proportion to his efforts.
Being endowed by nature with the taste for literature. which urges most men similarly endowed into authorship, or at least into a professional career, Mr. Bancroft was wise enough to resist the temptation of risking all in the desire to follow this bent, and set himself resolutely to work to lay the foundation for not only a fortune, but some congenial brain-work outside of his business.
It is natural, perhaps, that, living in the exciting period of California's early annals, and witnessing the fascination which the unique experiences of that time exercised upon all minds alike, he should have his mind drawn toward history—the history of California. In 1856 he commenced collecting authorities on this subject, partly with a view to historical writing in the future, and partly to aid him in the preparation of certain publications issued by the firm.
Once begun, there was no limit to the desire to accumulate further information, and every book added to the collection was another suggestion of the use to which they should be put. Instead of being confined to merely local or Californian subjects, his library soon contained books of every kind of information about the adjacent countries; and then of the whole Pacific coast.
Having gained so much, he saw the value of completing his library with works of greater rarity; and not only himself traveled for that purpose in the Eastern States and Europe, but had his agents in all parts of the world, who watched the sales of private or rare collections, and sent him the catalogues, from which he selected the matter desired for his historical library.
The first great addition in bulk to the miscellaneous mass of books gathered up concerning the history of the Pacific coast was three thousand volumes from the Maximilian Library of Mexico. This lot was selected from the catalogue furnished by an agent; the Maximilian Library being a collection of books on Mexican and Spanish history and other subjects, which had employed Señor J. M. Andrade a life-time to collect from every conceivable quarter, and which that unfortunate emperor had purchased to found an imperial library for Mexico. On the close of his career they were smuggled out of the country, and offered for sale in Europe.
At a much later date the collection of José Fernando Ramirez, curator of the National Library of Mexico, and author of several important works, was also sold in London; and again Mr. Bancroft's agent purchased a considerable portion of it. Five hundred volumes were also collected in Mexico by Porter C. Bliss, Secretary of the United States Legation, for Mr. Bancroft's library. Among the various collections from that quarter are many venerable and curious books and valuable manuscripts.
To the manuscripts were added many from the Squier collection, as well as from a number of others sold at various times. Anything like a catalogue within the compass of this article would be inadmissible, if it were not useless and tiresome. It is perhaps sufficient to say that some of the manuscripts in the Central American and Mexican departments of the Bancroft Library were written in Latin nearly four hundred years ago; while aboriginal hieroglyphics are of much earlier date. One of the earliest original manuscripts in Latin is a pastoral letter of Joannes de Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico, who was appointed by Charles V., the date of which is 1534; though this is not the oldest manuscript in the library.
The historical value of some of these writings is nothing. They only serve to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, to know how certain things were done at a certain period of the world's history, and are simply classed as "rare." One of these is the Moralia S. Gregorii Pape, in thirty-five books, in doubled-lined Latin text, the lettering being small, close, and even; the margin bearing frequent references, in the Greek style. The running-title is in blue Roman numerals, with red tracery; the chapter divisions are marked in black Arabic; and Arabic figures in red are used to number the lines. The books begin with large blue head-pieces, ornamented with a delicate tracing of red and blue; small initials of the same description commencing the rare paragraphs, and every sentence beginning with a red letter; even the index is profusely decorated—all exhibiting the patience and skill of the monkish copyists; the whole being upon vellum, bound in parchment-covered pasteboards, bearing on the cover an emblazoned shield.
Among these illuminated manuscripts are the Colegio de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas, Escripta de Protestacion, dazzlingly illustrated in colors, and contained in parchment covers, fastened with thongs. A more beautifully decorated manuscript is the Angeles, Grandeza y Excelencia de los siete principes, a series of prayers and allegories on heaven and its inhabitants, with an octo-syllabic ode in triple measure and assonant rhyme; as also the Sermones, in Festis, executed in the sixteenth century.
Less ornate manuscripts of the religious class are furnished by the Obra of the Canon Conde y Oquiendos, in two volumes, on the apparition of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe; the treatise of Frey Hieroni Baptista on the canons regulating marriage; Amadei Apocalypsis, a folio collection of sermons, hymns, and allegories; and Fray J. de Schevelar, Questiones Sobre la Regla de San Francisco. The value of these books to the historian is merely in the illustrations they furnish of the religious devotion and bigotry of their age, and of the state of the arts at the same period.
But other manuscripts are of absolutely inestimable worth to the historical student. Of these, the principal ones are four large volumes of the Concilios Provinciales Mexicanos, which are the original records of the proceedings of the first three ecclesiastical councils of Mexico, held in the sixteenth century. These volumes contain petitions and communications on civil as well as religious affairs, and the decrees of the church by which secular affairs were regulated in Spanish North America, together with autographs and seals of sovereigns, church dignitaries, and other prominent men in civil offices.
The autographs contained in the manuscript collections are an attractive and intrinsically valuable feature. Among them are the signatures of Queen Juana, of Philip II., of his viceroy, of the first bishop of Mexico, and other prelates, with very many more historical personages, interesting from association, and curious as to caligraphy and rubricas. Among later autographs is that of the celebrated primate Lorenzana, and his five episcopal coadjutors.
Only less interesting are many specimens of the earliest American printing; such as a Zumarraga Doctrina Christiana of 1546, a Papal Bull of 1568, a Molina Vocabulario of Castilian and Mexican, printed in Mexico in 1571, and fifty or sixty other works printed in the sixteenth century.
It would be interesting to know through what strange vicissitudes of government, or gross carelessness of the priestly class in Mexico, this national treasure fell into the hands of a collector, and was finally offered for sale in Europe; and perhaps on this point Mr. Bancroft's forthcoming history of Mexico may enlighten us.
That division of che Bancroft Library bearing on the political history of Mexico and Central America is rich in early originals and copies of documents, many of the former having belonged to the Imperial Library, and the latter having been obtained from the archives of Spain and elsewhere. Zurita, Brebe y Sumaria Relacion, of 1554, in parchment binding, is a dissertation on the tribute system before and after the conquest, addressed to the king by this oédor. The Libro de Cabildo relates to the municipal acts of the city of Mexico from 1524 to 1529, and includes the names of the early settlers. Duran's Historia de las Indias de la Nueva España, in three tratados, treats of the ancient history and customs of the natives; as also much of the older Historia Apologetica and Historia de las Yndias of Las Casas. Another work during the sixteenth century on Nicaragua and Honduras, is a collection of Cerezeda's letters to the king, dated from 1529 to 1533; to which may be added the historical writings of Mujioz, Velasco, and Coronado, from 1545 to 1562. A large number of documents, consisting of reports and journals by priests and officials, relating to la Historia Ecclesiastica y civil de la Nueva Viscaya, Materiales para la Historia de Sonora, and Documentos para la Historia de Texas, collected from the archives of Mexico, furnish invaluable material for the history of that portion of the Mexican territory.
Coming down to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the number of historical documents of value is greatly augmented. The Memorias de Mexico is a collection on the history of the city of Mexico, especially referring to the foundation of her convents, illustrated with a plan of the city, dated 1618. Another municipal history is Alcala, Descripcion de Puebla, carried down to 1769, containing a full account of its edifices, interspersed with odes and sonnets, and illustrated with a map of the district in colors. Rivera, Diario Curioso contains the chronicles of Mexico from 1676 to 1696, witha preface by the hand of Bustamante, to whom the librarian of the University of Mexico presented it, with an unaccountable disregard of its value to that institution. Bustamante, however, had the liberality to publish it in 1843, in the Museo Mexicano, with a preface by himself. He also wrote a preface to another Diario by Gomez, of events from 1776 to 1798. An archive of curious biographies is the Mexico Archivo General, which contains, among other histories, the Vida de Beatriz de Silva, founder of the order of Primera Concepcion.
The Cronica de la Provincia de S. Pedro y S. Pablo de Mechoacan from 1522 to 1575, by Beaumont, is the result of extensive research by a man of the world turned friar; and the Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva Galicia, by Mota Padilla, 1740, is a manuscript history of those provinces. The original of the latter is said to exist in the Biblioteca del Carmen; but several copies have been made, one of which is in the Bancroft Library; and two printed editions have been published: one in El Pais, a periodical of 1856; and one in book form by the Mexican Geographical Society. The author of Nueva Galicia was another man of the world, who, after being fiscal to the Audiencia of Guadalajara, and incumbent of other civil offices, turned churchman, and devoted himself to study.
The Representacion Politico Legal of Aumada, advocate of the Mexican Audiencia, is a plea for the free admission of Spanish Indians to secular and ecclesiastical offices. A similar plea is the Representacion Umilde of 1771, by the Ayuntamiento of the capital. In Adalid, Causa Formada, 1815, three volumes bound in parchment, is found the trial of prominent supporters of the insurgents in Mexico. 'The proceedings of a similar trial are found in Extracto de la Causa of Matoso; and other matters concerning the revolutionary period of 1812 to 1821 in Orizaba, is found in Ovizava Libro Noticioso, an original diary, with a preface by Carlos Maria Bustamante, the most prolific historical writer of Mexico. He was not only a lawyer and editor, but joined the revolutionary party, and was elected deputy from his native province of Oajaca, and at one time president pro tem. of the Mexican Congress. From 1836 to 1841 he was one of the five conservadores of supreme power in the republic of which his brother was president. Nearly all the important original manuscripts left by him are in the Bancroft Library.
It was during these revolutionary times that so much of value to the history of Mexico became scattered. 'The manuscript Descripcion de Darien, a report by its governor, Remon, to the viceroy, the most complete statement known, was found among a pile of waste paper ina store in Bogota, and sent to Mr. Bancroft by a friend. Many writings of this kind had been turned over to the cartridge makers.
Of standard works on Spanish history, the library contains, besides those referred to, those of Cortés, Bernal Diaz, Mendieta, Motolinia, Sahagun, Torquemada, Acosta, Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, Herrera, Betancourt, Remesal, Beaumont, Cogolludo, Villa Gutierre, Burgoa, Clavigero—all in good editions, either original or copies, and many in several editions and translations.
Of works devoted to the history of the native races, there may be mentioned the writings of Garcia, Ixtlilxochitl, Camargo, Tezozomoe, Boturini, Veytia, and Leon y Gama. Of works on antiquities, those of Kingsborough, Waldeck, Dupaix, Del Rio, Cabrera, Stephens and Catherwood, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Nebel, and Charnay. On the early voyages and explorations, with their correlative history, may be cited, first, Grynzus, Ramusio, Hakluyt, and Purchas; and secondly, Churchill, Pinkerton, Aa, Godfriedt, Navarrete, Ternaux-Campans, Pacheco, and Icazbalceta. Of the northwest coast and its early history, the most valuable are by Ribas, Mota Padilla, Alegre, Arricivita, Kino, Salvatierra, Venegas, Clavigero, Bzgert, Salmeron, Palou, Fages, Mofras, Voyage of the Sutil y Mexicana, Cabrera Bueno, Forbes, Greenhow, and others.
In addition to this mass of material, are many thousands of pamphlets—five thousand in a single collection made in Mexico on government and other matters—and periodicals and publications of learned societies, besides the works of such modern writers as Humboldt, Buschman, Prescott, Irving, Alaman, Orozco y Berra, Stephens, and Squier, to which might be appended an almost innumerable list of books of miscellaneous matter, bearing in some degree on the character of history or the natural resources of the vast area of country constituting the Pacific States; and it is doubtful if any library in the world contains more or better authorities on the Spanish states in North America.
The material for the history of California in the Bancroft Library—over and above all the thousands of written and printed books—of a comparatively and of a really modern date is as unique and interesting as the earlier portions. This consists of mission archives, biographical sketches, and early reminiscences, to the number of several hundred volumes, including the Vallejo collection of original documents, in thirty-seven volumes; the Hayes collection of originals, copies, and maps, in one hundred volumes; documents from the archives of the Bandini, Castro, and Pico families; the Larkin collection of official papers; manuscript histories of California, written from the personal recollection and private memoranda of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Don Juan Bandini, Captain Jose Fernandez, Colonel Manuel Castro, Governor Juan B. Alvarado, and Captain John A. Sutter, with historical reminiscences in manuscripts by hundreds of the earliest American settlers in California.
In obtaining these materials, which are of the greatest advantage to the historian, Mr. Bancroft either went himself or sent an assistant to every old mission, and interviewed every prominent family of Spanish or Mexican origin. At some of these places the original documents were easily procured; at others persuasion procured permission to make copies; and at others money proved the open sesame. It was in this personal manner that Judge Hayes, the enthusiastic collector, gathered up the hundred volumes of matter that passed into Mr. Bancroft's hands. The passion for historical research is one that, when it gets possession of an individual, never leaves him, but presses him ever onward.
But it was not manuscripts alone for which the collector plied the possessor of historical material The vast bulk of unprinted originals was supplemented by a vaster bulk of newspaper files, United States Government documents, and printed matter of every description, including costly reports in now rare sets of quarto volumes. The collection for the history of California is absolutely complete; and it should be regarded as of the greatest importance to the State, not only that such a collection exists, but that there exists in its owner a man with the high ambition to extract from it, with infinite labor and ample resources, a perfectly accurate as well as thoroughly creditable history of the country from the earliest times to the present—an advantage no other State of any nation has ever possessed.
The same system as above described has been pursued in obtaining material for the history of the other States. The government of Central America has contributed a voluminous amount of matter to that before in the library. Pinart and Petroff have brought to the library, from St. Petersburg, collections of great value to the history of Alaska, which have been augmented by Mr. Petroff's recent labors in examining the government archives at Washington.
For the history of British Columbia, besides every printed book on the subject, a large number of manuscrips have been furnished by gentlemen formerly in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, the earliest pioneers of that region. These Mr. Bancroft obtained by a personal visit to Vancouver's Island in 1878.
For the history of Oregon and Washington Territory he secured the collection of Hon. Elwood Evans, the most comprehensive yet made of historical data for that region, besides the extensive correspondence of Mrs. Victor with the pioneers of Oregon, a partial collection by United States District Judge M. P. Deady, manuscript contributions by Judge William Strong, Judge P. P. Prim, Judge J. Q. Thornton, General Joseph Lane, Hon. Jesse Applegate, Hon. J. W. Nesmith, and sixty other of the earliest settlers and men of affairs in that portion of the Pacific coast. Even Idaho and Montana have furnished some original matter; but that territory is not yet thoroughly explored.
Next comes Utah, from which portion of the field the matter for modern history is complete. By the courtesy of President Taylor and the Council of Twelve, the entire documentary library of the church of Latter Day Saints and the Territory of Utah has been placed in Mr. Bancroft's hands to search and copy at his pleasure; while Mr. Richards, one of the foremost men in the Territory, has been at much trouble to personally answer questions upon any and all topics, his replies being taken down bya reporter for the shelves of the library.
For each one of the States and Territories newspaper files have been gathered, until they aggregate four hundred in number, and make over four thousand volumes. United States Government documents, numbering two thousand volumes, are here to be drawn upon for the Congressional history of the several States; while scrap-books of choice information, and pamphlets on every subject germane to the history, swell the enormous mass of material, amounting in all to over thirty-five thousand books, maps, and manuscripts.
As the library grew upon his hands, Mr. Bancroft removed, first from Montgomery, near Merchant, to Market Street, in 1869, and again in 1881 to Valencia Street. On Montgomery and Market Streets the books were kept in the topmost story of the building, in which was carried on the business of the bookselling and publishing concern: but on finding himself crowded by the encroachments of a constantly enlarging trade, and being in dread of the possible loss by fire of his costly collections (representing several hundred thousand dollars in money, not to mention their greater value to him as the result of twenty-five years of persistent effort), Mr. Bancroft decided to erect a special depository on Valencia Street, which, being of brick, with iron doors and shutters, and standing in the center of a large lot, surrounded by grass and shrubbery, should be almost absolutely safe from conflagration.
The interior arrangement of the library is good, being well lighted, well ventilated, and cheerful in aspect. 'The lower floor is devoted to the heavier classes of books, and to maps and newspaper files; the upper floor to a literary work-shop, the walls of which are covered from floor to ceiling with books arranged upon a plan which enables the librarian at a moment's notice to take down any volume that may be called for. On the upper floor, also, are a few private rooms: one the special study of Mr. Bancroft, another occupied as a study by the only lady assistant, and two apartments for the use of two gentlemen who reside in the building.
The history of the Bancroft Library would, if suffered to end here, leave the reader still uninformed of its most remarkable feature—its success in enabling its founder to carry out his literary aspirations. In the incipiency of his undertaking, Mr. Bancroft entertained the idea of contenting himself with writing upon several minor topics; but when he beheld the value and extent of his material, he was dissatisfied to garble it in the manner proposed, and relinquished that idea. He then withdrew himself from the cares of business as much as possible (though never able to do so entirely), and set himself to write the "History of the Pacific," from Darien to Alaska.
Upon beginning at the first appearance of Europeans on any part of the coast, he found himself invariably confronted by the aboriginal population, whom he could neither ignore nor properly represent without making a special study of ethnology. To the examination of this subject he then applied himself, purchasing all the authorities most valuable on the history, antiquities, religion, manners, and customs of the original inhabitants of the North American continent, and with the help of a number of assistants in reducing to form and established limits an enormous mass of facts, produced in a few years his "Native Races," in five volumes.
The work, which was well received by the learned and students throughout the world, was good training, both for Mr. Bancroft and those associated with him in the labor of extracting from many thousands of authorities exactly the matter required for the greater work of the "History of the Pacific States." Byasystem of indexing, which has been brought to great perfection, as before stated, anything in the library, from a single sheet to a heavy quarto, is known with certainty to the librarian. By a system of note taking or references, which places all the material on a certain subject in one budget under its proper date, the writer is enabled to compare at once all his authorities on that subject, and is prepared to judge of the credibility of his witnesses by the weight of his evidence.
It is safe to assert that no historical writing was ever done under better conditions. A large corps of readers has gone over the whole collection. Their notes constitute the indexes just mentioned. The secretary, who first reduces the matter contained to something like form, saves the author considerable labor in that part of the work, the plan being one to which all those doing similar work conform, under his direction. Both references and abstracts pass examination, and are compared with the originals, to prevent mistakes or erroneous inferences.
No history was ever attempted that dealt so much with the beginnings of things, this being one of its most attractive features. The men who made the history of the country, be they ever so humble, have their proper place, and are preserved like flies in amber, for the view of generations yet unborn, who will look upon the pioneers of the Pacific coast with as much wonder as we of the nineteenth century regard the founders of Athens or Rome; but will know a good deal more about them than we do of the early Greeks and Romans, and a good deal more than we do about the early kings of Great Britain or the founders of the New England colonies. In these volumes, the descendants of the native sons of the Golden West in the generations to come may look for their ancestry, and will take the same pride in them that the descendants of the Randolphs of Virginia or the Standishes of Massachusetts take in theirs.
From this point of view, too much importance cannot be attached to the library which Mr. Bancroft has collected, nor to the work to which he is devoting his life, together with the faithful co-workers who deserve well of the public for conscientious application to a really serious, long-continued, and laborious task; albeit, it is with Mr. Bancroft and his assistants a labor of love.As to the motive which prompts this effort, some call it love of fame, but it is, in truth, love of the work. But if it were for fame? It must be good and conscientious work to bring fame. A man has a just right to take to himself credit for having carried to successful completion a noble enterprise; for having done something which in the nature of things must benefit others. His love of approbation is his point d'appui, in undertaking at his own risk that which if he failed in doing would involve him in heavy loss of money arid reputation. It is a sort of highwayman's spirit which says to a man who is doing all that is possible to earn the praise of his fellow-men, that he shall renounce the pleasure of fame or the profits of his investment, whether it be in money, or the approbation of the public, or both.
If any man in California who is worth a million of dollars should devote half of it at his death to the establishment of an institution for the development of special talents in the people, the promotion of useful research, the preservation of charities, or the founding of manufactories which should give employment where it is needed, no one would doubt the justice of giving that institution the name of the founder, or of writing him into fame in elaborate biographies; for these things address themselves at once to the selfishness of people.
In a work like that for which the Bancroft Library was created—itself a monument to the intellectual qualities of its founder—there can only be success. The material, talent, culture, and will power are combined to produce the results aimed at. The same good judgment, foresight, and determination which have enabled him to make the handsome fortune that has been invested in the work are important factors in the work itself. The day has gone past when to produce good literary work a man must be only a book-worm, or live in a garret. "Attic salt" does not always come from an attic; and if Mr. Bancroft has shown us, at his own cost, how to do the work of two or three life-times in one, he has certainly done us an important service.
But it is not the "History of the Pacific States" alone which will be evolved out of the Bancroft collection. If it is desired by any one hereafter to write a book on any one of a hundred different topics, here is the material, with the references already made, the subject indexed, ready to the writer's hand. What a splendid arrangement for a journalist! Do you wish to know about government, soils, climates, agriculture, manufactures, races of man, railroads, routes, Indian affairs, antiquities, church matters, discoveries, explorations, surveys, and a hundred other things—nothing is easier than to get it by the method pursued here. And with every month hundreds of books are being added, which will contribute their share to the mass of matter already annotated.
I have said nothing about a large number of miscellaneous books of travel, adventure, and even fiction, which, because they contain some item of use to the library, are accorded a place on its shelves; but the general reader would find plenty of entertainment without troubling his brain with statistics, or vexing his soul with undertaking to solve a knotty question as to the rights of nations. He may find photographs of celebrated places, and likenesses of California pioneers, with other pictures, and a few curios, accidental adjuncts of the library; but being a working institution, there is not a great deal about it to amuse the idler.
Such as I have described it, a special historical collection, for a special purpose, it is remarkable, and highly creditable to the State which contains it, as a proof of the vigor and intellectuality of its leading citizens, eminent among whom will always be the name of the founder of the Bancroft Library.
Frances Fuller Victor.