Frederic Bancroft

January 30, 1860 (age 85)

pon returning from his European sojourn in 1888, Bancroft accepted an appointment as librarian of the Department of State, largely because of the opportunity the position offered for research in its records and manuscripts. Although dismissed four years later by Secretary of State James G. Blaine, who wished the position "for one of his pets, " Bancroft decided to remain in the capital city. It was his home for the next fifty-three years. Although he gave occasional lectures at Columbia and other universities, Bancroft held no further jobs. Instead, with the financial support of his brother Edgar Addison Bancroft, a successful railroad attorney and corporation executive, he pursued an unhampered career of research and writing. In the decades before World War I, Bancroft wrote a two-volume Life of William H. Seward (1900) and, with William A. Dunning of Columbia, contributed an extended sketch of the political career of Carl Schurz to the third volume (1908) of Schurz's Reminiscences. He also edited a six-volume edition of Schurz's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers (1913). Of all the public figures, political and literary, with whom he was acquainted, it was his friendship with Schurz that gave him greatest satisfaction. These writings were but a fragment of what Bancroft initially expected to accomplish. His most ambitious project, begun in 1903, was a history of the South. His painstaking and thorough research gained him recognition as one of the foremost authorities in the country on the antebellum South and the Civil War, but not until almost three decades later did he publish a book on either subject, and then only chapters of his proposed history - Calhoun and the South Carolina Nullification Movement (1928) and Slave Trading in the Old South (1931). Though the latter is an exemplary piece of scholarship and was for years the definitive work on the subject, Bancroft's contribution to history was, on balance, modest. During the decades after World War I, Bancroft's historical work was subordinated to travel and, after his brother's death in 1925, to care of the estate he inherited. Largely through the influence of Allan Nevins, a professor of history at Columbia University and since the early 1930's a warm personal friend, Bancroft, who never married, decided to leave his estate to Columbia. He died in Washington in 1945 of congestive heart failure and was buried in Galesburg. By his wishes, his bequest, which came to nearly $2, 000, 000, has been used for the purchase of books on American history and for the annual award of prizes in American history and American biography.

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The Life Of William H. Seward V2

(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

The life of William H. Seward (v. 1)

(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

Calhoun And The South Carolina Nullification Movement

(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

Lincoln and Seward and Their Latest Biographers (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Lincoln and Seward and Their Latest Biograph...)

Excerpt from Lincoln and Seward and Their Latest Biographers It is a very remarkable oversight, furthermore, that not one of the members of Lincoln's cabinet has received a full or care ful character-sketch. All merited such a study; the reader had a right to expect it and judicious use of the space would have left ample room in these ten volumes to describe the acts, per sonal traits and executive qualities of every one of Lincoln's chief advisers. To have omitted this is plainly an injustice to these men, or an indirect confession that they were not of suffi cient importance to have justified Lincoln in selecting them in preference to many others. No one unacquainted with the great political leaders of the war, will gather from these ten volumes a clear conception Of the ability and character of any man who was intimately associated with Lincoln. True, the authors repeatedly recognize strong qualities in some of the members of the cabinet, but in almost every case several times as much space is employed in showing wherein these members fell short Of true greatness. These criticisms relate to the spirit and method of the authors, and to specific features of the work, rather than to its character as a whole. In chapters where the narrative does not touch personalities or involve war prejudices, it occasionally attains an excellence of the first order. The author of the three-volume life of William H. Seward is his son. Mr. Frederick W. Seward, as editorial writer on the Albany Evening journal during the decade previous to his father's secretaryship, was very familiar with all his political acts. When his father took charge of the Department of State. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Slave Trading in the Old South (Southern Classics)

(First published in 1931, the author exposes the commercia...)

The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz ...: 1829-1852

( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz;

(This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book publ...)

Frederic Bancroft

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historian philanthropist

Background

Bancroft was born on October 30, 1860 in Galesburg, Illinois to Catherine (Blair) and Addison Newton Bancroft; of their seven children, only he, an older brother, and a sister survived infancy. His mother's family had migrated from northern Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century. His father, who conducted a flourishing retail business, was related to the well-known New England Bancrofts.

Education

Frederic's education was the best that the West afforded, for the leading citizens of Galesburg were as attentive to education as their New England forebears whose institutions they copied. After attending the local Knox Academy, he enrolled in Knox College, in Galesburg. At the end of three years he transferred to Amherst College, where he graduated in 1882. Recognizing that his deepest interest was in scholarship, Bancroft enrolled for graduate study in Columbia University's School of Political Science, then only two years old. His doctoral dissertation, A Sketch of the Negro in Politics (1885), reflected his interest in the history of the South, a subject which remained his scholarly preoccupation for the remainder of his life. Soon after receiving his Ph. D. in 1885, he went abroad for further study at the University of Berlin.

Career

pon returning from his European sojourn in 1888, Bancroft accepted an appointment as librarian of the Department of State, largely because of the opportunity the position offered for research in its records and manuscripts. Although dismissed four years later by Secretary of State James G. Blaine, who wished the position "for one of his pets, " Bancroft decided to remain in the capital city. It was his home for the next fifty-three years. Although he gave occasional lectures at Columbia and other universities, Bancroft held no further jobs. Instead, with the financial support of his brother Edgar Addison Bancroft, a successful railroad attorney and corporation executive, he pursued an unhampered career of research and writing. In the decades before World War I, Bancroft wrote a two-volume Life of William H. Seward (1900) and, with William A. Dunning of Columbia, contributed an extended sketch of the political career of Carl Schurz to the third volume (1908) of Schurz's Reminiscences. He also edited a six-volume edition of Schurz's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers (1913).

Of all the public figures, political and literary, with whom he was acquainted, it was his friendship with Schurz that gave him greatest satisfaction. These writings were but a fragment of what Bancroft initially expected to accomplish. His most ambitious project, begun in 1903, was a history of the South. His painstaking and thorough research gained him recognition as one of the foremost authorities in the country on the antebellum South and the Civil War, but not until almost three decades later did he publish a book on either subject, and then only chapters of his proposed history - Calhoun and the South Carolina Nullification Movement (1928) and Slave Trading in the Old South (1931). Though the latter is an exemplary piece of scholarship and was for years the definitive work on the subject, Bancroft's contribution to history was, on balance, modest.

During the decades after World War I, Bancroft's historical work was subordinated to travel and, after his brother's death in 1925, to care of the estate he inherited. Largely through the influence of Allan Nevins, a professor of history at Columbia University and since the early 1930's a warm personal friend, Bancroft, who never married, decided to leave his estate to Columbia. He died in Washington in 1945 of congestive heart failure and was buried in Galesburg. By his wishes, his bequest, which came to nearly $2, 000, 000, has been used for the purchase of books on American history and for the annual award of prizes in American history and American biography.

Achievements

Bancroft was the author of two well-regarded books on the South, "Slave-Trading in the Old South, " and "A Sketch of the Negro in Politics, Especially in South Carolina and Mississippi. Through his bequest, in 1948 the Bancroft Prize was established at Columbia University in his memory and that of his brother, diplomat and attorney Edgar Addison Bancroft. It is considered one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history.