The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-27
BANCROFT LIBRARY.
tions of Americana Soon to be soid- More Than Sixty Thousand Volumes.

One of the Most Valuable Private Collec-
 lions of Americana Soon to be Sold-
 More Than Sixty Thousan Volumes.
 The library committee of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, has under conside- ration the purchase, for the sum of $SOO,OOO, of the Bancroft Library, a col lection of sixty thousand volumes of books and manuscripts relating to the western part of North America.
 The gathering of these books by Hu- bert Howe Bancroft has been continu- ous for a period of forty years. It was begun at a time when the country was old enough to have made some material for history, but not so old as to have lost it all This. and the fact that the collector was an enthusiast, with suffi- cient means, and having an object oth- CT than that of mere accumulation, unite to make this library and the gath ering of it somewhat remarkable,
 There is no library of American histo- ry in existence at all worthy of the name. The Astor Library. probably had as much Of that ljidsof material as any other, even before the purchase of the George Bancroft collection. MT. Lenox was an enthusiastic collector of rare works on AnleTca. Hence 1t is safe to say that in ahesnnfon of these three important libraries, the Astor. the Lenox and the Geerge Bancroft sbooks Is found the finest collection of Ameri- can history in existence-that is, as re- Iating to eastern Ametica, for little or no attention was paid byyMr George Bancroft or MT. Lenox to the western part.
 This work, however, has been per formed by Mir: H. H. Bancroft, and with scope and thoroughness, such as never before was undertaken by any one. His work can never be done by another; his library can never be dupli- cated. He searched In person through out America and Europe, and had per
 manent agents in the, chief book marts of the world always on the lookout for what he lacked Being most of the time engaged in writing the history of the countries covered iby his library, whenever he found lacking the necessa- ry material he created it, particularly in the later settled sections, as Mexico, California, Oregon and adjacent states, by visiting the early makers of history in person, or by his agents, and writing down their experiences from their own lips Many hundreds of important manuscripts now stand on the shelves of his library as the result of this long and arduous labor.
 Throughout one-half of the North American continent, its early historical data has thus been gathered and pre- served. No other state or nation in the world can show a tenth part of written and printed material relating to its ear- ly affairs that the western American states and nations can show in the Ban- croft Library.
 What God-send," said Wendell ! Phillips, 'such a collector would have been to Massachusetts a hundred years ago!"
 It may be said further, in regard to the Bancroft Library, that, as the his torical material it contains relates to the western part of America, where no one else has gathered, much of it hay ing been in this manner saved from ob- livion, whereas eastern American books can be to a much greater extent pur- chased at present, in the markets of the world, this western collection is more important than any other in existence in the formation of full and complete library of American history. For, ob- viously, the library having the Pacific coast collection, can always be the first and largest library of American history in the world, eastern works being pur- chasable and the western material mo- where else existing.
 The above, from the Boston Journal, has a special personal interest here, as
 MT. Bancroft's wife was a former New Haven lady, who is well remembered
 here. She was Miss Matilda, daughter of Mrs. John S. Griffing of 542 Chapel street. MT. and Mrs. Bancroft now re- side at Cambridge. Mass, and have two sons at Harvard