Page:Hubert Howe Bancroft His Work and His Method.djvu/8

165  "The peculiar conditions under which this collection was made having passed away, it can never be duplicated." When the question of State purchase was taken up the Bancroft Library was said to contain from 50,000 to 60,000 volumes of books, pamphlets, maps and manuscripts; Prof. Rowell, Librarian of the State University, after careful personal examination, estimated the number at 40,000 as a total. For many years the collection had been offered for sale, Mr. Bancroft holding it at $250,000, which is but a fractional part of the original cost and yet doubtless above the then market price, which Prof. Rowell estimated at about $140,000, if the complete subject index be included. In 1887 a bill was presented in the State Legislature to purchase the library for the State for $250,000. Great scandal arising, the proposition was quickly defeated. Some years later the Chicago University thought of buying it. Naturally there was strong sentiment against permitting the Library to be removed from California and the Pacific States.

In 1905 Doctor Reuben G. Thwaites, Librarian of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and one of the foremost book experts in America, was invited to examine the Bancroft Library, "with a view to ascertaining its condition and, so far as may be, its marketable value." In his report Mr. Thwaites characterizes this wonderful collection of documents, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and other materials, estimating the total value at up- wards of $300,000. The report itself was published November 14, 1905, as a twenty-page pamphlet.

"The Bancroft Library, (to quote from the Report of the Secretary to the Regents of the University of California, year ending June 30, 1906) incomparably superior to any other existing collection as a mine of primary historical material for all western America, a collection which could not even remotely be imitated, at no matter what cost, was acquired by the University on November 24, 1905, at a cost of $250,000. Of this amount Mr. H. H. Bancroft, whose ingenuity, perseverance and skill created this collection, donated $100,000. Of the remaining $150,000, $50,000 was paid by the regents on November 24, 1905; $50,000 is to be paid November 24, 1906, and the remaining $50,000 in November 1907." (Report, p. 20.)

On June 11, 1907, the regents of the University approved the Constitution of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, submitted by the Bancroft Library Commission, thus making the Library itself "the indispensable nucleus of a great research library, like that of the British Museum," which has for its object "the promotion of the study of the political, social, commercial, and the in-