The New Student's Reference Work/Bancroft, George



Ban′croft, George, a distinguished American historian, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1800. He graduated from Harvard College, and studied two years at Gottingen, Germany. He was tutor in Greek at Harvard for one year, and with a fellow student carried on a school in Northampton until 1830. The first volume of his History of the United States was published in 1834, and two other volumes soon followed. The next five volumes came out from 1852 to 1860, and in 1866 and in 1874 two more volumes were published, which bring the history to the preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1782. Two other volumes, on the formation of the constitution, appeared in 1882. Bancroft was collector of the port of Boston under President Van Buren; under President Polk he was secretary of the navy and minister to England. In 1867 he was appointed minister to Berlin, where he remained until recalled at his own request in 1874. He died at Washington, D. C., Jan. 17, 1891.