1869, we are told, Mr. Bancroft found in his possession, including pamphlets, about 16,000 volumes. These were lodged on the fifth floor of the Market Street building, the original home of the library having been a corner of the second story of the building on Merchant Street.
Bancroft now decided to begin literary work, but the collecting went rapidly forward without interruption. Trembling for the safety of the library through fear of fire, he lent a willing ear to his nephew's proposal to absorb the fifth floor for the purposes of the manufacturing department, of which he had charge. He would erect on some convenient spot a fireproof library building. Among the places considered were Oakland, San Rafael, Sonoma, San Mateo, and Menlo Park ; but after a careful canvass and consideration, he selected the well known site on Valencia Street, near its junction with Mission. The library was moved to the building Oct. 9, 1881. There the library stood for years, quite alone in its grandeur.
As the work of writing proceeded, the library was the recipient of a continuous stream of materials both new and old; and yet more was required. Archives were copied, rare documents were purchased, dictations from hundreds of pioneers were taken, precious collections of family papers were begged, borrowed, - and some say stolen. The best exposition of the contents of the library is in the author's "Essays and Miscellany," where four chapters are devoted to literature, as follows: (XV.) Literature of Central America; (XVI.) Literature of Colonial Mexico; (XVII.) Literature of Mexico during the Present Century; (XVIII.) Early California Literature. From an interesting pamphlet, "Evolution of a Library," I extract the following definite claims for the Bancroft Library:
- "In this Valencia Street building is the largest collection of American historical data in the world.
- "This collection contains more of original American historical data than all the libraries in America put together.
- "Without this collection no other collection can ever hope to equal it.
- "No collection of equal magnitude was ever before made by a single individual or within a single life time, at such cost of time and money, or with equal care, thoroughness, and discrimination.
- "No state or nation in the world had its early annals so gathered and preserved as has thus been done by Mr. Bancroft for the states and nations of western North America.
