Margaret Bancroft papers, 1913-1977

Summary Information

At a Glance

Call No.:

MS#0066

Bib ID:

4078828 View CLIO record

Creator(s):

Bancroft, Margaret, 1891-1979

Repository:

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Physical Description:

5.5 linear feet (1 manuscript box & 4 record cartons)

Language(s):

English .

Other Finding Aids

Detailed dealer description for boxes 2-5 available in repository.

Access:

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Boxes 2-5 are unprocessed, but may be made available without further review. kws 2021-10-22

Description

Summary

Box 1 (original acquisition) includes letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia, including four letters from Columbia professors relating to Bancroft's participation in General Studies Day, May 1977. The manuscripts consist of two diaries, one from 1926-1929, which includes her account of a European trip and a second for 1969; a typescript she prepared for the use of her students in General Studies History 5 in 1941, entitled "The Old Stone Age" (357 p.) with several pen-and-ink sketches of early man; and four notebooks on ancient art taken at a course taught by Professor Richard Brilliant in 1974.

Boxes 2-5 (2021 acquisition) consists of over 1,000 letters, primarily to and from Bancroft's brother Richard, as well as ephemera.

Arrangement

Selected materials cataloged; remainder arranged.

Using the Collection

Other Finding Aids

Detailed dealer description for boxes 2-5 available in repository.

Restrictions on Access

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Boxes 2-5 are unprocessed, but may be made available without further review. kws 2021-10-22

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Margaret Bancroft papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Ownership and Custodial History

Gift of the estate of Margaret Bancroft (via Gifts & Exchange), 1980.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Bancroft, Margaret (via Gifts & Exchange). Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1980. Accession number--M80.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Surveyed Christina Hilton Fenn 03/27/89.

A basic folder list for boxes 2-5 (2021 purchase) was created by the curator. No further arrangement was done.

Revision Description

2009-06-26 File created.

2012-01-20 XML document instance created by Catherine C. Ricciardi

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

2021-10-22 Basic box list for new addition added. kws

Biographical / Historical

Margaret Bancroft was born about the year 1891, the daughter of Edward Erastus Bancroft (1858-1950) and his wife Josephine Augusta Given (1857-1924), of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Margaret's father appears to have attended Amherst College and eventually became a physician. Margaret attended the local schools at Wellesley and graduated with an A.B. in 1912 from Wellesley College and then an A.M. in 1913 from Columbia University. Her doctoral dissertation at Columbia was titled "The Popular Assemblies in the Municipalities of Spain and Gaul." In the 1920 Census she is found living at home, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with her parents and siblings and working as a teacher at Wellesley College, where she worked for four years.

Her journal of 1913-1914 (in the collection), indicates she had a relationship with a woman by the name of Florence. One of Margaret's correspondents, a woman by the name of Helen Knowlton Goss Thomas, is known to have been a lesbian, and is enumerated in the census records with her female "partner". Among the materials in the collection is Bancroft's personal journal, in which she writes of her relationship with a woman named Florence and writes on several occasions about her turmoil over this relationship.

In 1959, Columbia made her the first recipient of an award given to a "distinguished retiring General Studies teacher." According to the Spectator, this award was subsequently given in her name. After her retirement in 1960, Margaret kept an informal salon once a month at her Morningside Heights apartment, where students and friends would drop in. Margaret Bancroft died in June 1979 of cancer in New York. She was 87 years old.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form
Diaries
Drawings (visual works)
Name
Brilliant, Richard
Place
Europe -- Description and travel
Subject
Art, Prehistoric
Historians
History -- Study and teaching
Paleolithic period -- Study and teaching
Women -- Diaries
Women college teachers

Box List

Box 1

Diary, 1913-1914

Includes photocopy of visa application

Box 1

Diary, 1926-1929

Box 1

Diary, 1969

Box 1

Memorabilia

Box 1

Correspondence, 1977

Box 1

"Old Stone Age", circa 1940s

Typescript. Marked "For Use of GS History 5 students"

Box 1

Notebooks

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Family

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1920-1929

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1930

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1931 Jan-Mar

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1931 May-Nov

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1932

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1933

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1934

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1935

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1936

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1937

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1938

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1940

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1941

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, 1942-1952

Box 2

Margaret Bancroft to Richard Bancroft, Undated

Box 2

F.S. Barton ("Aunt Bartie") to Margaret Bancroft, 1931-1948

Box 2

Audree and Huguette de Basque (?) to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Margaret Clapp

Box 2

Margaret Heitand to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Lady Hoskyns to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

H.C. Hughes and Wife to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

W.M. Krogman to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Francis Phelps Penay to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Alta Rockefeller Prentice and Family to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Lillian Proctor to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Letters of Machteld E. Sano to Margaret Bancroft

Box 2

Helen Goss Thomas to Margaret Bancroft, 1951-1958

Box 2

Ephemera. Newspaper clippings; Miscellaneous documents and photos

Box 2

Ephemera. Cards, telegrams

Box 3

Notes

Box 3

Ephemera

Box 3

Ephemera. Printed material

Box 3

Ephemera. Envelopes

Box 3

Ephemera. Newspaper clippings.

Box 3

Ephemera. Postcards

Box 3

Ephemera. Telegrams, cards, Miscellaneous notes

Box 3

Ephemera. Mss. Pp

Box 3

Ephemera. Papers and documents, Printed and Mss

Box 3

Ephemera. Envelopes

Box 3

Ephemera. Greeting Cards

Box 3

E.E. Bancroft to his daughter Margaret Bancroft

Box 3

Mrs. Bancroft to her daughter Margaret Bancroft

Box 3

Richard Bancroft to Margaret; Edward Bancroft (father) to Margaret, 1924-1936

Box 3

Richard to his sister Margaret

Box 3

Incoming Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1916-1929

Box 3

Miscellaneous letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1920-1933

Box 4

Incoming Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1930-1935

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1934-1939

Box 4

Incoming to Margaret, 1936-1939

Box 4

Incoming to Margaret Bancroft, 1943, 1949

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1943-1948

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1949

Box 4

Incoming Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1950-1953

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1950

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1951

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1952

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1953

Box 4

Incoming to Margaret Bancroft, 1954-1956

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1954

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1955

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1956-1957

Box 4

Incoming to Margaret Bancroft, 1957-1959

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1958

Box 4

Miscellaneous Letters to Margaret Bancroft, 1959

Box 4

Incoming to Margaret Bancroft, Undated

Box 4

Undated and incomplete Letters to Margaret Bancroft

Box 4

Richard Bancroft to others

Box 4

Incoming to Richard Bancroft

Box 4

Miscellaneous letters

Box 4

To Family, 1913-1925

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1926

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1927

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1928

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1929

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1930

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1931

Box 4

To Richard Bancroft, 1932

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1933

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1934

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1935

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1936

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1937

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1938-1939

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1940

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1941

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, 1942-1958

Box 5

To Richard Bancroft, undated