George Bancroft

Bancroft was born on October 3, 1800, in Worcester, Massachusetts. His family had been in Massachusetts Bay since 1632.

George's father, Aaron Bancroft, was distinguished as a Revolutionary War soldier, a leading Unitarian clergyman, and author of a popular biography of George Washington.{{cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/lisle/dial/bancroft.html |title=George Bancroft |publisher=Xroads.virginia.edu |access-date=2014-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108005925/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Lisle/dial/bancroft.html |archive-date=November 8, 2014 |url-status=dead }}

Bancroft began his education at Phillips Exeter Academy.

He entered Harvard College at thirteen years of age and graduated with the Class of 1817.{{cite web |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/lisle/dial/bancroft.html |title=George Bancroft |publisher=Xroads.virginia.edu |access-date=2014-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108005925/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Lisle/dial/bancroft.html |archive-date=November 8, 2014 |url-status=dead }}

After Harvard, Bancroft's father sent him abroad to study in Germany, where he studied at the universities of Göttingen, and Berlin. At Göttingen, he studied Plato with Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren, history with Heeren and Gottlieb Jakob Planck, and languages{{efn|Arabic, Hebrew, and New Testament Greek}} and scripture interpretation with Albert Eichhorn, natural science with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German literature with Georg Friedrich Benecke, French and Italian literature with Artaud and Bunsen, and classics with Georg Ludolf Dissen. In 1820, he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Bancroft capped off his education with a European tour, in the course of which he sought out almost every distinguished man in the European world of letters, science and art, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lord Byron, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Christian Charles Josias Bunsen, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Varnhagen von Ense, Victor Cousin, Benjamin Constant and Alessandro Manzoni.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Bancroft returned to the United States in 1822. While the young man delivered several sermons at his father's behest shortly after his return, his love of literature proved a stronger attachment.

His first position was as a tutor of Greek at Harvard. Bancroft chafed at the narrow curriculum of Harvard in his day and the pedantic spirit of its classics curriculum. Moreover, his personal affect of ardent Romanticism subjected him to ridicule among the formal society of New England and his political sympathies for Jacksonian democracy put him at odds with nearly all of the Boston elite.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

In 1823, he published his first work, a little volume of poetry, translations and original pieces, which brought no fame. Bancroft finally left Cambridge and with Joseph Cogswell established the Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts.{{cite book |last1=Handlin |first1=Lilian |chapter=Bancroft, George (1800–1891), scholar and diplomat |chapter-url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1400034 |title=American National Biography |year=2000 |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1400034 |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 |access-date=24 October 2022|chapter-url-access=subscription}}

While at Round Hill, Bancroft contributed frequently to the North American Review and American Quarterly. He also made a translation of Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren's work on The Politics of Ancient Greece. In 1836, he published an oration advocating universal suffrage and the foundation of the state on the power of the whole people.{{cite book |last1=Bancroft |first1=George |title=An Oration Delivered Before the Democracy of Springfield And Neighboring Towns, July 4, 1836 |date=1836 |publisher=Hampden Whig |location=Hampden, Massachusetts |edition=2. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101732245 |access-date=24 October 2022}}

In 1830, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate from Northampton without his knowledge by the support of the Working Men's Party, but refused to take his seat.{{cite book|title=Political Changes in Massachusetts, 1824–1848|last=Darling|first=Arthur B.|publisher=Yale University Press|date=1925|location=New Haven, Conn.|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalchanges00darl/page/98/mode/2up|page=99}} and the next year he declined another nomination, though certain to have been elected, for the state senate.

Bancroft, having trained in the leading German universities, was an accomplished scholar, whose masterwork History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent covered the new nation in depth down to 1789.Harvey Wish, The American Historian: A Social-intellectual History of the Writing of the American Past (1960) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98866105 ch 5 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716181817/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98866105 |date=July 16, 2012 }} His History of the United States started appearing in 1834, and he constantly revised it in numerous editions.See [http://lib.jrshelby.com/#ba for online editions] It remains among the most comprehensive histories of colonial America.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Bancroft was a Romantic, emphasizing nationalist and republican values.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Bancroft played on four recurring themes to explain the development of American values: providence, progress, patria, and pan-democracy. "Providence" meant that destiny depended more on God than on human will. The idea of "progress" indicated that through continuous reform a better society was possible. Patria was deserved because America's spreading influence would bring liberty and freedom to more and more of the world. "Pan-democracy" meant the nation-state was central to the drama, not specific heroes or villains.George Athan Billias, [http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44574433.pdf "George Bancroft: Master Historian,"] Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Oct 2001, 111#2 pp 507–528

Richard C. Vitzthum argues that Bancroft's histories exemplify his Unitarian moral vision of faith in progress. The history of America, in Bancroft's view, exemplified the gradual unfolding of God's purpose for mankind – the development of religious and political liberty.Richard C. Vitzthum, "Theme and Method in Bancroft's "History of the United States," New England Quarterly, Sept 1968, 41#3 pp 362–380 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/363983 in JSTOR]

George M. Frederickson argues that Bancroft's "universalist theory of national origins... made the American Revolution not only the fruit of a specific historical tradition, but also a creed of liberty for all mankind."Frederickson, George M. (1965), The Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union, 1968 reprint, New York: Harper Torchbooks, Ch. 9, "The Doctrine of Loyalty," p. 146.

Bancroft's orotund romantic style and enthusiastic patriotism fell out of favor with later generations of scientific historians, who did not assign his books to students.Vitzthum, "Theme and Method in Bancroft's "History of the United States," p 362 After 1890, American scholars of the Imperial School took a more favorable view of the British Empire than Bancroft.N. H. Dawes, and F. T. Nichols, "Revaluing George Bancroft," New England Quarterly, 6#2 (1933), pp. 278–293 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/359126 in JSTOR]Michael Kraus, "George Bancroft 1834–1934," New England Quarterly, 7#4 (1934), pp. 662–686 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/359191 in JSTOR]

Edmund Morgan compares Bancroft's history to that of the Liberal statesman Sir George Trevelyan in that both reject the Progressive view of the Revolution as a mere invocation of political philosophy as a means to keep and consolidate power. Morgan and other neo-Whig historians have embraced Bancroft's view that the patriots were motivated by a deep commitment to individual liberty.{{Cite book|title=The American Revolution:a review of changing interpretations.|last=Morgan|first=Edmund S.|series=Service Center for Teachers of History. Publication no. 6. Reprinted by Macmillan. Includes bibliography |date=1958|publisher=Washington|hdl = 2027/uc1.b4374046}}

Inspired by Bancroft, Bernard Bailyn and a cohort of mid-twentieth-century historians challenged the dichotomy between "national self-awareness" and the study of history.{{cite journal |last1=Guyatt |first1=Nicholas |title="An Instrument of National Policy": Perry Miller and the Cold War |journal=Journal of American Studies |year=2002 |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=107–149 |doi=10.1017/S002187580100665X |jstor=27557067 |s2cid=145703312 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27557067 |issn=0021-8758|url-access=subscription }} Although they had found "limitations" in Bancroft's works, mid-twentieth-century "instrumentalist" historians wished to reexamine the "image of colonial origins" of the American Revolution. By 1956, this subset of scholars had tentatively determined that, "toward the end of the seventeenth century there emerged an entire apparatus of local politics" that "came, gradually, to accommodate itself" within the imperial system and in various "forms...it is their collapse under the pressures of new circumstances after 1760 that alone made the Revolution

'irrepressible.' "{{cite journal |last1=Bailyn |first1=Bernard |title=Becker, Andrews, and the Image of Colonial Origins |journal=The New England Quarterly |date=1956 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=522–534 |doi=10.2307/362146 |jstor=362146 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/362146 |issn=0028-4866|url-access=subscription }}

File:George Bancroft by Plumbe, 1846.jpg

In 1837, Bancroft entered active politics by accepting an appointment as Collector of Customs of the Port of Boston by President Martin Van Buren. Two of his own appointees in the office were Orestes Brownson and author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In 1844, Bancroft was the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts but he was defeated. He called for the annexation of Texas as extending "the area of freedom" and opposed slavery.

In 1845, in recognition for his support at the previous Democratic convention, Bancroft was appointed to James Polk's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, serving until 1846, when, for a month, he was acting Secretary of War.

During his short period in the cabinet, Bancroft established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, creating a legacy of education and leadership.{{cite web|url= http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/bancroft_george.htm|title= George Bancroft Secretary of the Navy 1800–1891|publisher= Naval History and Heritage Command|access-date= December 10, 2013|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131002001011/http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/bancroft_george.htm|archive-date= October 2, 2013|df= mdy-all}} He ordered naval action that resulted in the occupation of California and, as secretary of War, sent Zachary Taylor into the contested land between Texas and Mexico. That catalyzed the Mexican War, resulting in the United States greatly increasing its territory in the Southwest.

Bancroft designed and developed the Naval Academy; he received all the appropriations for which he asked. Congress had never been willing to establish a naval academy, but Bancroft studied the law to assess the powers of the Secretary of the Navy. He found that he could order "a place where midshipmen should wait for orders." He could also direct instructors to give lessons to them at sea, and by law, instructors could follow the midshipmen to the place of their common residence on shore. The appropriation of the year for the naval service met the expense, and the Secretary of War ceded an abandoned military post to the navy.

Therefore, when Congress came together, it learned that the midshipmen not at sea were housed at Annapolis. Thus, they were protected from the dangers of idleness and city life and busy at a regular course of study. Congress accepted the school, which was in full operation, and granted money for the repairs of the buildings.

Bancroft introduced some new respected professors into the corps of instructors, and he suggested a system of promotion, related to experience and achievements as well as age. The merit system was not fully developed or applied at the time. Bancroft was influential also in obtaining additional appropriations for the United States Naval Observatory.

Similarly, Bancroft studied so deeply the Oregon boundary dispute that in 1846, he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to London to work with the British government on the issue. There, he roomed with the historian Macaulay and the poet Hallam. With the election of Whig Zachary Taylor as president, Bancroft's political appointment ended. On his return to the United States in 1849, he withdrew from public life and moved to New York, where he focused on writing history.

File:George-Bancroft-at-desk.jpg

As a private citizen, Bancroft initially expressed skepticism towards Abraham Lincoln's election, describing him as, "without brains," and "ignorant, self-willed, and... surrounded by men some of whom are almost as ignorant as himself."{{cite journal |last1=Leeman |first1=William P. |title=George Bancroft's Civil War: Slavery, Abraham Lincoln, and the Course of History |journal=The New England Quarterly |date=2008 |volume=81 |issue=3 |page=472 |doi=10.1162/tneq.2008.81.3.462 |jstor=20474656 |s2cid=57567583 |doi-access=free }} However, Bancroft softened to the wartime president after initiating correspondence with Lincoln in 1861, and used the communication to argue for the case of abolishing slavery.{{cite web |last1=Bancroft |first1=George |title=Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833–1916: George Bancroft to Abraham Lincoln, Friday, November 15, 1861 (Support) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/mal1299000/ |website=Library of Congress |access-date=24 October 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Leeman |first1=William P. |title=George Bancroft's Civil War: Slavery, Abraham Lincoln, and the Course of History |journal=The New England Quarterly |date=2008 |volume=81 |issue=3 |page=472 |doi=10.1162/tneq.2008.81.3.462 |jstor=20474656 |s2cid=57567583 |doi-access=free }} In April 1864, at Bancroft's request, President Abraham Lincoln wrote out what would become the fourth of five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address. Bancroft planned to include the copy in Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors, which he planned to sell at a Soldiers' and Sailors' Sanitary Fair, in Baltimore, to raise money to care for the Union Army.

In 1866, he was chosen by Congress to deliver the special eulogy on Lincoln.{{cite book |last1=Bancroft |first1=George |title=Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln |date=1866 |publisher=Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=4–16}}

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson offered Bancroft the post of US minister to Prussia, enabling him to return to Germany. Bancroft remained in Berlin for seven years, throughout the Franco-Prussian War and German unification.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him minister to the German Empire in 1871. During his tenure in Berlin, Bancroft spent much time negotiating agreements with Prussia and the other north German states relating to naturalization and citizenship issues; they became known as the Bancroft Treaties in his honor.{{cite web|url=http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0413|title=George Bancroft papers|website=www.masshist.org|access-date=26 February 2018}} The treaties were the first international recognition of the right of expatriation. The principle has since incorporated in the law of nations.

His last official achievements were his participation in the 1872 arbitration on the status of the San Juan Islands, stemming from the Pig War of 1859. The United States maintained that the disputed channel was intended to be the Haro Strait, while Great Britain believed that it was the Rosario Strait. In the San Juan arbitration Bancroft displayed great versatility and skill and won the case, which was decided by a commission (three eminent German Judges) appointed by the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm. The final ruling was issued on October 21, 1872, and British troops withdrew from San Juan Island on November 22, 1872, after 26 years of maintaining an amicable, yet tense relationship.{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Melissa |title=Arbitration Explained |url=https://islandhistories.com/items/show/181 |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=Island Histories |language=en}}

His first wife was Sarah Dwight, of a rich family in Springfield, Massachusetts; they married in 1827 and had two sons. She died in 1837. He formed a second marriage with Mrs Elizabeth Davis Bliss, a widow with two children. Together they had a daughter.

In his later years Bancroft lived in Washington, D.C., summering at Rose Cliff, Newport, Rhode Island, the site where Rosecliff was later built.

Bancroft was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1838, and also served as its Secretary of Domestic Correspondence from 1877 to 1880.Dunbar, B. (1987). Members and Officers of the American Antiquarian Society. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society.

In 1841, Bancroft was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1841&year-max=1841&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-09|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In New York, Bancroft was a founding member of the American Geographical Society and served as the society's first president for nearly three years (February 21, 1852 – December 7, 1854).Wright, John Kirtland 'The Years of Henry Grinnell', Geography in the Making: The American Geographical Society 1851–1951 (1952) p. 17–18. — George Grady Press

Bancroft was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1863.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=May 17, 2011}}

Bancroft served as the President of the American Historical Association, 1885-1886.{{Cite web |title=George Bancroft |url=https://www.historians.org/person/george-bancroft/ |access-date=2024-08-26 |publisher=American Historical Association |language=en-US}}

File:Cgs Bancroft Sale cor.jpg

Bancroft died in 1891, in Washington, D.C. He was the last surviving member of the Polk cabinet.

• Bancroft, George. History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the American Continent. (Boston: Little, Brown, and company, 8 volumes, 1854–1860, with numerous editions since).
• Bancroft, George; Dyer, Oliver, 1824–1907. (1891) History of the Battle of Lake Erie, and Miscellaneous Papers (New York: R. Bonner's sons) 292 pp. (American Library Association) [https://archive.org/details/battlelakeerie00bancrich online edition]
• Bancroft, George. Martin Van Buren to the End of His Public Career. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1889. [https://archive.org/details/martinvanburent00bancgoog online edition]
• Bancroft, George. History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States of America.(New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1882, Vol 1) online edition

• Poems, Hilliard and Metcalf (Cambridge, 1823)
• An Oration Delivered on July 4, 1826, at Northampton, Mass. (Northampton, 1826)
• History of the Political System of Europe, translated from Heeren (1829)
• An Oration delivered before the Democracy of Springfield and Neighboring Towns, July 4, 1836 (2d ed., with prefatory remarks, Springfield, 1836)
• History of the Colonization of the United States (Boston, 1841, 12mo, abridged)
• An Oration delivered at the Commemoration, in Washington, of the Death of Andrew Jackson, June 27, 1845
• The Necessity, the Reality, and the Promise of the Progress of the Human Race
• An Oration delivered before the New York Historical Society, November 20, 1854 (New York, 1854)
• Proceedings of the First Assembly of Virginia, 1619; Communicated, with an Introductory Note, by George Bancroft
• Collections of the New York Historical Society, second series, vol. iii., part i. (New York, 1857)
• Literary and Historical Miscellanies (New York, 1855)
• Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln, delivered at the request of both Houses of the Congress of America, before them, in the House of Representatives at Washington, on February 12, 1866 (Washington, 1866) via [https://archive.org/details/memorialaddresso1866banc Archive.org]
• A Plea for the Constitution of the United States of America, Wounded in the House of its Guardians
• Veritati Unice Litarem (New York, 1886)

Among his other speeches and addresses may be mentioned a lecture on "The Culture, the Support, and the Object of Art in a Republic," in the course of the New York Historical Society in 1852; and one on "The Office, Appropriate Culture, and Duty of the Mechanic."

Bancroft contributed a biography of Jonathan Edwards to the American Cyclopædia.

File:Bankroft Tower.jpg, Worcester, Massachusetts]]

The United States Navy has named several ships USS Bancroft for him, as well as the fleet ballistic missile submarine USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643), the mid-19th century United States Coast Survey schooner USCS Bancroft and steel gunboat {{USS|Bancroft|1892}}

The dormitory at the United States Naval Academy, Bancroft Hall, is named after him. It is the largest single dormitory in the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.azinet.com/Annapolis/|title=Annapolis Maryland Area Information|website=www.azinet.com}}

Bancroft is one of 23 famous names on the $1 educational currency note of 1896.{{cite web |url=http://www.tomchao.com/na/na43.html |title=United States Bank Notes |date=December 27, 2009 }}

The name of Bancroft, honoring George Bancroft, is found atop one of several marble pillars in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/walls/jeff1.html |title=United States Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building |website=Library of Congress |date=January 18, 2010 }}

Many schools, streets, towns, etc. bear his name:

• Bancroft School, Worcester, MA
• Bancroft Hall{{cite web|url=http://phillips.exeter.edu/classof/1970/30th_reunion/pages/BANCROFT%20HALL_jpg.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090501233945/http://phillips.exeter.edu/classof/1970/30th_reunion/pages/BANCROFT%20HALL_jpg.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 1, 2009|title=Bancroft Hall|access-date=February 23, 2017}} at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.
• Bancroft Tower, erected in his honor in Salisbury Park,{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/Bancroft+Tower+Rd,+Worcester,+Worcester,+Massachusetts+01609/data=!4m2!2m1!4b1?hl=en&dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=February 23, 2017}} Worcester, MA
• Bancroft Commons,{{cite web|url=http://www.bancroftcommons.com/|title=Apartment Rentals in Worcester MA – The Grid District|access-date=February 23, 2017}} an apartment building in downtown Worcester, MA
• Bancroft Motors, now owned by HARR Motor Company{{cite web|url=http://www.harrcjd.com/news_item.php?uid=3|title=Harr Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram: New & Used Car Dealers Worcester, MA – Harr CJDR|access-date=February 23, 2017}}
• Bancroft Street,{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/Bancroft+St,+Gardner,+Worcester,+Massachusetts+01440/data=!4m2!2m1!4b1?hl=en&dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=February 23, 2017}} Gardner, MA
• Bancroft Street,{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/search/Bancroft+St,+Worcester,+Worcester,+Massachusetts+01610/data=!4m2!2m1!4b1?hl=en&dg=dbrw&newdg=1|title=Google Maps|access-date=February 23, 2017}} Worcester, MA
• Bancroft Elementary School,{{cite web|url=http://bancroft.mpls.k12.mn.us/|title=Welcome to Bancroft!|access-date=February 23, 2017}} (in the Bancroft neighborhood of the City of) Minneapolis, MN
• Bancroft Elementary School,{{cite web|url=http://www.bancroftelementary.org/|title=Bancroft Elementary School|access-date=February 23, 2017}} (in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of) Washington, D.C.
• Bancroft Elementary School, Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Bancroft's Talon, an item in the 2014 MOBA Smite{{cite web|url=http://smite.gamepedia.com/Bancroft's_Talon|title=Bancroft's Talon – Official SMITE Wiki|access-date=February 23, 2017}}
• Bancroft, Iowa
• Bancroft, Maine
• Bancroft, Michigan

Bancroft is interred at Rural Cemetery in Worcester.

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{Cite Appletons' |last=Allibone |first=Samuel Austin |author-link=Samuel Austin Allibone |wstitle=Bancroft, George |year=1900}}
• {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Bancroft, George |volume= 1 |pages= 202-204 |short=}}
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bancroft, George |volume=3 |pages=307–309}}
• Dawes, N. H., and F. T. Nichols. "Revaluing George Bancroft," New England Quarterly, 6#2 (1933), pp. 278–293 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/359126 in JSTOR]
• Kraus, Michael. "George Bancroft 1834–1934," New England Quarterly, 7#4 (1934), pp. 662–686 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/359191 in JSTOR]
• Handlin, Lillian. George Bancroft: The Intellectual as Democrat. (New York, 1984).
• Nye, Russel B. George Bancroft, Brahmin Rebel (New York, 1944).
• Stewart, Watt. "George Bancroft Historian of the American Republic," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 19#1 (1932), pp. 77–86 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1896651 in JSTOR]
• Wish, Harvey. The American Historian: A Social-Intellectual History of the Writing of the American Past (1960) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98866105 ch 5 on Bancroft online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716181817/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98866105 |date=July 16, 2012 }}
• Marquis Who's Who, Inc. Who Was Who in American History, the Military. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1975. {{ISBN|978-0-8379-3201-9}} {{OCLC|657162692}}

• [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3560405 Howe, M. A. Dewolfe The Life and Letters of George Bancroft – Vol. 1 (1971 reprint)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716181812/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3560405 |date=July 16, 2012 }}
• [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM01262.html Cornell University, Guide to the George Bancroft papers]

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• {{DBCS}}
• {{cite book |chapter= GEORGE BANCROFT (1800–1891) (Obituary Notice, Monday, January 19, 1891) |title= Eminent Persons: Biographies reprinted from The Times|year=1896 |publisher=Macmillan and Co., Limited |place=London |pages=8–13 |volume= V (1891–1892)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/eminentpersonsbi05timeiala/page/8 |access-date=6 March 2019 |via= Internet Archive }}
• [http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/archivalcollections/pdf/bancroftgpap.pdf George Bancroft Papers, 1823–1890] Manuscripts and Archives, New York Public Library
• [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1891/01/18/106046137.pdf Obituary at New York Times site]
• {{Gutenberg author |id=32221| name=George Bancroft}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Bancroft}}
• {{Librivox author |id=9372}}
• {{Find a Grave|5892}}

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Category:1800 births

Category:1891 deaths

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Prussia

Category:19th-century American diplomats

Category:19th-century American historians

Category:19th-century American male writers

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Historians of the United States

Category:Politicians from Worcester, Massachusetts

Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.

Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni

Category:Presidents of the American Historical Association

Category:United States Naval Academy

Category:American people of English descent

Category:United States secretaries of the navy

Category:Heidelberg University alumni

Category:Polk administration cabinet members

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)

Category:University of Göttingen alumni

Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees

Category:Gardiner family

Category:Writers from Springfield, Massachusetts

Category:Burials at Rural Cemetery (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Category:Collectors of the Port of Boston

Category:Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts

Category:19th-century Massachusetts politicians

Category:American expatriates in Germany

Category:Historians from Massachusetts

Category:American Geographical Society

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society