Bancroft was born in
Galesburg, Illinois, and graduated with an A.B. from
Amherst College and a PhD from
Columbia University. He was a lecturer for one year at Columbia, and served as librarian of the
State Department from 1888 to 1892. Bancroft was an active member of the
American Historical Association, and was the unofficial leader of a group from 1913–1915 that called for the reform of the organization's election procedures, ultimately securing such reforms at the 1915 meeting although failing to topple what he viewed as the
oligarchy led by
J. Franklin Jameson. Bancroft was the author of two well-regarded books on the South,
Slave Trading in the Old South in 1931 and
A Sketch of the Negro in Politics, Especially in South Carolina and Mississippi in 1885. In 1900, he also wrote a biography of
William H. Seward. Through his bequest, in 1948 the
Bancroft Prize was established at
Columbia University in his memory and that of his brother, diplomat and attorney
Edgar Bancroft. It is considered one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history. ==References==