Finding Aid to the Margaret Wood Bancroft Collection, 1929-1945 LA.2012.0201
Finding aid prepared by Marie Myers
San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
2016-04-30
1788 El Prado, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101
library@sdnhm.org
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library
Title: Margaret Wood Bancroft Collection
creator:
Bancroft, Margaret Wood, 1893-1986
Identifier/Call Number: LA.2012.0201
Physical Description:
1.0 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1929-1945
Language of Material: English
Abstract: The Margaret Wood Bancroft Collection consists of one box of archival material including correspondence, a photographic album
documenting the 1930 expedition cruise of the Gulf of California, an expedition to the Sierra San Pedro Mártir in 1935, manuscript
materials, and documents regarding the Bancroft Egg Collection.
Biographical/Historical note
Margaret R. Wood Bancroft, (1883-1986), was an American amateur naturalist who with her husband, ornithologist and oologist
Griffing Bancroft, explored the Baja California coastline, documenting bird and wildlife of the region. In 1935, Bancroft
led a search for the lost mission of Santa Ysabel in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California.
Conditions Governing Access note
The collection is open to researchers by appointment. Contact the Research Library Director, San Diego Natural History Museum.
Conditions Governing Use note
Copyright may be reserved. Consult the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library Director for more information.
Preferred Citation note
[Identification of item], Margaret Wood Bancroft Collection (Archives collection 2012.0201). Research Library, San Diego Natural
History Museum.
Related Archival Materials
Margaret Bancroft: a personal portrait : Smith, Virginia M. http://nma.berkeley.edu/ark:/28722/bk0005z240q
Recollection of Hubert Howe Bancroft and the Bancroft family : oral history transcript: and related material, 1977-1980,
BANC MSS 80/144 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://nma.berkeley.edu/ark:/28722/bk0005z240q
Baja California Photographs by Griffing Bancroft, UC San Diego Special Collections, http://roger.ucsd.edu/record=b8901187-S9
Scope and Contents note
The Margaret Wood Bancroft Collection includes correspondence, manuscript typescript, a scrapbook of clippings and notes,
and an annotated photographic album that documenting collecting trips and exploratory travels in Baja California.
Processing Information note
This is an unprocessed collection in the archives of the San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library; not all of the
contents of this collection have been fully inventoried. Photographs from the photographic album have been digitized.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Description and travel
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Pictorial works
Bancroft Family
Manuscripts
Women naturalists -- United States
Field notes
Bancroft, Griffing, 1879-1955
Green, J. Elton (Josiah Elton), 1908-1986
Harbison, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1904-1989
Huey, Laurence M. (Laurence Markham), 1892-1963
Klauber, Laurence Monroe, 1883-1968
Pierce, Wright M., 1886-1937
Box 78, Folder 1
Field notes
Physical Description: 1 spiral notebook
Scope and Contents
"Trip to Baja California," dated April 8, 1940. Handwritten description of trip activities, traveling companions Griffing
Bancroft, Laurence Huey, and Charles Harbison.
Box 78, Folder 2
Typescript mss of essay, "Riding An Elephant Seal," by Margaret Wood Bancroft
ca 1931
Scope and Contents
Original and copy typescripts of 8-page essay. Includes news clipping of Max Miller column (San Diego Sun, 7 Mar 1932) that
prompted Bancroft to write about her experience on Guadalupe Island.
Box 78, Folder 3
Pasadena (Mexico) article
Scope and Contents
Typescript of Bancroft essay prepared for the Junior League Magazine about Pasadena, Mexico.
Box 78, Folder 4
Text of Laurence Klauber's "A new snake of the genus Sonora from Lower California"
9 May 1943
Scope and Contents
Handwritten text by Laurence Klauber describing Sonora bancroftae sp. now., San Telmo ground snake, named in honor of Margaret
Wood Bancroft.
Box 78, Folder 5
Text fragment re Flight of the Least Petrel
ca. 1930
Scope and Contents
Typescript fragment of text by Griffing Bancroft's (page numbers 50 through 52) re Sierra San Pedro Mártir.
Series II - Photographs and related materials
Box 78
Photographic album
1923-1931
Margaret Wood Bancroft Album. Baja California, circa 1930
Physical Description: 0.25 Linear Feet
Digitization
The front cover and all pages of the photographic album have been digitized (2016; flat-bed scanner, 600dpi TIFFs).
Scope and Contents
Hand-made from cowhide with decorative straps, griffin design on back. 47 pages total. 141 photographs, with captions.
Box 78, Folder 6
Photographs and miscellaneous materials
1932-1941
Scope and Contents
One folder of loose photographs (prints). Includes five photos on the taxidermy of an elephant seal specimen; views of La
Encantada, Ensenada, and Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Also includes one photograph of a hawk landing on a nest (copyright, ornithologist
Wright M. Pierce).
Box 78
Scrapbook
1936
Margaret Wood Bancroft Scrapbook. Baja California, 1934-1935.
Scope and Contents
Scrapbook of Nov-Dec 1935 expedition to Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico. Travel companions included Bertie
Meling (Mrs. Salvatore Meling), Siebert Nelson, Ignacio Higuera, and Margaret Wood Bancroft. Includes notes, photographs,
captions, and two pages of news clippings re manhunt for William Mahan of Weyerhauser kidnapping.
Series III - Correspondence
Box 78, Folder 7 & 8
Correspondence
1932-1951
Physical Description: Some loose and bulk in small mailing envelope
Scope and Contents
Correspondence mostly concerning critical reception and acknowledgement of gift copies of Griffing Bancroft's 1932 book, The
Flight of the Least Petrel. Correspondents include Eleanor Roosevelt, James Rolph, Jr. (Governor of California).
Series IV - Flight of the Least Petrel related materials
Box 78, Item OS
Scrapbook of press clippings
ca. 1932
Scope and Contents
Bound volume of newspaper clippings re Griffing Bancroft's book,
The Flight of the Least Petrel, assembled by or for Mrs. Howard H. Taylor, Houghton-Mifflin.
Box 78, Folder 9
News clippings
1930-1932
Scope and Contents
Two newspaper articles about Bancroft expedition and publication of
The Flight of the Least Petrel.
"Local scientists plan expedition down coast." San Diego Union (2 Feb 1930). Describes 5-month planned cruise itinerary of
San Benito islands, Magdalena Bay, Cape San Lucas, Les Tres Marias islands, Revilla Gigedo island group, San Blas; s Study
participants to include Griffing Bancroft, Margaret Wood Bancroft, A. J. van Rossem, F. S. Rogers, Albert Kroeckel, and J.
Elton Green.
"Daring explorers turn adventures into copy." Los Angeles Times (7 Feb 1932).
Box 78, Folder 10
Book catalog, Putnam Books, Spring 1932
Scope and Contents
Softcover book catalog. Includes note re publication of
The Flight of the Least Petrel.
Box 78
Photographs to accompany manuscript
Scope and Contents
Two volumes (3-ring binders) of photographs with captions, indexed to mss of
The Flight of the Least Petrel. Vol. 1, photograph nos. 1-52; vol. 2, photograph nos. 53-106. Includes list of illustrations (nos. 1-111).
