“Kim Bancroft’s ‘roots’ journey took her back four generations, back to an ancestor whose career was intimately tied to the early history of California. Bancroft’s great-great-grandfather was Hubert Howe Bancroft, founder of the library at UC Berkeley bearing his name.
Hubert Bancroft had a mania for collecting anything that pertained to the culture and history of the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to Alaska. His collection included gold miners’ diaries, samples of Eskimo hair, oral histories by California’s early Mexican settlers. Before he turned it over to the University of California, the collection had grown to some 60,000 items. Earlier this year Heyday Books in Berkeley published Kim Bancroft’s abridged version of her ancestor’s autobiography, Literary Industries. She’s been traveling throughout the state promoting the book, sometimes dressed as her great-great-grandmother Matilda, who assisted her husband in his collection of historical memorabilia.” – Tom Holt, SFGate
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