THE BANCROFT LIBRARY THE BANCROFT LIBRARY is the primary special
collections library at the University of California, Berkeley.
One of the largest and most heavily used libraries of
manuscripts, rare books, and unique materials in the United
States, Bancroft supports major research and instructional
activities and plays a leading role in the development of the
University's research collections. Bancroft's holdings include
more than 500,000 volumes, 50,000,000 manuscript items (some
35,000 linear feet), 2,800,000 photographs and other pictorial
materials, 43,000 microforms, and 23,000 maps. The Bancroft
Collection, the Library's largest subject collection, documents
the history of North America from the western plains states to
the Pacific coast and from Panama to Alaska, with greatest
emphasis on California and Mexico from the late eighteenth
century onward. The collection documents, through primary and
secondary resources in a variety of formats, the political,
economic, social and cultural history of this v