Bancroft Loses a Friend
The passing of Dr. Woodrow Borah on December 10 at the age of 86 was also the passing of an epoch for The Bancroft Library. He was one of the last links to the traditions of research and faculty collecting for the library during the years of Director Herbert E. Bolton and Librarian Herbert I. Priestley.
Building on Bolton's and Priestley's interdisciplinary methods, Borah was influenced by European schools of geography and social and economic history. As he worked on the demography of colonial Mexico, these new methods prompted him to expand considerably his vision and use of library and archival source materials. Professor Borah not only used the rich published sources of The Bancroft Library, but he plumbed the original and microfilmed archival and manuscript collections that make Bancroft so well known. While in the field, he arranged for microfilm from Mexican national and regional archives, films that are still sought out by scholars today.
Over the years Dr. Borah told many stories of field collecting books and government documents going back to the late 1930s. Some of the great serial collections and multi-volume sets in Bancroft came from his cool but tenacious scouring of offices, basements, and storage rooms. He also was the master bibliographer who sought obscure yet useful works that provide the character, richness, and uniqueness of the published holdings of The Banrcroft Library. The catalog is shot through with hundreds of records that read "gift of Woodrow Borah."
Besides his gifts of microfilm and published materials, Dr. Borah leaves behind two substantial collections of personal research materials covering the wide range of historical investigation he pursued well after his retirement in 1980. These collections will provide future generations of researchers rich and unusual data that will continue to advance research in Mexican and Latin American history.
Walter Brem
Curator of Latin Americana
Volume 116
Spring 2000
Table of Contents
The Silent Multitude of Voices in the Reading Room
From the Director: Bancroft Goes Digital
Highlights from Bancroft's Web Resources
Paramount Theatre Archives at The Bancroft Library
Three Monuments in the History of Science Arrive at Bancroft
Ancient Lives: The Tebtunis Papyri in Context
From Mine to Natural Reserve: ROHO records the transition
Chemistry Symposium in Honor of Kenneth S. Pitzer Held January 9 to 13, 2000: Oral History Presented
Welcome, Iris Donovan, Circulation Supervisor in Bancroft
