About Our Keepsakes

Every year since 1949, the Friends of The Bancroft Library have published a Keepsake of a unique item in Bancroft’s collections, or of a short study based on them. The Bancroft Keepsakes are handsomely printed limited publications that are often the first edition of a rare manuscript or document owned by The Bancroft Library. Members of the Friends of The Bancroft Library who currently donate $250 or more each fiscal year receive a Keepsake in appreciation of their generosity.

2012: Keepsake 57

By Sail for San Francisco

By Sail for San Francisco evokes the brief and colorful era of the clipper ships that brought thousands of hopeful individuals to California during the Gold Rush, when sailing around the Horn was the fastest way to the Pacific coast from the eastern United States. In this choice little volume, Friends Council member David Wingate Pettus introduces readers to the clipper ship card, a rare advertising genre that peaked in the 1850s and soon disappeared when sailing vessels were eclipsed by steam ships and locomotives. The Bancroft Library has the largest collection of these beautiful little treasures — some 140 of them — in the West. Facsimiles of fifteen of Bancroft's clipper cards are included with the volume.

Past Keepsakes

*For detailed information of each Keepsake, please click on its respective title*