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.

2009: Keepsake 54

California as an Island: Maps from the Library

This reproduction of six early maps of California, selected and with an introduction and notes by Glen McLaughlin, Bancroft Friend and the world’s leading expert on the subject, shows how European cartographers struggled to resolve conflicting evidence about California’s geography from the end of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth.

We are also immensely grateful to Glen for his generous donation of copies of his definitive 1995 bibliography, The Mapping of California as an Island, which is also included with the Keepsake.

Past Keepsakes

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