Dates

• Majority of material found within 1866 - 2016

Extent

10 boxes Linear Feet (Milton Herbert Bancroft (January 1, 1866-December 13, 1947) became an Impressionist painter of portraits, landscapes, figures, and murals. He was much influenced by his stay at Giverny, France where he adopted the effects of sun dappled light on figures and landscape that were espoused by Richard Miller, Louis Ritman, Frederick Frieseke, and George Biddle. Specializing in portraits, Bancroft experimented with various techniques in landscape studies. He is perhaps best known for painting the mural decorations for the Court of Four Seasons at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco, California. Bancroft worked in various mediums such as oil, watercolors, pen and ink, and charcoal. Among these various mediums for his art, he was known to have a remarkable sense of color and composition. Milton Bancroft was born in Newton Falls, Massachusetts on New Year’s Day 1866. His parents were Deacon William Henry Childs Bancroft (August 10, 1833-February 9, 1916) and Martha A. Varnum Bancroft (1838-September 14, 1915). Martha Varnum Bancroft was the daughter of Daniel and Cornelia Green Varnum. They had three children: William S. Bancroft (1862-May 1, 1957), Milton Herbert Bancroft, and Louella F. Bancroft. William S. Bancroft became a machinist and married Lillian McLaughlin (1877- 1970) on October 10, 1895, they had two children, Gertrude M. Bancroft Keefe (1887-1991) and Milton W. Bancroft (1896-1913). Around 1640, their ancestor Deacon Thomas Bancroft came from England and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was buried at the Wakefield Cemetery, but was later moved when the Lynnefield Commons was created. Later the Bancroft family lived in New Hampshire in Reading, Groton, Chelmsford, and Mount Vernon. Milton Bancroft’s paternal grandfather was Stowell Bancroft (April 11, 1799-March 14, 1883) whose parents were Samuel Bancroft (1764-1822) and Abigail Child Bancroft (May 26, 1772-October 9, 1856). Milton Bancroft attended schools in Newton Falls, Massachusetts. Starting at the age of 16, he attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School (MNAS) in Boston from 1883. He graduated from MNAS in 1886. Afterwards, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Bancroft later attended the Academie Julien in Paris with other notable artists such as Deladuce and Colarossi. Bancroft also studied with Courtois, Callot, Delance, and Girardot. Upon the completion of his studies, Milton Bancroft began teaching at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, which was founded in 1860 by the Society of Friends. From 1886 to 1893, Bancroft taught at Swarthmore, and he also taught courses at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he took classes from 1892 to 1894. Bancroft was a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York City and the Philadelphia Sketch Club (see Box 5 Folder 1g). He was also good friends with Beaux-Arts architect Henry Bacon (November 28, 1866-February 17, 1924) who built the Greek Doric-style Lincoln Memorial (1915-1922) in Washington, D.C., and sculptor Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850-October 7, 1931) who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln that is seated in Henry Bacon’s Lincoln Memorial, which was dedicated in 1922. Bancroft painted a portrait of French’s daughter that hangs in the French family summer home Chesterwood in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that was designed by his friend Henry Bacon and has since become a museum. Milton Bancroft (1866-1947) and Margaret Corlies Moore (November 27, 1871-June 30, 1956) met while he was teaching at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. Margaret and several family members attended Swarthmore including her older brother Frederick Potts Moore (1864-1935) who graduated in 1885 and became a banker and stockbroker in New York. Milton Bancroft married Margaret Corlies Moore on June 8, 1893 in a traditional Quaker ceremony at the Moore family farm Norwood in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Sandy Spring was a small community in rural Montgomery County, Maryland that was founded by Quakers in the 1700s. Margaret Corlies Moore was the youngest daughter of Joseph Townsend Moore, Sr. (September 19, 1835- December 10, 1914) and his first wife Anna Farrington Leggett Moore (August 10, 1837- November 8, 1885) who were married on September 8, 1858. Joseph Townsend Moore, Sr., who was a Republican Maryland State Senator from 1881 to 1885, later married Eliza Needles Bentley Moore (1843-1921), and he was the son of Robert Rowland Moore (June 8, 1812-December 16, 1895) and his wife Hadassah Joanna Townsend Moore (July 20, 1816-April 17, 1897) who was the daughter of Joseph Townsend (February 26, 1756- September 30, 1841) and Esther Hallett Townsend from Baltimore, Maryland. The Moore- Tyson Family Papers are housed at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Margaret Corlies Moore had three other brothers Joseph Townsend Moore, Jr. (1860-1906), Thomas Leggett Moore (1861-1927), and George Haydock Moore (1866-1920). After getting married, the Bancroft family immediately moved to France to continue Milton Bancroft’s studies abroad. The Moore family were Quaker, and according to family tradition, the Moore family were not pleased to have their daughter marry an artist and move to Europe. This may account for Margaret Bancroft returning to the United States and living on the family farm Norwood in Montgomery County, Maryland, with their children. There was significant correspondence between Milton and Margaret Bancroft and their children while he maintained a studio in New York City. In 1920, Milton Bancroft retired to Norwood. Margaret’s older sister, Mary Leggett Moore (1859-1939), married Joseph W. Tilton (1837- 1920) and had no children, but she regularly wrote to the Bancroft children, who called her Aunt Tilt and her husband Uncle Joe. Mary went to live at the family farm Norwood in 1920 after her husband passed away. Margaret and Mary’s brother, Joseph Townsend Moore, Jr. (May 2, 1862-March 31, 1906) was married to Estelle Tyson Moore (April 24, 1861-July 24, 1937), and they had a daughter Estelle Tyson Moore (August 25, 1890-August 4, 1968) and a twin brother who were born on August 25, 1890, but their son died less than a year later. Joseph and Estelle Moore had another daughter Beatrix Tyson Moore (June 19, 1893-December 16, 1963). Estelle (Cousin Stella) and Beatrix (Cousin Bea) often wrote to the Bancroft children. Milton H. Bancroft and Margaret Corlies Moore Bancroft had three children: John Townsend Bancroft (1896-1978) who was born in Europe and served in World War One; Anna (Nancy) Moore Bancroft Coles (September 18, 1900-1983), and Thomas Moore Bancroft (September 11, 1902-1965). John T. Bancroft enlisted in the U. S. Army in January 1918 and served in World War One. Milton and Margaret Bancroft’s younger son, Thomas M. Bancroft, married Edith Woodward (1905-1971), whose family raised thoroughbred horses. Thomas and Edith had two children, Thomas Moore Bancroft, Jr. (born in 1930) and William Woodward Bancroft (1932-2003). Milton and Margaret Bancroft’s only daughter Anna (Nancy) Moore Bancroft (1900-1983) spent most of her childhood at Norwood, the family farm in Sandy Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland. Her maternal grandfather Joseph Townsend Moore, Sr. was active in Maryland politics and the Moore family were Quakers. Anna Moore Bancroft graduated from the Drexel Institute (Drexel University) on June 2, 1918. She married Charles B. Coles (1899-1982) in 1923, and they had three children including Barbara Haydock Coles (1925- 2002), Henry B. Coles (1927-1993), and Margaret Bancroft Coles. Milton Bancroft is perhaps best known for creating 10 large and well known allegorical murals in the Court of Four Seasons at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 (PPIE) at the San Francisco world’s fair. Bancroft’s murals for the exposition were painted in 1914. The exposition was held from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Academically trained in Philadelphia and Paris, and nationally recognized for his portraits and architectural murals, Milton Bancroft engaged in home front efforts during the First World War. He designed posters for the U. S. Navy, Red Cross, and Council of National Defense and campaigned with fellow artists to raise funds for European war relief. Bancroft’s best known poster was entitled “To Arms” is considered an iconic art piece of Americana. He had a studio on Shelter Island, New York. He painted a portrait of sculptress Beatrice Evelyn Longman (November 21, 1874-March 10, 1954) and she created a bust of Bancroft. They both worked on the San Francisco Exposition in 1914-1915. Longman was a student of Daniel Chester French. Bancroft’s portrait of Longman resides at the American Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Towards the end of World War One in 1918-1919, Bancroft closed his studio in New York City, and he went to France with the Y.M.C.A., as one of the chiefs of decoration of the Foyer des Soldats. He visited the Western Front, and returned to the United States with a series of drawings documenting the wartime destruction he had seen in Europe, which were exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 1920. These drawings and other works were shown to U. S. Secretary of War Newton Baker (1871-1937) and Commanding General of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War One, John “Black Jack” Pershing (September 13, 1860-July 15, 1948), both of whom were deeply impressed and hoped the works could be acquired as a whole by the Federal Government. However, no funding was available at the time to make such an acquisition. His artwork was shown in an Exhibition of Sketches of the War Zone in France by Milton Bancroft – at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 1-22, 1920. A number of Milton Bancroft’s World War One sketches and posters are part of the Permanent Collection of the IUP University Museum. In 1920, Milton Bancroft retired to the family farm Norwood in Sandy Spring, Maryland. He had not spent much time at Norwood prior to his retirement. Bancroft lived there with his family until his death on December 13, 1947. The Norwood estate is now a Quaker-sponsored assisted living center. Milton Bancroft, his immediate family, and much of the Moore family are buried at the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting House Cemetery, near Norwood. The Bancroft family tree is available on ancestry.com and further information about the family was provided by descendants of Milton Bancroft. The original collection of Milton Bancroft archival materials, paintings, drawings, posters, furnishings, and memorabilia was purchased from the John Bancroft estate sale in Maryland by Dr. Barbara J. Balsiger (1927-2011) in 1978 for the Foundation for IUP to be housed in the Permanent Collection of the University Museum at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. John Townsend Bancroft (1896-1978) was the eldest son of artist Milton Bancroft, and Dr. Balsiger also contacted Milton Bancroft’s daughter Anna Bancroft Coles (1900-1983). Dr. Balsiger was instrumental in founding the University Museum and the Art History program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Dr. Balsiger later donated Bancroft works that she had personally purchased to the University Museum. These materials included most or all of the archival materials, which Dr. Balsiger used as research material for a biography about Milton Bancroft that she had planned to write, but never completed. She donated the Milton Bancroft ephemera and archival materials to the Foundation for IUP of which the archival collection was later transferred to the IUP Special Collections and University Archives in the Stapleton Library. Additional artwork and drawings by Milton Bancroft were donated to the University Museum by Dr. Woodrow Bashline in the 1990s and by Barbara and Larry Kubala in 2012. The University Museum has retained the Milton Bancroft Collection of paintings, drawings, and related artistic artifacts as part of the Permanent Collection, and the IUP Special Collections and University Archives has organized the following collection of archival materials, all of which are available to the public for research. Additional information about the provenance and artwork is available upon request. The University Museum has exhibited the artwork of Milton Bancroft on several occasions. From September 10-October 26, 2016, Donna Cashdollar and Harrison Wick co-curated the University Museum exhibition “Gilded Age to Great War: Milton Bancroft and His Art,” featuring Bancroft’s artwork from the University Museum’s Permanent Collection and archival materials from Manuscript Group 133. This exhibit highlighted paintings conserved by Michael Mosorjak and paper-based artwork conserved by ICA Art Conservation in Cleveland. The archival collection consists mostly of documents and personal letters associated with Milton Bancroft and his immediate family. However, there are other items to note as well including some mural study artwork, sketches, autographed correspondence, legal documents, memorabilia, and photographs. The collection is housed in 11 archival boxes and is divided into series. Many of Milton Bancroft’s paintings and drawings were purchased by Dr. Barbara J. Balsiger for the University Museum. The works and archival collection of Milton Bancroft have been exhibited at IUP on numerous occasions. The Milton Bancroft Collection of artwork, drawings, furnishings, steamer trunk, and painter’s cabinet which contains art supplies are part of the Permanent Collection in the University Museum. The Milton Bancroft Art Collection in the University Museum at Indiana University of Pennsylvania illustrates the artist’s transition from academic painting to an impressionistic style during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are more than 200 paintings and drawings in the Milton Bancroft Art Collection in the University Museum, along with several hundred original documents described in Manuscript Group 133 in the IUP Special Collections and University Archives, comprise the largest comprehensive body of Milton Bancroft material in any American institution. Series List: Series I Correspondence; Series II Photographs and Postcards; Series III Family Correspondence; Series IV Newspaper Articles; Series V Business and Legal Documents; Series VI Miscellaneous Memorabilia; and Series VII Oversized Memorabilia.)

Language of Materials

English