Caroline Bancroft

Caroline Bancroft (September 11, 1900 – October 5, 1985) was an American journalist.

Early life Bancroft was born in Denver, Colorado, on September 11, 1900, to an established, "upper crust" family and was a third-generation Coloradan. and George Jarvis Bancroft, a Coloradan who graduated in 1895 from Stanford University. He was in the school's first graduating class with future president Herbert Hoover. Dr. Frederick J. Bancroft, her grandfather, was a Colorado pioneer and surgeon. In 1879 he was co-founder and first president of the Colorado Historical Society, originally called the State Historical and National History Society of Colorado. He served as president for 17 years. The 13,000 foot Mount Bancroft is named for him, below which is Lake Caroline, which is named for her.

George's wealth ebbed and flowed as he explored mining enterprises in Mexico and the western United States. Ethel rented out the second floor of their home at 1081 Downing Street to help support her two daughters, Caroline and Peggy, who was born in 1905. For entertainment, Caroline liked to ride horses that the family kept at a Corona Street livery or at the family's 2,500 acre summer home in Bear Creek Canyon. She also liked to travel to her father's Clover Knoll Farm by Barnum trolley. She published nine booklets on Colorado History which awards an annual literary prize in her name "to the author of the best book on Colorado or Western American History". The Denver Public Library's Western History and Genealogy Department makes the annual monetary award, which in 2016 will be a $1,000, and non-monetary honor book awards. Her estate also funds the Caroline Bancroft History Project Award, which is made annually by the Colorado Historical Society, now called History Colorado. It is awarded to "an individual, organization or museum that has contributed to public awareness, interest or involvement in Colorado history, or to its advancement." For example, in 2013 it was awarded to the Chimney Rock Interpretive Association (CRIA) that operates the Chimney Rock National Monument's interpretive program. An oil portrait of Bancroft is in the Denver Public Library, and link to a photograph of her standing in front of the portrait is in the External Links section below.

Publications