Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832(1832-05-05) – March 2, 1918), an American historian and ethnologist, was born in Granville, Ohio. He attended the Granville Academy until he was sixteen, and he then became a clerk in a bookstore in Buffalo, New York. Relocating to San Francisco, California, he managed a bookstore there from March 1852 to 1868, and he began his own publishing house. He also accumulated a great library of historical material, and eventually he gave up business to devote himself entirely to writing and publishing history.