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59-748: The School was named for George Bancroft , 1800–1891, educator, diplomat, philanthropist, and writer who helped found the U.S. Naval Academy and wrote the first comprehensive history of the United States. As one of the 11 member schools in the Eastern Independent League (EIL), Bancroft competes in a number of sports with other teams in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). MS teams include: US varsity teams include: Bancroft's athletic program has produced EIL and NEPSAC Championships across

118-471: A Prusso-Anglican bishopric as a sort of advertisement of the unity and aggressive force of Protestantism. The special mission of Bunsen to England, from June to November 1841, was completely successful, in spite of the opposition of English Tractarians and Lutheran extremists . The Jerusalem bishopric, with the consent of the British government and the active encouragement of the archbishop of Canterbury and

177-684: A Soldiers' and Sailors' Sanitary Fair , in Baltimore, to raise money to care for the Union Army. In 1866, he was chosen by Congress to deliver the special eulogy on Lincoln. In 1867, President Andrew Johnson offered Bancroft the post of US minister to Prussia, enabling him to return to Germany. Bancroft remained in Berlin for seven years, throughout the Franco-Prussian War and German unification . President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him minister to

236-475: A better society was possible. Patria was deserved because America's spreading influence would bring liberty and freedom to more and more of the world. "Pan-democracy" meant the nation-state was central to the drama, not specific heroes or villains. Richard C. Vitzthum argues that Bancroft's histories exemplify his Unitarian moral vision of faith in progress. The history of America, in Bancroft's view, exemplified

295-531: A great change in Bunsen's career. Ever since their first meeting in 1828 the two men had been close friends and had exchanged ideas in an intimate correspondence, published under Ranke 's editorship in 1873. Enthusiasm for evangelical religion and admiration for the Anglican Church they held in common, and Bunsen was the instrument naturally selected for realizing the king's fantastic scheme of setting up at Jerusalem

354-860: A member of the American Philosophical Society . In New York, Bancroft was a founding member of the American Geographical Society and served as the society's first president for nearly three years (February 21, 1852 – December 7, 1854). Bancroft was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1863. Bancroft served as the President of the American Historical Association, 1885-1886. Bancroft died in 1891, in Washington, D.C. He

413-972: A number of its sports. Bancroft's girls' volleyball program was established in 1996 by coach Bob Stein and Athletic Director Steve Kelley. Within three years, the Bulldogs claimed their first EIL Championship. Between 1999-00 and 2012, Bancroft won 12 consecutive Eastern Independent League titles and five straight NEPSAC Championships. In the midst of this run, the Bulldogs set the Massachusetts state record for consecutive wins by winning their 111th straight game on January 16, 2009 against Dana Hall School . The streak continued until October 5, 2011 when Bancroft fell to Buckingham Browne & Nichols after winning 168 consecutive matches. Notable alumni of Bancroft School include: See also: Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891)

472-520: A peerage for life. In 1858, at the special request of the regent (afterwards the emperor) William, he took his seat in the Prussian House of Lords , and, though remaining silent, supported the new ministry, of which his political and personal friends were members. Literary work was, however, his main preoccupation during all this period. Two discoveries of ancient manuscripts made during his stay in London,

531-571: A vast system of kindred studies, including Semitic and Sanskrit philology. He studied the religion, laws, language, and literature of the Teutonic races, perfecting his knowledge of the Scandinavian languages on a visit to Denmark and Sweden. He had read Hebrew when a boy, and now worked at Arabic at Munich , Persian at Leiden , and Norse at Copenhagen . At Vienna he met Friedrich von Schlegel ; at Munich, Schelling and Thiersch ; and he joined

590-475: A widow with two children. Together they had a daughter. In his later years Bancroft lived in Washington, D.C. , summering at Rose Cliff , Newport, Rhode Island , the site where Rosecliff was later built. Bancroft was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1838, and also served as its Secretary of Domestic Correspondence from 1877 to 1880. In 1841, Bancroft was elected as

649-584: A work, Die Zeichen der Zeit: Briefe , etc., which exercised an immense influence in reviving the Liberal movement which the failure of the revolution had crushed. In September 1857 Bunsen attended, as the king's guest, a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin ; and one of the last papers signed by Frederick William, before his mind gave way in October, was that which conferred upon him the title of baron and

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708-675: Is found atop one of several marble pillars in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Many schools, streets, towns, etc. bear his name: Bancroft is interred at Rural Cemetery in Worcester. Christian Charles Josias Bunsen Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen ( German : Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen ; 25 August 1791 – 28 November 1860),

767-771: Is the magisterial series, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent . Bancroft was born on October 3, 1800, in Worcester, Massachusetts . His family had been in Massachusetts Bay since 1632. George's father, Aaron Bancroft , was distinguished as a Revolutionary War soldier, a leading Unitarian clergyman, and author of a popular biography of George Washington . Bancroft began his education at Phillips Exeter Academy . He entered Harvard College at thirteen years of age and graduated with

826-540: The North American Review and American Quarterly . He also made a translation of Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren 's work on The Politics of Ancient Greece . In 1836, he published an oration advocating universal suffrage and the foundation of the state on the power of the whole people. In 1830, he was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate from Northampton without his knowledge by the support of

885-622: The American Revolution . By 1956, this subset of scholars had tentatively determined that, "toward the end of the seventeenth century there emerged an entire apparatus of local politics" that "came, gradually, to accommodate itself" within the imperial system and in various "forms...it is their collapse under the pressures of new circumstances after 1760 that alone made the Revolution 'irrepressible.' " In 1837, Bancroft entered active politics by accepting an appointment as Collector of Customs of

944-584: The Court of St. James's . In this post he remained for thirteen years. His tenure of the office coincided with the critical period in Prussian and European affairs which culminated in the revolutions of 1848 . Bunsen had realized the significance of the signs that heralded these revolutions, and tried in vain to move Frederick William to a policy which would have placed him at the head of a Germany united and free. In Berlin in 1844, he had been asked to set forth his views on

1003-577: The Imperial School took a more favorable view of the British Empire than Bancroft. Edmund Morgan compares Bancroft's history to that of the Liberal statesman Sir George Trevelyan in that both reject the Progressive view of the Revolution as a mere invocation of political philosophy as a means to keep and consolidate power. Morgan and other neo-Whig historians have embraced Bancroft's view that

1062-714: The University of Göttingen . Bancroft capped off his education with a European tour, in the course of which he sought out almost every distinguished man in the European world of letters, science and art, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Wilhelm von Humboldt , Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Lord Byron , Barthold Georg Niebuhr , Christian Charles Josias Bunsen , Friedrich Carl von Savigny , Varnhagen von Ense , Victor Cousin , Benjamin Constant and Alessandro Manzoni . Bancroft returned to

1121-468: The Working Men's Party , but refused to take his seat. and the next year he declined another nomination, though certain to have been elected, for the state senate. Bancroft, having trained in the leading German universities, was an accomplished scholar, whose masterwork History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent covered the new nation in depth down to 1789. His History of

1180-692: The 1872 arbitration on the status of the San Juan Islands , stemming from the Pig War of 1859. The United States maintained that the disputed channel was intended to be the Haro Strait , while Great Britain believed that it was the Rosario Strait . In the San Juan arbitration Bancroft displayed great versatility and skill and won the case, which was decided by a commission (three eminent German Judges) appointed by

1239-683: The Bible was first suggested to Bunsen by his young wife. Cornelius , Overbeck , Brandis , and Platner were the inseparable companions of the Bunsens. The Bunsens' lodgings in the Palazzo Caffarelli on the Capitoline Hill , where they lived 22 years, became a resort of many distinguished persons. As secretary to Niebuhr, Bunsen was brought into contact with the Vatican movement for the establishment of

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1298-674: The Class of 1817. After Harvard, Bancroft's father sent him abroad to study in Germany, where he studied at the universities of Göttingen, and Berlin. At Göttingen, he studied Plato with Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren , history with Heeren and Gottlieb Jakob Planck , and languages and scripture interpretation with Albert Eichhorn, natural science with Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , German literature with Georg Friedrich Benecke , French and Italian literature with Artaud and Bunsen, and classics with Georg Ludolf Dissen . In 1820, he received his doctorate from

1357-521: The Egyptologist Champollion to Rome formed an epoch in Bunsen's antiquarian studies. However, his argument in support of Champollion's priority over Young was based upon an insufficient knowledge of Young's publication dates. He became himself a zealous auditor of Champollion, and also encouraged Lepsius in the study of hieroglyphics. The Archaeological Institute, established in 1829, found in Bunsen its most active supporter. Bunsen founded

1416-537: The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm. The final ruling was issued on October 21, 1872, and British troops withdrew from San Juan Island on November 22, 1872, after 26 years of maintaining an amicable, yet tense relationship. His first wife was Sarah Dwight, of a rich family in Springfield, Massachusetts ; they married in 1827 and had two sons. She died in 1837. He formed a second marriage with Mrs Elizabeth Davis Bliss,

1475-585: The German Empire in 1871. During his tenure in Berlin, Bancroft spent much time negotiating agreements with Prussia and the other north German states relating to naturalization and citizenship issues; they became known as the Bancroft Treaties in his honor. The treaties were the first international recognition of the right of expatriation . The principle has since incorporated in the law of nations . His last official achievements were his participation in

1534-552: The Navy. He found that he could order "a place where midshipmen should wait for orders." He could also direct instructors to give lessons to them at sea, and by law, instructors could follow the midshipmen to the place of their common residence on shore. The appropriation of the year for the naval service met the expense, and the Secretary of War ceded an abandoned military post to the navy. Therefore, when Congress came together, it learned that

1593-589: The Port of Boston by President Martin Van Buren . Two of his own appointees in the office were Orestes Brownson and author Nathaniel Hawthorne . In 1844, Bancroft was the Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts but he was defeated. He called for the annexation of Texas as extending "the area of freedom" and opposed slavery. In 1845, in recognition for his support at the previous Democratic convention, Bancroft

1652-540: The Protestant hospital on the Tarpeian Rock in 1835. Owing partly to the wise statesmanship of Count Spiegel , archbishop of Cologne, an arrangement was made by which the thorny question of "mixed" marriages (i.e., between Catholic and Protestant ) would have been happily solved; but the archbishop died in 1835, the arrangement was never ratified, and the Prussian king was foolish enough to appoint as Spiegel's successor

1711-520: The United States started appearing in 1834, and he constantly revised it in numerous editions. It remains among the most comprehensive histories of colonial America. Bancroft was a Romantic , emphasizing nationalist and republican values. Bancroft played on four recurring themes to explain the development of American values: providence, progress, patria, and pan-democracy. "Providence" meant that destiny depended more on God than on human will. The idea of "progress" indicated that through continuous reform

1770-432: The United States in 1822. While the young man delivered several sermons at his father's behest shortly after his return, his love of literature proved a stronger attachment. His first position was as a tutor of Greek at Harvard. Bancroft chafed at the narrow curriculum of Harvard in his day and the pedantic spirit of its classics curriculum. Moreover, his personal affect of ardent Romanticism subjected him to ridicule among

1829-553: The Vatican and from Frederick William III , who put him in charge of the legation on Niebuhr's resignation, he received unqualified approbation. Though not within the scope of the great plan of his life, Bunsen contributed largely to the Beschreibung der Stadt Rom (3 vols., 1830–43) the greater part of the topographical communications on ancient Rome, and all the investigations into the early history of Christian Rome. The first visit of

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1888-470: The bishop of London, was duly established, endowed with Prussian and English money, and remained for some forty years an isolated symbol of Protestant unity and a rock of stumbling to Anglican Catholics . During his stay in England Bunsen had made himself very popular among all classes of society, and he was selected by Queen Victoria , out of three names proposed by the king of Prussia, as ambassador to

1947-561: The contested land between Texas and Mexico. That catalyzed the Mexican War , resulting in the United States greatly increasing its territory in the Southwest. Bancroft designed and developed the Naval Academy; he received all the appropriations for which he asked. Congress had never been willing to establish a naval academy, but Bancroft studied the law to assess the powers of the Secretary of

2006-496: The election of Whig Zachary Taylor as president, Bancroft's political appointment ended. On his return to the United States in 1849, he withdrew from public life and moved to New York, where he focused on writing history. As a private citizen, Bancroft initially expressed skepticism towards Abraham Lincoln 's election, describing him as, "without brains," and "ignorant, self-willed, and... surrounded by men some of whom are almost as ignorant as himself." However, Bancroft softened to

2065-551: The fleet ballistic missile submarine USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643) , the mid-19th century United States Coast Survey schooner USCS Bancroft and steel gunboat USS  Bancroft  (1892) The dormitory at the United States Naval Academy , Bancroft Hall , is named after him. It is the largest single dormitory in the world. Bancroft is one of 23 famous names on the $ 1 educational currency note of 1896 . The name of Bancroft, honoring George Bancroft,

2124-562: The formal society of New England and his political sympathies for Jacksonian democracy put him at odds with nearly all of the Boston elite. In 1823, he published his first work, a little volume of poetry, translations and original pieces, which brought no fame. Bancroft finally left Cambridge and with Joseph Cogswell established the Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts . While at Round Hill, Bancroft contributed frequently to

2183-597: The gradual unfolding of God's purpose for mankind – the development of religious and political liberty. George M. Frederickson argues that Bancroft's "universalist theory of national origins... made the American Revolution not only the fruit of a specific historical tradition, but also a creed of liberty for all mankind." Bancroft's orotund romantic style and enthusiastic patriotism fell out of favor with later generations of scientific historians, who did not assign his books to students. After 1890, American scholars of

2242-849: The grand center-point to which all his literary and intellectual energies were to be devoted, but he died before he could finish it. Three volumes of the Bibelwerk were published at his death. The work was completed in the same spirit with the aid of manuscripts under the editorship of Hollzmann and Kamphausen. In 1858 Bunsen's health began to fail; visits to Cannes in 1858 and 1859 brought no improvement, and he died on 28 November 1860, in Bonn . One of his last requests having been that his wife would write down recollections of their common life, she published his Memoirs in 1868, which contain much of his private correspondence. The German translation of these Memoirs has added extracts from unpublished documents, throwing

2301-424: The latter in studying Persian, and read law with Feuerbach . Historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr 's work and character had aroused Bunsen's enthusiasm, and at the close of 1815 he went to Berlin , to show Niebuhr the plan of research which he had mapped out. He remained some months in the company of the historian. Niebuhr was so impressed with Bunsen's ability that, two years later, when he became Prussian envoy to

2360-455: The medieval Empire, Bunsen found himself increasingly out of sympathy. He felt bitterly the humiliation of Prussia by Austria after the victory of the reaction; and in 1852 he set his signature reluctantly to the treaty which, in his view, surrendered the "constitutional rights of Schleswig and Holstein ". His whole influence was now directed to withdrawing Prussia from the blighting influence of Austria and Russia, and attempting to draw closer

2419-465: The midshipmen not at sea were housed at Annapolis. Thus, they were protected from the dangers of idleness and city life and busy at a regular course of study. Congress accepted the school, which was in full operation, and granted money for the repairs of the buildings. Bancroft introduced some new respected professors into the corps of instructors, and he suggested a system of promotion, related to experience and achievements as well as age. The merit system

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2478-469: The narrow-minded partisan Baron Droste . The pope gladly accepted the appointment, and in two years the forward policy of the Jesuits had brought about the strife which Bunsen and Spiegel had tried to prevent. Bunsen rashly recommended that Droste should be seized, but the coup was so clumsily attempted, that the incriminating documents were, it is said, destroyed in advance. The government, in this impasse, took

2537-665: The one containing a shorter text of the Epistles of St Ignatius , and the other an unknown work On All the Heresies , by Bishop Hippolytus, had already led him to write his Hippolytus and his Age: Doctrine and Practice of Rome under Commodus and Severus (1852). He now concentrated all his efforts upon a translation of the Bible with commentaries, the Bibelwerk . While this was in preparation he published his God in History , in which he contends that

2596-479: The papal church in the Prussian dominions, to provide for the largely increased Catholic population. He was among the first to realize the importance of this new vitality on the part of the Vatican, and he made it his duty to provide against its possible dangers by urging upon the Prussian court the wisdom of fair and impartial treatment of its Catholic subjects. In this object he was at first successful, and both from

2655-769: The papal court, he made the young scholar his secretary. The intervening years Bunsen spent in assiduous labour among the libraries and collections of Paris and Florence , where he again joined Astor. When Astor returned to the United States, Bunsen became the French teacher of a Mr. Cathcart, an English gentleman. In 1816, he continued his studies of Persian and Arabic in Paris under Sylvestre de Sacy . In July 1817 he married Frances Waddington , eldest daughter and co-heiress of Benjamin Waddington of Llanover , Monmouthshire , an English clergyman. The plan of an improved German translation of

2714-413: The patriots were motivated by a deep commitment to individual liberty. Inspired by Bancroft, Bernard Bailyn and a cohort of mid-twentieth-century historians challenged the dichotomy between "national self-awareness" and the study of history. Although they had found "limitations" in Bancroft's works, mid-twentieth-century "instrumentalist" historians wished to reexamine the "image of colonial origins" of

2773-588: The progress of mankind marches parallel to the conception of God formed within each nation by the highest exponents of its thought. At the same time he carried through the press, assisted by Samuel Birch, the concluding volumes of his work (published in English as well as in German) Egypt's Place in Universal History . This work contained a reconstruction of Egyptian chronology, together with an attempt to determine

2832-517: The question of granting a constitution to Prussia, and he had presented a series of memorials representing the need of a deliberative assembly, and had also made a plan of a constitution modeled on that of England. With the visionary schemes of Frederick William, whether that of setting up a strict episcopal organization in the Evangelical Church in Prussia , or that of reviving the defunct ideal of

2891-456: The relation in which the language and the religion of that country stand to the development of each among the more ancient non-Aryan and Aryan races. His ideas on this subject were most fully developed in two volumes published in London before he left England. His greatest work, Bibelwerk für die Gemeinde , the first part of which was published in 1858, was intended to be completed in 1862. It had occupied his attention for nearly 30 years, as

2950-511: The safest course, refused to support Bunsen, and accepted his resignation in April 1838. After leaving Rome , where he had become intimate with all that was most interesting in the cosmopolitan society of the papal capital, Bunsen went to England, where, except for a short term as Prussian ambassador to Switzerland (1839–1841), he spent the rest of his official life. The accession to the throne of Prussia of Frederick William IV , on 7 June 1840, made

3009-459: The ties that bound her to Britain. On the outbreak of the Crimean War he urged Frederick William to throw in his lot with the western powers, and create a diversion in the north-east which would have forced Russia at once to terms. The rejection of his advice, and the proclamation of Prussia's attitude of "benevolent neutrality", led him in April 1854 to offer his resignation, which was accepted. He

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3068-436: The university prize essay of the year 1812 with his treatise, De Iure Atheniensium Hœreditario (“Athenian Law of Inheritance”), and a few months later the University of Jena granted him the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy. During 1813 he traveled extensively with Astor in Germany and Italy. On his return to Göttingen, he and his friends formed the nucleus of a philological and philosophical society, and he pursued

3127-422: The wartime president after initiating correspondence with Lincoln in 1861, and used the communication to argue for the case of abolishing slavery. In April 1864, at Bancroft's request, President Abraham Lincoln wrote out what would become the fourth of five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address . Bancroft planned to include the copy in Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors , which he planned to sell at

3186-653: Was a German diplomat and scholar. He worked in the Papal States and England for a large part of his career. Bunsen was born at Korbach , an old town in the German principality of Waldeck . His father was a farmer driven by poverty to become a soldier. Having studied at the Korbach gymnasium (a type of superior state grammar school) and Marburg University , Bunsen went in his nineteenth year to Göttingen , where he studied philosophy under Christian Gottlob Heyne , and supported himself by teaching and later by acting as tutor to William Backhouse Astor , John Jacob's son. Bunsen had been recommended to Astor by Heyne. He won

3245-446: Was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and international levels. During his tenure as U.S. Secretary of the Navy , he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis . He was a senior American diplomat in Europe, leading diplomatic missions to Britain and Germany. Among his best-known writings

3304-424: Was appointed to James Polk 's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy , serving until 1846, when, for a month, he was acting Secretary of War . During his short period in the cabinet, Bancroft established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , creating a legacy of education and leadership. He ordered naval action that resulted in the occupation of California and, as secretary of War, sent Zachary Taylor into

3363-423: Was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1853. Bunsen's life as a public man was now practically at an end. He retired first to a villa on the Neckar near Heidelberg and later to Bonn. He refused to stand for a seat, in the Liberal interest, in the Lower House of the Prussian diet, but continued to take an active interest in politics, and in 1855 published in two volumes

3422-418: Was not fully developed or applied at the time. Bancroft was influential also in obtaining additional appropriations for the United States Naval Observatory . Similarly, Bancroft studied so deeply the Oregon boundary dispute that in 1846, he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to London to work with the British government on the issue. There, he roomed with the historian Macaulay and the poet Hallam . With

3481-491: Was the last surviving member of the Polk cabinet. Among his other speeches and addresses may be mentioned a lecture on "The Culture, the Support, and the Object of Art in a Republic," in the course of the New York Historical Society in 1852; and one on "The Office, Appropriate Culture, and Duty of the Mechanic." Bancroft contributed a biography of Jonathan Edwards to the American Cyclopædia . The United States Navy has named several ships USS Bancroft for him, as well as

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