Chicago considered buying it; naturally there was strong sentiment against permitting the Library to be removed from California and the Pacific States. In 1905, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Librarian of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and one of the foremost book experts in America, was invited to examine the Bancroft Library, "with a view to ascertaining its condition and, so far as may be, its marketable value." In his report, Thwaites characterized the collection of documents, manuscripts, books, pamphlets, and other materials, estimating the total value at upwards of $300,000. The report itself was published November 14, 1905, as a 20-page pamphlet. The Report of the Secretary to the Regents of the University of California, year ending June 30, 1906 noted, "The Bancroft Library, incomparably superior to any other existing collection as a mine of primary historical material for all western America, a collection which could not even remotely be imitated, at no matter what cost, was acquired by the University on November 24, 1905, at a cost of $250,000. Of this amount Mr. H. H. Bancroft, whose ingenuity, perseverance and skill created this collection, donated $100,000. Of the remaining $150,000. $50,000 was paid by the Regents on November 24, 1905; $50,000 is to be paid November 24, 1906, and the remaining $50,000 in November 1907." On June 11. 1907, the regents of the University approved the Constitution of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, submitted by the Bancroft Library Commission, thus making the Library itself "the indispensable nucleus of a great research library, like that of the British Museum," which has for its object "the promotion of the study of the political, social, commercial, and the industrial history, and the ethnology, geography, and literature of the Pacific Coast of America, and the publication of monographs, historical documents, and other historical material relating thereto. Later history The university named history chairperson Herbert E. Bolton its founding director, a position he held for the library's first 22 years. In his dual capacity, he made Bancroft Library a great research center for American history in congruence with the department's rise to prominence. Until the decade of the 1960s, The Bancroft Library continued to focus exclusively on the history of the American West, particularly the borderlands of northern Mexico and the southern United States, from Florida to California, an area associated with the research interests of long-time directors Bolton (1918–1940) and George P.