Ruth Bancroft
| Ruth Petersson Bancroft | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ruth Petersson September 2, 1908 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | UC Berkeley (1932) |
| Occupation | Teacher, gardener, landscape architect |
| Notable work | Ruth Bancroft Garden |
| Spouse(s) | Philip Bancroft, Jr. (1939 until his death) |
Ruth Petersson Bancroft (born September 2, 1908) is the creator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California. A native of the Bay Area, Bancroft began the xeric garden in the 1950s on land originally purchased by Hubert Howe Bancroft, the grandfather of Ruth's husband, Philip Bancroft. The garden became the first in the United States to be preserved by The Garden Conservancy and has been open to the public since 1992.
Ruth Petersson was born to Swedish immigrants in Boston, Massachusetts on September 2, 1908. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was a Latin professor. While Petersson was a baby, her family moved to Berkeley, California, where her father was offered a job at the University of California, Berkeley. The oldest of three children, Petersson had a younger sister and a younger brother, both born in California.
As a child, she was an avid reader. Her favorite book was Sibylle von Olfers's Root Children, a German children's book about anthropomorphized plant-children who bloom in spring and return to the earth in fall. Fascinated by nature, she explored the undeveloped hills of Berkeley, examining wildflowers and digging up small plants to replant in her own backyard. Her early garden included a collection of irises, which she received from Sydney B. Mitchell, the founder of the American Iris Association, and Carl Salbach, an iris breeder.
In 1926, Petersson enrolled in UC Berkeley with a major in architecture, as one of two women students in the program. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, she left the architecture track and graduated with a teaching certificate in 1932. This career path offered greater job opportunities during a time when male architecture students struggled to find jobs and female architects were rare. She taught home economics at a school in Merced for eight years.
In the mid-1930s, Petersson met her future husband, Philip Bancroft, Jr. on a blind date. Philip was the grandson of Hubert Howe Bancroft, a successful publisher whose book collection was purchased by UC Berkeley. The special collections library at UC Berkeley is known today as the Bancroft Library. Ruth Petersson and Philip Bancroft married on June 30, 1939. Petersson, now Ruth Bancroft, moved with her husband to his family's farm in Walnut Creek.
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