Name Mary Bamford | Role Author | |
Died May 21, 1946, Alameda County, California, United States Books Out of the Triangle: A Story of th, Up and down the brooks, Out of the Triangle - a Story of th, Ti: A Story of San Francisco | ||
Mary Ellen Bamford (December 10, 1857 – May 21, 1946) was an American author from Healdsburg, California.
Life
Bamford was the daughter of Doctor William Bamford and Cornelia Elizabeth Rand, her parents were pioneer settlers. In the 1850s, her future father had traveled across the plains whilst Cornelia Rand had arrived by California from New Hampshire. She had traveled by sea via Cape Horn. Mary was educated in public schools in Oakland, California and then spent four years working as an assistant in the Oakland Free Public Library, however writing remained her career. Bamford was an active prohibitionist and she was also secretary of the regional Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. She supplied books to a number of publishers including the American Baptist Publication Society.
In contrast to most Americans at the time, Bamford was sympathetic to Chinese and other Asians attempting to enter the United States. Although most scholars today do not accept her claim that the Angel Island Immigration Station was "the Ellis Island of the West," Bamford's study continues to be cited today. Bamford also wrote for Sunday schools of several denominations.
She died in 1946, and is buried in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery.