When the question of State purchase was taken up, the Bancroft Library was said to contain from 50,000 to 60,000 volumes of books, pamphlets, maps and manuscripts. Prof. Joseph Cummings Rowell, Librarian of the State University, after careful personal examination, estimated the number at 40,000 as a total. For many years, the collection had been offered for sale, Bancroft holding it at US$250,000, which is but a fractional part of the original cost and yet doubtless above the then market price, which Rowell estimated at about $140,000, if the complete subject index be included. In 1887, a bill was presented in the State Legislature to purchase the library for the State for $250,000, but the proposition was quickly defeated. Some years later, the University of Chicago considered buying it; naturally there was strong sentiment against permitting the Library to be removed from California and the Pacific States.