A San Francisco Publishing Tradition

Bancroft

In the years following the Gold Rush Hubert Howe Bancroft gave San Francisco and the West its own publishing voice.

Whitaker & Ray

In 1869 Andrew WhitakerAndrew Whitaker

Andrew Whitaker was an early Sacramento County settler who arrived in the Dry Creek/Galt area in 1852. He became a prominent local farmer and merchant and, with Don Ray, built Whitaker & Ray into a successful Galt business serving the agricultural community.

Whitaker died in April 1894. His interest in the firm passed to his son James Whitaker. In the following year the company expanded into San Francisco, acquired the educational-supply business of A. L. Bancroft & Company, and developed into the publishing and educational-supply house remembered today. and Don RayDon Ray

Don Ray (1849–1910) was Andrew Whitaker's business partner and later president of Whitaker & Ray Co. After Whitaker's death, Ray helped lead the firm's expansion from Galt into San Francisco and its new focus on publishing, school books, educational supplies, and maps.

Ray remained president of the company through the first decade of the twentieth century. He died on April 12, 1910. began their contribution. By 1895 Whitaker & Ray had acquired parts of Bancroft's Company becoming part of Bancroft's legacy.

From San Francisco, Whitaker & Ray published books that helped educate a growing Western population and define the region in which they lived.

Surviving and publishing through the 1906 earthquake Whitaker and Ray became increasingly independent of the older Eastern houses.

Along side publishers John Henry Nash, Paul Elder, Taylor & Taylor and the Grabhorn brothers, Whitaker became known not only for what it published, but for the craftsmanship of the books themselves.

The West was no longer simply being written about. It was writing, publishing and defining itself.

Whitaker & Ray Today

Whitaker & Ray today is not the corporate successor to the original Whitaker & Ray.

We are continuing the idea.

Whitray publishes new authors and restores the voice of earlier generations bringing their stories of independence, discovery and the western experience back to life.

More than a century ago, Whitaker & Ray helped give the West its voice.

We believe that voice is still worth publishing.