
George Bancroft, 1800-1891, was an American historian and Statesman who became a citizen of Newport with his home the famed “Rosecliff” mansion, named after the American Beauty Rose that he and a colleague developed. Over forty years, he wrote nine volumes of The History of the United States, and was credited with the existence of the U.S. Naval Academy during his terms Secretary of the Navy. He later became U.S. Minister to both Great Britain and Germany, and fostered the work of the U.S. Naval Observatory and three naval ships that were named in his honor.