He attended the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 1916, graduating in 1920 as a history major under Herbert E. Bolton.

In Los Angeles, Hammond revised his doctoral thesis on Don Juan de Oñate and the founding of New Mexico, clarifying the Oñate's contract for establishing a colony in New Mexico, and adding more information about the desertion of the colony.

[5] Hammond's contributions to the library included the purchase of a collection of Robert D. Honeymoon's paintings and original drawings.

George Hammond likely took part in two historical hoaxes: the Drake Plate of Brass, and the Chowan River Dare Stone.

[7] Several lines of evidence point to historian Herbert E. Bolton as the perpetrator of these hoaxes, and Hammond assisted.

Hammond was an accomplice in the Chowan River Dare Stone hoax, as he posed as LE Hammond and brought the stone to Emory University as evidenced by handwriting analysis that matches his signature with that of the alleged fruit dealer.

Drake’s Plate of Brass served to promote an English hero and stressed a white national identity of America; as did the Chowan River Dare stone and its alleged association with Eleanor Dare, a colonist from Raleigh’s Lost Colony.

These alleged artifacts were used by the historians involved in these hoaxes to promote much of the fabled narrative that fostered and furthered their racist ethos, and that of their White supporters.