[2] Born on July 10, 1893, in Glasgow, Kentucky, Margaret Wood was raised on a ranch in the San Diego back country and was briefly a silent movie actress (1913–1917), working with Hobart Bosworth, Dustin Farnum, Mack Sennett, D.W. Griffith, and Mabel Normand.

[3][4] She married ornithologist and oölogist Griffing Bancroft[5] (son of historian Hubert Howe Bancroft) in 1917 and was active in the social and political life of San Diego County, with membership in the Red Cross, the Junior League, and the San Diego Society of Natural History.

[6] In 1935, Bancroft led a small expedition to search for the legendary lost mission of Santa Ysabel in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California.

[11] From snake specimens Bancroft collected in 1932 on Isla San Geronimo, Baja California Norte, herpetologist Charles E. Shaw identified the species Anniella geronimensis (1940).

[2] The San Diego Natural History Museum Research Library houses a significant collection of Margaret Wood Bancroft's personal scrapbooks, letters, writings, and photographs.