Bartholow Vincent Crawford was born in Miles, Iowa, and attended high school and Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Following his graduation in 1910, Crawford began teaching English at Cornell College. He received his M.A. from Harvard University in 1913, and then taught in the Rhetoric Department at the University of Minnesota. He took his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1918, then moved to Houston to teach English at Rice Institute until 1921, when he joined the English Department faculty at the University of Iowa as assistant professor.

At the University of Iowa, Dr. Crawford became full professor in 1937. He taught courses in American literature and American drama, and for six years during his tenure he broadcast these classes on radio station WSUI. He also taught a course in American novel. Crawford married Phyllis Martin Jones in 1934, and the couple had two daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel. Bartholow Crawford retired from the University of Iowa in 1956, and died January 29, 1968.