Cogswell Family papers

Collection

Identifier: MS 0152

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains numerous letters relating to personal and business events involving the Cogswell family. It also includes legal documents relating to business transactions reflecting the development and establishment of the Cogswell family throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. This family ran very successful businesses and these papers reflect the changes occurring in social attitudes and methods of business transactions over a 100 year period. The papers in this collection include business transactions, cases, bonds and personal letters showing the development and establishment of the Cogswell family.

Dates

Creation: 1823 - 1927

Creator

Cogswell, Frederick (Author, Person)
Cogswell, William (Author, Person)
Cogswell, Edna Maude (Author, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Conditions Governing Access

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material from the Cogswell Family Papers must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.

Biographical / Historical

The Cogswell Family was active in the business world in late nineteenth century New York and early twentieth century Maine, primarily in the tannery and general commission business. This collection contains the correspondence and legal documents of Frederick Cogswell, his son William Cogswell, and William's wife Edna Maude Cogswell, the inventor of sealing letter envelopes. Frederick Cogswell was a Justice of the Peace in Maine and a prominent member of society. He started as a tanner and his son, William, inherited this business and built it up into a fairly wealthy enterprise.