

COGSWELL, JOSEPH G. 



121 



'erkins, one of the celebrities of Boston, 

 and an intimate friend of the philosopher 

 Benjamin Franklin. He was present when 

 Franklin killed a pigeon with his new electric 

 battery a circumstance Dr. N. Cogswell re- 

 membered and related with no small degree 

 of satisfaction. Joseph Green Cogswell was 

 born September 27, 1786, and in his twenty- 

 first year was graduated with honor at Harvard 

 University. In a letter to General J. G. Wil- 

 . son, dated Cambridge, May 27, 1870, he says : 

 " When I was a youth, I lived in Ipswich, my 

 native place, and used to see Dr. Nathaniel 

 Cogswell often. He owned several acres of 

 valuable land near the grammar-school where I 

 received my early education, and used to come 

 to look after his land frequently, but I only 

 knew him as one of the most respectable and 

 wealthy gentlemen in the neighborhood. I 

 was too young to claim an acquaintance with 

 him. His son, your father-in-law, was my 

 college classmate and valued friend tbrough 

 life. He generally called on me at the Astor 

 Library when he came to New York. We 

 were both descendants of John Cogswell, who 

 came over from England between 1630 and 

 1640, and was shipwrecked near Cape Ann, 

 but got safe to land, though he lost all his 

 money, which was a considerable sum tradi- 

 tion says five thousand pounds. He had been 

 a merchant in London." After making a voy- 

 age to India as supercargo of the vessel in 

 which he sailed, Dr. Cogswell practised law 

 for a few years at Belfast, Me. The death 

 of his wife, a daughter of Governor Gilman, 

 of New Hampshire, induced him to abandon a 

 profession for which he doubtless had little 

 taste, and he became, in 1814, a tutor at Har- 

 vard College. In 1816 he visited Europe, and, 

 in company with George Ticknor, spent two 

 years at the University of Gottingen, where 

 they advanced together in the special culture 

 which has associated their names with what 

 is highest in American literature and bibli- 

 ography. He remained two years longer in 

 Europe, chiefly on the Continent, passing 

 most of his time in the principal capitals, and 

 directing his attention especially to educa- 

 tional problems and bibliography. He was, 

 with his friend Ticknor, the guest of Sir 

 Walter Scott, at Abbotsford ; and contributed 

 to BlackwoocVs Magazine a paper on Ameri- 

 can literature, which attracted much atten- 

 tion. Returning to the United States ia 

 1820, he was appointed Professor of Geol- 

 ogy and Mineralogy in his alma mater, and 

 librarian of the same institution. In 1823, 

 having resigned his position in Harvard, he, 

 in connection with George Bancroft, the his- 

 torian, established the Round Hill School, 

 at Northampton, Mass. The plan of the 

 institution was novel, and based on an ex- 

 amination of the best English and German 

 systems of education. After Mr. Bancroft's 

 retirement in 1830, Dr. Cogswell continued 

 the school by himself for six years, when he 



assumed^ the charge of a similar institution 

 in Raleigh, N. C. Abandoning this field 

 of labor, he accepted the editorship of the 

 New York Review, one of the ablest crit- 

 ical journals then existing in the country, 

 which he conducted till its termination in 

 1842. Becoming the friend and companion 

 of John Jacob Astor, he, in conjunction with 

 Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck, 

 arranged with him the plan of the Astor Li- 

 brary. With Halleck, Irving, and others, Cogs- 

 well was appointed a trustee of the fund for 

 its creation. When Washington Irving was 

 appointed minister to Spain, he was anxious 

 that his friend Cogswell should accompany 

 him as secretary of legation, and accordingly 

 wrote to Washington, requesting his appoint- 

 ment. " He is," said Irving, " a gentleman with 

 whom I am on terms of confidential intimacy, 

 and I know no one who, by his various ac- 

 quirements, his prompt sagacity, his knowl- 

 edge of the world, his habits of business, and 

 his obliging disposition, is so calculated to give 

 me that counsel, aid, and companionship, so 

 important in Madrid, -where a stranger is more 

 isolated that in any other capital of Europe." 

 Cogswell received the appointment, and Astor, 

 finding that he was likely to lose his invaluable 

 services, made him librarian of the embryo 

 institution. After the rich merchant's death, 

 he went abroad to purchase books ; and it may 

 safely be said that no library in the land has 

 been selected with more discrimination and 

 economy. The judicious selections made by 

 him would sell to-day for ten times the amount 

 which he expended in their purchase, while 

 many of the books could not he bought at any 

 price. He gave the Astor Library his own 

 valuable series of works relating to bibliog- 

 raphy, as he had before united with a friend 

 in presenting Harvard College with a rare 

 cabinet of minerals and numerous plants. 

 During Dr. Cogswell's active superintendency 

 of the Astor Library, he prepared a valuable 

 alphabetical and analytical catalogue of its con- 

 tents, which was published in eight large vol- 

 umes, displaying his extraordinary .knowledge 

 of the comparative value and significance of 

 the books he collected. He continued the 

 duties of superintendent, which he had per- 

 formed with singular industry and fidelity, 

 until the pressure of advancing years induced 

 him to retire from the institution. Two years 

 later, having chosen a residence at Cambridge, 

 he also resigned the office of trustee. In ac- 

 cepting his resignation, the Board passed a res- 

 olution highly complimentary to his talents, 

 great learning, and spotless character. All 

 who enjoyed the privilege of Dr. Cogswell's 

 acquaintance, and the thousands of seekers 

 after information who remember the patience 

 and urbanity with which he was ever ready to 

 aid them in their researches, will most cordi- 

 ally unite in the richly-merited tribute to his 

 learning, amiability, and unsullied life. Since 

 1862, when he went to reside in Massachusetts, 



