Joseph Cogswell

September 27, 1786 (age 84)

Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States

From 1809 to 1811 Cogswell was engaged in a succession of mercantile ventures in Southern Europe, in which he experienced dangers from bandits and pirates and from the confiscation of ships and cargoes in Naples. He practised for a few years in Belfast, Maine and in 1813, he gave up his practise. For two years he was tutor in Latin at Harvard, but resigned on account of ill health. The next five years from 1815 to 1820 were spent for the most part in travel and study in Europe. At Gottingen in 1817, Cogswell with Edward Everett and George Ticknor constituted the first group of American scholars to resort to a German university. At this time he became somewhat intimate with Goethe, with whom he corresponded for several years. It was evidently due to his high regard for Cogswell that Goethe presented a set of his works to Harvard in 1819. During the following years from 1817 to 1820 in Italy, Switzerland, France, and England, Cogswell was in close touch with the best society and with literary men. Having intimate relations with Israel Thorndike, a wealthy Boston merchant, whose son was under his care, he was instrumental in purchasing for the Harvard Library in 1818 the valuable American library of C. D. Ebeling, the librarian of Hamburg. In 1819 on February, March he contributed to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine two anonymous essays: “On the Means of Education and the State of Learning in the United States of America, ” and “On the State of Learning in the United States of America. ” Returning to America in the fall of 1820, Cogswell was appointed librarian of the Harvard Library and professor of mineralogy and geology. He reclassified the library, following Gottingen as a model, and was eager to introduce further improvements, but, discouraged by lack of support and understanding on the part of the College government, he resigned in 1823. Later, with George Bancroft, he established the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, a school well known for its strict but kindly discipline, its thorough instruction on the plan of the German gymnasium, and the vigorous outdoor life and manly spirit it fostered. Financial difficulties brought the school to an end in 1834. Hoping to free himself from debt, Cogswell took charge of a boys’ school in Raleigh, North Carolina, but ill health and lack of sympathy with Southern habits and standards turned him again to the North after two years. From 1836 to 1838 he lived in the family of his friend Samuel Ward in New York and tutored his children. At the former’s suggestion he bought an interest in the quarterly New York Review to which he had already contributed a long anonymous article on “National Education” in July 1838. He partly edited the number for January 1839, soon after became sole proprietor, and conducted the Review until it was discontinued with the number for April 1842. While with the Wards he formed an acquaintance with John Jacob Astor, and, gaining his respect and confidence, became his adviser with regard to the public library which Astor proposed to establish in New York. Until Astor’s death in 1848 Cogswell continued in close association with the old man, who kept him occupied in buying books and making plans but never succeeded in arriving at final decisions and in establishing the library. In 1848, the trustees having organized, Cogswell was appointed superintendent and devoted himself to the purchase of books (involving four visits to Europe), to the erection of the building (opened in January 1854, with a stock of 90, 000 volumes), and to the preparation of printed catalogues, the latter a task which he performed almost entirely by himself. The preliminary Alphabetical Index to the Astor Library and of the Proposed Accessions (1851), was not only compiled entirely by Cogswell, but was also printed privately at his personal expense. He occupied rooms in the Library and his labors were unceasing. In December 1861, at the age of seventy-five, he resigned, being unable longer to perform his duties to his own satisfaction, yet within a year he undertook the compilation of a supplement to the catalogue, which demanded long days of persistent work and was not completed until October 1866. On his trips abroad in the interests of the library he had gratified a taste for art by accumulating for himself a collection of drawings of the old masters. Having built a house in Cambridge, he made his home there when not visiting his friends. In June 1871 he went for the last time to New York to advise the trustees of the Astor Library on the selection of a new librarian. He died in Cambridge, in November of that year, and was buried in Ipswich, his birthplace. His later years were made happy by the loyalty and affection of his former Round Hill pupils and other old-time friends, who appreciated his intellectual hospitality, his quick and keen perceptions, his wide attainments in literature and bibliography, and his firm principles of duty.

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The New-York Review, Volume 2

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Outline of the System of Education at the Round Hill School: With a List of the Present Instructers and of the Pupils From Its Commencement Until This Time, June-1831 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Outline of the System of Education at the Ro...)

The New York Review, Volume 10

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in...)

The New York Review Volume 1

(This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

Prospectus of a school to be established at Round Hill, Northampton, Massachusetts

New York Review, Volume 9

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

The New York Review, Volume 7

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

A Course Of English Reading: Adapted To Every Taste And Capacity With Anecdotes Of Men Of Genius

(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

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Background

Joseph Green Cogswell was the son of Francis and Anstis (Manning) Cogswell. He was born on September 27, 1786 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States where his immigrant ancestor, John Cogswell, had settled soon after having been wrecked off Pemaquid in 1635. His father died in 1793.

Education

Cogswell was educated at the grammar school in Ipswich and at Phillips Exeter Academy. He entered Harvard College at sixteen and graduated in 1806. From 1807 to 1809 he studied law under Fisher Ames and Judge Prescott.

Career

From 1809 to 1811 Cogswell was engaged in a succession of mercantile ventures in Southern Europe, in which he experienced dangers from bandits and pirates and from the confiscation of ships and cargoes in Naples. He practised for a few years in Belfast, Maine and in 1813, he gave up his practise. For two years he was tutor in Latin at Harvard, but resigned on account of ill health. The next five years from 1815 to 1820 were spent for the most part in travel and study in Europe. At Gottingen in 1817, Cogswell with Edward Everett and George Ticknor constituted the first group of American scholars to resort to a German university. At this time he became somewhat intimate with Goethe, with whom he corresponded for several years. It was evidently due to his high regard for Cogswell that Goethe presented a set of his works to Harvard in 1819.

During the following years from 1817 to 1820 in Italy, Switzerland, France, and England, Cogswell was in close touch with the best society and with literary men. Having intimate relations with Israel Thorndike, a wealthy Boston merchant, whose son was under his care, he was instrumental in purchasing for the Harvard Library in 1818 the valuable American library of C. D. Ebeling, the librarian of Hamburg.

In 1819 on February, March he contributed to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine two anonymous essays: “On the Means of Education and the State of Learning in the United States of America, ” and “On the State of Learning in the United States of America. ” Returning to America in the fall of 1820, Cogswell was appointed librarian of the Harvard Library and professor of mineralogy and geology. He reclassified the library, following Gottingen as a model, and was eager to introduce further improvements, but, discouraged by lack of support and understanding on the part of the College government, he resigned in 1823. Later, with George Bancroft, he established the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, a school well known for its strict but kindly discipline, its thorough instruction on the plan of the German gymnasium, and the vigorous outdoor life and manly spirit it fostered. Financial difficulties brought the school to an end in 1834.

Hoping to free himself from debt, Cogswell took charge of a boys’ school in Raleigh, North Carolina, but ill health and lack of sympathy with Southern habits and standards turned him again to the North after two years. From 1836 to 1838 he lived in the family of his friend Samuel Ward in New York and tutored his children. At the former’s suggestion he bought an interest in the quarterly New York Review to which he had already contributed a long anonymous article on “National Education” in July 1838. He partly edited the number for January 1839, soon after became sole proprietor, and conducted the Review until it was discontinued with the number for April 1842.

While with the Wards he formed an acquaintance with John Jacob Astor, and, gaining his respect and confidence, became his adviser with regard to the public library which Astor proposed to establish in New York. Until Astor’s death in 1848 Cogswell continued in close association with the old man, who kept him occupied in buying books and making plans but never succeeded in arriving at final decisions and in establishing the library. In 1848, the trustees having organized, Cogswell was appointed superintendent and devoted himself to the purchase of books (involving four visits to Europe), to the erection of the building (opened in January 1854, with a stock of 90, 000 volumes), and to the preparation of printed catalogues, the latter a task which he performed almost entirely by himself. The preliminary Alphabetical Index to the Astor Library and of the Proposed Accessions (1851), was not only compiled entirely by Cogswell, but was also printed privately at his personal expense.

He occupied rooms in the Library and his labors were unceasing. In December 1861, at the age of seventy-five, he resigned, being unable longer to perform his duties to his own satisfaction, yet within a year he undertook the compilation of a supplement to the catalogue, which demanded long days of persistent work and was not completed until October 1866.

On his trips abroad in the interests of the library he had gratified a taste for art by accumulating for himself a collection of drawings of the old masters. Having built a house in Cambridge, he made his home there when not visiting his friends. In June 1871 he went for the last time to New York to advise the trustees of the Astor Library on the selection of a new librarian. He died in Cambridge, in November of that year, and was buried in Ipswich, his birthplace. His later years were made happy by the loyalty and affection of his former Round Hill pupils and other old-time friends, who appreciated his intellectual hospitality, his quick and keen perceptions, his wide attainments in literature and bibliography, and his firm principles of duty.

Achievements

Joseph Cogswell founded the Round Hill School in Northampton, became the owner and the editor of the New York Review, a leading American critical journal, and assisted John Jacob Astor on the establishment of Astor Library in New York City and preparation of an alphabetical catalogue of the collection for this library.