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Mason Fitch Cogswell papers

 Collection
Call Number: GEN MSS 920

Scope and Contents

The papers primarily consist of correspondence received by Mason Fitch Cogswell from family, friends, and professional colleagues. Prominent among the correspondents are Cogswell's brother Samuel Cogswell, his nephew James Lloyd Cogswell of Long Island, New York, his friend Theodore Dwight, the Caribbean planter Charles Joseph Sibert, Vicomte de Cornillon, and deaf education pioneers Laurent Clerc and T. H. Gallaudet. Other colleagues in the papers are Reverend Ebenezer Fitch, Connecticut congressman John Davenport, inventor Apollos Kinsley, and a number of American physicians including Oliver Fisk of Worcester, Henry Fish and E. H. Smith of New York, and Joseph Strong of Philadelphia. Notably, there are several letters from Cogswell's many female friends such as Nancy Roy Fox and Delia Dwight Porter. Also in the correspondence is a fair copy of a letter to Cogswell's father James Cogswell from British author William Cowper. Other papers include two diaries kept by Cogswell in 1788 and 1791, financial and legal papers, and a group of manuscript medical remedies and treatments. Accompanying the papers are a group of printed items.

Dates

  • 1772 - 1853
  • Majority of material found within 1790 - 1830

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Existence and Location of Copies

Mason Fitch Cogswell's 1788 diary is available on microfilm (MS Vault film 1713)

Conditions Governing Use

The Mason Fitch Cogswell Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Grace Cogswell Root, 1925 and 1926. One diary was the gift of the Misses Tully, 1896.

Arrangement

Organized into three series: I. Correspondence, 1772-1830. II. Writings, 1788-1853. III. Other Papers, 1783-1830.

Extent

1.59 Linear Feet (5 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.cogswell

Additional Description

Overview

The papers primarily consist of correspondence received by Mason Fitch Cogswell from family, friends, and professional colleagues. Prominent among the correspondents are Cogswell's brother Samuel Cogswell, his nephew James Lloyd Cogswell of Long Island, New York, his friend Theodore Dwight, the Caribbean planter Charles Joseph Sibert, Vicomte de Cornillon, and deaf education pioneers Laurent Clerc and T. H. Gallaudet. Other colleagues in the papers are the Reverend Ebenezer Fitch, Connecticut congressman John Davenport, inventor Apollos Kinsley, and a number of American physicians including Oliver Fisk of Worcester, Henry Fish and E. H. Smith of New York, and Joseph Strong of Philadelphia. Notably, there are several letters from Cogswell's many female friends such as Nancy Roy Fox and Delia Dwight Porter. Also in the correspondence is a fair copy of a letter to Cogswell's father James Cogswell from British author William Cowper. Other papers include two diaries kept by Cogswell in 1788 and 1791, financial and legal papers, and a group of manuscript medical remedies and treatments.

Cogswell Family Tree

Family members whose letters are prominent in the collection are underlined.

Rev. James Cogswell (1720-1807)
m1 1745 Alice Fitch (1725-1772)
m2 Martha Lothrop Devotion (1715?-1795)
m3 Irene Ripley Hibbard (d. 1804)
- -1 James Cogswell (1746-1792) m 1776 Elizabeth Davenport (1756-1779); m 1783 Abigail Lloyd (1751-1830)
- -- -2 Alice Cogswell (1777-1850) m. 1805 Samuel Fisher (1777-1856)
- -- -2 James Lloyd Cogswell (1784-1831) m 1819 Sarah Burr Sherwood (1788-1830)
- -- -- -3 Sarah B. Cogswell (1820-1875)
- -- -- -3 James A. Cogswell (1822-1837)
- -- -- -3 Mary Ledyard Cogswell (1824-1841)
- -- -2 John Lloyd Cogswell (1789-1831) m 1821 Love B. Coffin (1795-1857)
- -- -- -3 John T. (1823-1866),
- -- -- -3 Charlotte Broome Cogswell (b. 1825),
- -- -- -3 Samuel F. Cogswell (1827-1858)
- -- -- -3 Alice Fisher Cogswell (b. 1829)
- -- -- -3 Mason Fitch Cogswell (1830-1832)
- -- -2 Sarah Lloyd Cogswell (1786-1848)
- -- -2 Harriet Broome Cogswell (1790-1843) m 1819 Robert Willis Mott (1796-1846)
- -- -- -3 Harriet Stella Mott (1820-1902?) m 1843 William Handy Onderdonk (1820-1882)
- -1 Alice Cogswell (1749-1772)
- -1 Samuel Cogswell (1754-1790) m 1785 Maria Backus (1767-1834); she m 1792 Ebenezer Fitch (1756-1833)
- -- -2 Mason Backus Cogswell (1787-1790)
- -- -2 James Fitch Cogswell (1789-1862)
- -- -2 Maria Cogswell (1790-1870) m 1810 Douglas W. Sloane
- -1 MASON FITCH COGSWELL (1761-1830) m. Mary Austin Ledyard
- -- -2 Mary Austin Cogswell (1801-1868) m 1828 Lewis Weld (1796-1858)
- -- -- -3 Mason Cogswell Weld (1829-1887) m 1866 Martha M. Coles
- -- -- -3 Charles Theodore Weld (1831-1863)
- -- -- -3 Lewis Ledyard Weld (1833-1865)
- -- -- -3 Mary Elizabeth Weld (b. 1835)
- -- -- -3 Alice Cogswell Weld (b. 1837) m 1871 William H. Hodge
- -- -2 Elizabeth Cogswell (1803-1856) m 1831 John Treadwell Norton (1795-1869)
- -- -2 Alice Cogswell (1805-1830)
- -- -2 Mason Fitch Cogswell (1809-1865) m 1847 Lydia Bradford
- -- -2 Catharine Ledyard Cogswell (1811-1882) m. 1836 Cortlandt Van Rensselaer
- -1 Septimus Cogswell (1769-1773)

Mason Fitch Cogswell (1761-1830)

Mason Fitch Cogswell, an American physician and surgeon, was born on September 28, 1761, in Canterbury, Connecticut, the third son of the Reverend James and Alice Fitch Cogswell. An 1780 graduate of Yale College, he studied medicine with his brother James Cogswell, first in Stamford, Connecticut, and later in New York City. In 1789, Cogswell established a medical office in Hartford, where he practiced until his death in 1830.

Cogswell and his wife Mary Austin Ledyard Cogswell had five children including their daughter Alice, who became deaf as a child. In an effort to educate her and other deaf residents of the state, Cogswell enlisted the aid of Laurent Clerc and Thomas H. Gallaudet to establish in 1817 in Hartford the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, now the American School for the Deaf, the country's first permanent school for the deaf.

Processing Information

Former call number: Z36.009

Subjects

Related Names

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Mason Fitch Cogswell Papers
Author
by Sandra Markham
Date
2013
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.

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