George Watson Cole was born in September 1850 at Warren, Litchfield County, CT to Munson and Antoinette (Taylor) Cole.
His father was a farmer and mechanical inventor.
After moving to Colebrook, Litchfield County, CT, George attended local area schools and later went to Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. (a private prep school).
After his schooling (which was incomplete probably due to the death of his father) he taught school in the Torrington, Litchfield County area where he met his first wife Martha Ann Thrall.
While teaching, George studied law and soon passed the Connecticut Bar Examination. Meanwhile his first wife Martha died in 1878, possibly from complications of childbirth.
He soon remarried to Louise Warner, whose father, Wyllys Warner was Secretary and Treasurer of Yale University in New Haven, CT. She was 11 years older than George and was in poor health.
George was now practicing law in the Torrington, CT area.
In 1885 he abandoned his law practice and became engaged in library work.
In 1886 he compiled the printed classification catalog of the Fitchburg, MA library system. From Fitchburg he went to New York in the autumn of 1886 to become librarian at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At the same time he attended the library school at Columbia University from which he graduated in 1888.
For the next three years he became connected with the Newberry Library in Chicago which he left in 1891 to become the librarian of the Free Public Library of Jersey City, NJ. His second wife Louise also died in 1891.
He married again to Laura Ward of Dutchess County, NY about 1895. After some travel to Europe with his third wife Laura, George Cole became interested in bibliography and in December of 1901 he began the compilation of the extensive and valuable collection of American and English Literature and Miscellany in the library of the late E. Dwight Church of Brooklyn.
The result of his work was a catalog comprising seven volumes containing all 3,789 pages with 1,755 facsimiles of title pages, colophons and other interesting features of the collection.
In October 1915, Cole became librarian of Henry E. Huntington's massive collection, then housed in New York City. He continued to hold the position after the collection was transferred in 1920 to the present location of the library in San Marino, CA.
In 1924 he became Librarian Emeritus of the Huntington collection. Thereafter he continued to publish articles and books on bibliography and other topics.
He died in San Marino, CA in 1939 after a long and distinguished career.
His father was a farmer and mechanical inventor.
After moving to Colebrook, Litchfield County, CT, George attended local area schools and later went to Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. (a private prep school).
After his schooling (which was incomplete probably due to the death of his father) he taught school in the Torrington, Litchfield County area where he met his first wife Martha Ann Thrall.
While teaching, George studied law and soon passed the Connecticut Bar Examination. Meanwhile his first wife Martha died in 1878, possibly from complications of childbirth.
He soon remarried to Louise Warner, whose father, Wyllys Warner was Secretary and Treasurer of Yale University in New Haven, CT. She was 11 years older than George and was in poor health.
George was now practicing law in the Torrington, CT area.
In 1885 he abandoned his law practice and became engaged in library work.
In 1886 he compiled the printed classification catalog of the Fitchburg, MA library system. From Fitchburg he went to New York in the autumn of 1886 to become librarian at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At the same time he attended the library school at Columbia University from which he graduated in 1888.
For the next three years he became connected with the Newberry Library in Chicago which he left in 1891 to become the librarian of the Free Public Library of Jersey City, NJ. His second wife Louise also died in 1891.
He married again to Laura Ward of Dutchess County, NY about 1895. After some travel to Europe with his third wife Laura, George Cole became interested in bibliography and in December of 1901 he began the compilation of the extensive and valuable collection of American and English Literature and Miscellany in the library of the late E. Dwight Church of Brooklyn.
The result of his work was a catalog comprising seven volumes containing all 3,789 pages with 1,755 facsimiles of title pages, colophons and other interesting features of the collection.
In October 1915, Cole became librarian of Henry E. Huntington's massive collection, then housed in New York City. He continued to hold the position after the collection was transferred in 1920 to the present location of the library in San Marino, CA.
In 1924 he became Librarian Emeritus of the Huntington collection. Thereafter he continued to publish articles and books on bibliography and other topics.
He died in San Marino, CA in 1939 after a long and distinguished career.
George Watson Cole was born in September 1850 at Warren, Litchfield County, CT to Munson and Antoinette (Taylor) Cole.
His father was a farmer and mechanical inventor.
After moving to Colebrook, Litchfield County, CT, George attended local area schools and later went to Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. (a private prep school).
After his schooling (which was incomplete probably due to the death of his father) he taught school in the Torrington, Litchfield County area where he met his first wife Martha Ann Thrall.
While teaching, George studied law and soon passed the Connecticut Bar Examination. Meanwhile his first wife Martha died in 1878, possibly from complications of childbirth.
He soon remarried to Louise Warner, whose father, Wyllys Warner was Secretary and Treasurer of Yale University in New Haven, CT. She was 11 years older than George and was in poor health.
George was now practicing law in the Torrington, CT area.
In 1885 he abandoned his law practice and became engaged in library work.
In 1886 he compiled the printed classification catalog of the Fitchburg, MA library system. From Fitchburg he went to New York in the autumn of 1886 to become librarian at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At the same time he attended the library school at Columbia University from which he graduated in 1888.
For the next three years he became connected with the Newberry Library in Chicago which he left in 1891 to become the librarian of the Free Public Library of Jersey City, NJ. His second wife Louise also died in 1891.
He married again to Laura Ward of Dutchess County, NY about 1895. After some travel to Europe with his third wife Laura, George Cole became interested in bibliography and in December of 1901 he began the compilation of the extensive and valuable collection of American and English Literature and Miscellany in the library of the late E. Dwight Church of Brooklyn.
The result of his work was a catalog comprising seven volumes containing all 3,789 pages with 1,755 facsimiles of title pages, colophons and other interesting features of the collection.
In October 1915, Cole became librarian of Henry E. Huntington's massive collection, then housed in New York City. He continued to hold the position after the collection was transferred in 1920 to the present location of the library in San Marino, CA.
In 1924 he became Librarian Emeritus of the Huntington collection. Thereafter he continued to publish articles and books on bibliography and other topics.
He died in San Marino, CA in 1939 after a long and distinguished career.
His father was a farmer and mechanical inventor.
After moving to Colebrook, Litchfield County, CT, George attended local area schools and later went to Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. (a private prep school).
After his schooling (which was incomplete probably due to the death of his father) he taught school in the Torrington, Litchfield County area where he met his first wife Martha Ann Thrall.
While teaching, George studied law and soon passed the Connecticut Bar Examination. Meanwhile his first wife Martha died in 1878, possibly from complications of childbirth.
He soon remarried to Louise Warner, whose father, Wyllys Warner was Secretary and Treasurer of Yale University in New Haven, CT. She was 11 years older than George and was in poor health.
George was now practicing law in the Torrington, CT area.
In 1885 he abandoned his law practice and became engaged in library work.
In 1886 he compiled the printed classification catalog of the Fitchburg, MA library system. From Fitchburg he went to New York in the autumn of 1886 to become librarian at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At the same time he attended the library school at Columbia University from which he graduated in 1888.
For the next three years he became connected with the Newberry Library in Chicago which he left in 1891 to become the librarian of the Free Public Library of Jersey City, NJ. His second wife Louise also died in 1891.
He married again to Laura Ward of Dutchess County, NY about 1895. After some travel to Europe with his third wife Laura, George Cole became interested in bibliography and in December of 1901 he began the compilation of the extensive and valuable collection of American and English Literature and Miscellany in the library of the late E. Dwight Church of Brooklyn.
The result of his work was a catalog comprising seven volumes containing all 3,789 pages with 1,755 facsimiles of title pages, colophons and other interesting features of the collection.
In October 1915, Cole became librarian of Henry E. Huntington's massive collection, then housed in New York City. He continued to hold the position after the collection was transferred in 1920 to the present location of the library in San Marino, CA.
In 1924 he became Librarian Emeritus of the Huntington collection. Thereafter he continued to publish articles and books on bibliography and other topics.
He died in San Marino, CA in 1939 after a long and distinguished career.
Bio by: Bill Cole
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
