This 47-item scrapbook was compiled by George Howland Cox, a banker in Cambridge, Massachusetts, around the turn of the 20th century. The book contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and ephemera.
The first 38 pages contain 21 letters that Cox received from cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Elbert Wheeler wrote the first letter on July 26, 1872, and William A. Simpson wrote the remaining letters between 1872 and 1873 and on June 17, 1914. Wheeler and Simpson discussed life at the academy, as well as the pursuits of their classmates; Simpson also related news of officer appointments and class rankings. Other correspondence includes letters to Cox from his parents and his letters to his father. One item is a letter of introduction for James Valentine Cox from Charles W. Seabury, which mentions the elder Cox's service in the Civil War and his desire to visit his son in the army (January 19, 1865). One partially printed letter from the United States Treasury Department grants George H. Cox permission to receive money owed to his recently deceased mother (September 6, 1886).
Other material includes a financial account, a concert program, and a menu, as well as newspaper clippings and 2 printed copies of speeches: a talk delivered by William H. Seward to the United States Senate on February 29, 1860, regarding Kansas, slavery, and other issues in domestic politics; and an annotated copy of a speech that George Howland Cox delivered at a school reunion in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Newspaper clippings concern local interests, such as state of the schoolhouse in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, around 1902 (2 pictures), and a small facsimile of the Chicago Evening Journal from February 7, 1878. The collection also contains the front pages of 2 newspapers: the Republican Standard of New Bedford, Massachusetts, which reported on a reunion of the Nye family (August 13, 1908); and The Cambridge Tribune, about Cox's plan to continue composing a series of reminiscences for the newspaper (September 15, 1928).
George Howland Cox was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on October 9, 1854, the son of James Valentine Cox and Mercy Nye. He attended the United States Military Academy for one year before returning to New Bedford, Massachusetts, on account of ill health. He later moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he became a successful banker and served as president of the Cambridge Trust Company and as a member of the Massachusetts Armory Commission. He married New Bedford native Ella P. Whittemore on September 25, 1877; they had one son, George Howland Cox, Jr. (b. February 1880). George Howland Cox died on March 23, 1932.
