Cole (L. Averill) Collection, 1904-2015

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Summary

Title:
L. Averill Cole collection
Dates:
1904-2015
Creators:
Cole, L. Averill
Abstract:
A collection of material related to L. Averill Cole, American bookbinder.
Extent:
1.83 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. L. Averill Cole collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of material related to the work of L. Averill Cole, an American bookbinder. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, a volume, photographs, a prize medal, ephemera, and scrapbooks. The correspondents include: Louis Jacobs, Robert J. Milevski, George Wolfe Plank, A. S. W. Rosenbach, Sandra Howland Smith, and Marianne Tidcombe; the correspondence also includes a small number of family-related letters. The collection also includes research material on Cole collected by Robert J. Milevski, Sandra Howland Smith, and Marianne Tidcombe. The volume was compiled by Sandra Howland Smith about her grandmother entitled: "Selected Fine Bindings of L. Averill Cole, (1880-1971)."

Biographical / historical:

Louise Averill Taylor Cole (1880-1971) was born in Elmira, New York, the first child of Frank Taylor and Lillie Bramhall Taylor. The Taylor family moved to San Francisco, California, around 1883; soon after arriving in California, Frank and Lillie Taylor divorced and Louise was sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Elmira. Louise moved from New York in about 1890 and, after an unhappy stay with her father in Washington State, moved back to San Francisco in the mid-1890s; her mother had married Charles Melvin Cole in 1888, and Louise took the name Louise Averill Cole. In the late 1890s, Louise traveled and studied in Europe as she decided on a career in fine bookbinding. She studied first in Germany, and then was accepted as a student in Brussels by Louis Jacobs and Joseph Hendricks. Louise left Brussels in 1906 for London, where she taught bookbinding to various titled ladies; she returned to the United States in 1908 to work for Houghton Mifflin, in charge of the Riverside Press division for fine bindings. Louise Averill Cole married Gerald Shephard Howland on October 31, 1913, in Belmont, Massachusetts; he was a printer by trade. During the years of raising their two daughters Louise retired from her work as a bookbinder. The couple lived in various Massachusetts towns before retiring to Santa Barbara, California, in 1948.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Kenneth Karmiole Bookseller, Inc., April 2015.
Custodial history:

Transferred to Archival Processing Team, October 2022, formerly Rare Book call number: 645435.

Processing information:

Processed by Gayle M. Richardson in December 2022.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Gayle M. Richardson
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-12-06 14:23:28 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. L. Averill Cole collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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