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house at 532 North Church Street on the occasion of his marriage in 1880. He accrued extensive genealogical and historical collections, which he shelved in wooden cabinets of his own design or stored in a fireproof vault he built in his private library. He preserved most of
Chester County's archives and Quaker meeting records, gathering and binding thousands of loose papers at his own expense. He also collected photographs and took many of his own photographs documenting historic buildings, landmark occasions, public events, and important documents. In 1905 and 1907, he and his wife spent nine months in
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On
February 5, 1880, Cope married Anna Garrett (1848–1918), daughter of David and Mary Ann (Hoopes) Garrett. The couple had three children who survived to adulthood: Herman, Joseph, and Ellen. Cope died at Herman's farm in Middletown Township on December 17, 1928, at the age of 88. He was interred by
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and the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In 1912, his colleagues elected him an honorary member of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, and in 1924 he was elected as honorary vice president. In 1911–12, he served as president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies. He belonged
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purchased Cope's extensive historical and manuscript collections, including published books and newspapers, maps, photographs, prints, and other historical materials dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His collection of genealogical materials (church records, headstone inscriptions,
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From a young age, Cope was fascinated by botany and genealogy, using his own hand printing press to produce genealogical pamphlets and publishing his first book, a genealogy of his family, at the age of 21. When his father died, Gilbert sold the farm and moved to West
Chester, where he built a new
255:, described him as "pleasant and sociable in his quiet, unobtrusive way," albeit somewhat pedantic and prone to interrogate new acquaintances about their ancestry. Myers extolled him as "the grand old man of Chester County history."
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and for twenty-seven years served as its secretary and on its board of directors, remaining an honorary director to the end of his life. In 1861 he became a corresponding member of the
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The Bone Sharp: The Life of Edward
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Cope's papers are held in the archives of the
Chester County History Center and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
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448:"Gilbert Cope, 88, Dies at Media: Funeral of Well Known Historian to Be Held Thursday"
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History of
Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches
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In 1920, Cope went to live with his eldest son, Herman Cope, at Herman's farm in
399:"Pennsylvanian Gilbert Cope Made a Name for Himself Pursuing Which Profession?"
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farmer of
English descent, whose paternal ancestor, Oliver Cope, was one of
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who authored numerous publications on the history and prominent families of
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copying many volumes of the early Quaker registers of
England and Wales.
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131:(August 17, 1840 – December 17, 1928) was an American historian and
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The
Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans
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Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). "Cope, Gilbert".
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tax lists, etc.), filling several hundred volumes, went to the
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Orthodox Friends Cemetery, West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania
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Gilbert and Joseph Cope genealogical research materials
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Cope's fellow historian of southeastern Pennsylvania,
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East Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
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111:Leading historian of Chester County, Pennsylvania
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477:The Bone Sharp: The Life of Edward Drinker Cope
16:American historian and genealogist (1840–1928)
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480:. Academy of Natural Sciences. p. 229.
55:East Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania
261:He was a distant cousin of paleontologist
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224:New England Historic Genealogical Society
567:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
231:and the Friends Historical Association.
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167:, two miles west of the county seat of
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163:Cope was born on August 17, 1840, in
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220:Chester County Historical Society
542:20th-century American historians
537:19th-century American historians
577:Photographers from Pennsylvania
513:– Chester County History Center
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370:Chester County and Its People
339:Chester County History Center
218:In 1893, Cope co-founded the
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562:Historians from Pennsylvania
367:Thomson, Wilmer W. (1898).
302:Myers, Albert Cook (1929).
229:Delaware Historical Society
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557:Historians of Pennsylvania
474:Davidson, Jane P. (1997).
397:Hutto, Cary (2016-02-29).
143:. His magnum opus was the
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242:Orthodox Friends Cemetery
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235:Personal life and legacy
147:(1881), coauthored with
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240:his wife's side in the
103:Historian, genealogist
547:American genealogists
334:"Gilbert Cope Papers"
246:West Goshen Township
511:Gilbert Cope Papers
263:Edward Drinker Cope
200:Middletown Township
120:Edward Drinker Cope
487:978-0-910006-53-8
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133:genealogist
521:Categories
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350:2022-12-12
269:References
47:1840-08-17
181:Wiltshire
159:Biography
116:Relatives
90:Education
407:Archived
344:Archived
122:(cousin)
227:to the
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193:London
173:Quaker
76:, U.S.
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307:(PDF)
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63:Died
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
