John Gardner Coolidge

John Gardner Coolidge (July 4, 1863 – February 28, 1936) was an American collector, diplomat, author, and nephew of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

John Gardner Coolidge
United States Minister to Nicaragua
In office June 5, 1908 – November 21, 1908
President	Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	William L. Merry
Succeeded by	John H. Gregory, Jr.
Personal details
Born	July 4, 1863 (1863-07-04) Boston, Massachusetts
Died	February 28, 1936(1936-02-28) (aged 72) Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Helen Granger Stevens ​ ( m. 1909; his death 1936)
Relations	Archibald Coolidge (brother) Harold J. Coolidge (brother) Julian L. Coolidge (brother)
Parents	Joseph Randolph Coolidge Julia Gardner
Alma mater	Harvard College

Early life

Coolidge was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 4, 1863. He was the second of five sons born to Harvard University Law School graduate Joseph Randolph Coolidge and Julia (née Gardner) Coolidge, both from prominent and wealthy Boston Brahmin families. His siblings included professor and diplomat Archibald Cary Coolidge, noted lawyer Harold Jefferson Coolidge Sr. (the father of zoologist Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr.), and mathematician and professor Julian Lowell Coolidge.[1]

His paternal uncle was Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, the Boston businessman and U.S. Minister to France. His father, Joseph Randolph Coolidge, was a great-grandson of the 3rd United States President Thomas Jefferson, through his maternal grandparents, Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. and Martha Jefferson Randolph. John's great-uncles were Thomas Jefferson Randolph, George Wythe Randolph, Andrew Jackson Donelson, and his grandfather, Joseph Coolidge, was a distant relative of President Calvin Coolidge.[2]

Through his mother, John was the nephew of John Lowell Gardner II and his wife Isabella Stewart Gardner. His mother and uncle John were the grandchildren of merchant Joseph Peabody, one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844.[3]

Career

In 1884, Coolidge, like all of his brothers, graduated from Harvard University.[4] In 1887, he traveled to east for a total of three years, living in Japan and traveling to China, India, Thailand and Malaysia. From 1890 to 1894, he lived in Brazil where he was a first hand witness to a period of vast political developments and a six month fight between the Brazilian Army and Navy in the Bay of Rio.[5]

From 1902 to 1906, he was a member of the Peking legation.[6]

Coolidge was appointed Minister to Nicaragua in 1908, at a time the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua was poor, and he arrived in Managua in August. He resigned in anger when no apology was forthcoming after a demonstration, ostensibly celebrating Taft's victory in the election, was disbanded and a U.S. flag confiscated in the process, despite an effort on the part of the State Department to calm him down.[7]

Personal life

On April 29, 1909, Coolidge was married to Helen Granger Stevens (1876–1962), a family friend and the daughter of Henry James Stevens and Helen Meade Granger. Their summer home, Ashdale Farm, in North Andover, Massachusetts, now known as The Stevens-Coolidge Place, is a nonprofit museum today.[5] The couple hired architect Joseph Everett Chandler to remodel the estate’s homes.[5]

Coolidge died on February 28, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[5]

Works

• Coolidge, John Gardner (1924). Random Letters From Many Countries. Boston: Marshall Jones. OCLC 565826.
• Coolidge, John Gardner (1931). A war diary in Paris, 1914-1917. Cambridge: Priv. Print. at the Riverside Press. OCLC 279442.

References

1. Harvard University Archives, call no. HUG-1299: Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 1866-1928. Papers of Archibald Cary Coolidge : an inventory Archived 2018-07-03 at the Wayback Machine, with a biography. URL retrieved 2011-01-11.
2. Wead, Doug (2004). All the Presidents' Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families. Simon and Schuster. pp. 127–129.
3. Hunt, F. [1858]. Lives of American merchants - Vol 1. (via Google Books)
4. Marquis, Albert Nelson (1915). Who's who in New England: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men and Women of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. A.N. Marquis & Company. p. 272. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
5. Spieldenner, Sharon; Kitchings, Laura (July 2010). "Guide to Stevens-Coolidge Place Collection, 1761-1962 SCP.MS.Coll.1" (PDF). www.thetrustees.org. Archives & Research Center | Stevens-Coolidge Place. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
6. John King Fairbank, Martha Henderson Coolidge, Richard J. Smith, H. B. Morse, Customs Commissioner and Historian of China, p. 277
7. Schoultz, Lars (1998). Beneath the United States: a history of U.S. policy toward Latin America ([Fourth printing]. ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University: Harvard University Press. p. 211. ISBN 0-674-92276-X.

External links

• John Gardner Coolidge at The Political Graveyard
• John Gardner Coolidge at Find a Grave

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William L. Merry	United States Minister to Nicaragua August 24, 1908–November 21, 1908	Succeeded by John H. Gregory, Jr.