Harold Jefferson Coolidge (January 22, 1870 – July 31, 1934)Lawrence, Robert Means: The Descendants of Major Samuel Lawrence, Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA, 1904, p. 208. URL last accessed 2012-11-15.N.N.: Harold Jefferson Coolidge . URL last accessed 2012-11-15. was an American lawyer. He was the brother of Archibald Cary CoolidgeBentinck-Smith, William: "Archibald Cary Coolidge and the Harvard Library. I. The Education of a Director ", pp.228–253 (here p. 230) in Harvard Library bulletin XXI(3), July 1973. URL last accessed 2012-11-15. and father of Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr.

Early life Coolidge was born in Nice, France, on January 22, 1870. His parents were Harvard University Law School graduate Joseph Randolph Coolidge and Julia (née Gardner) Coolidge, both from prominent and wealthy Boston Brahmin families. His siblings included U.S. Minister to Nicaragua John Gardner Coolidge, professor and diplomat Archibald Cary Coolidge, architect J. Randolph Coolidge Jr. and mathematician and fellow Harvard professor Julian Lowell Coolidge.Harvard University Archives, call no. HUG-1299: Coolidge, Archibald Cary, 1866-1928. Papers of Archibald Cary Coolidge : an inventory , with a biography. URL retrieved 2011-01-11.

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

Through his mother, Harold was the nephew of John Lowell Gardner II. 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.Hunt, F. . Lives of American merchants - Vol 1. (via Google Books)

Coolidge attended school in Boston before studying in Germany and at Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1892, with an A.B. magna cum laude.

Career He was admitted to the bar in 1896 and worked as partner in the firm of Loring and Coolidge.

In 1926, the future King of Sweden Gustaf VI Adolf and his wife, Lady Louise Mountbatten, were the guests of Coolidge during the visit to Boston, where Coolidge showed them The House of the Seven Gables.

Personal life On February 19, 1903, Coolidge was married to Edith Lawrence (1879–1975), the daughter of Amory Appleton Lawrence and granddaughter of abolitionist Amos Adams Lawrence. Her uncle was Bishop William Lawrence and her aunt was Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Her first cousins included Bishops William Appleton Lawrence, and Frederic Cunningham Lawrence. Together, they were the parents of two sons and a daughter:

Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr. (1904–1985), a prominent zoologist.The New York Times, obituary: "Harold Coolidge, Expert on Exotic Mammals", February 16, 1985. URL retrieved 2011-01-21. Lawrence Coolidge (1905–1950),Lawrence Coolidge, 1905-1950 Americanalpineclub.org (1950) who married Victoria Stuart Tytus (1909–1996), the daughter of Robb de Peyster Tytus, in 1934. Emily Fairfax Stone (1907 -1991), who married Harry Adsit Woodruf and later Thomas Archibald Stone

Harold Jefferson Coolidge Sr. died on July 31, 1934, and is buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After his death, his widow remarried U.S. General and Chief of the Military Intelligence Division Sherman Miles (1882–1966) in 1954.Beer, Siegfried: "Sherman Miles – vor und nach Kärnten 1919. Anmerkungen zu einer hauptsächlich nachrichtendienstlichen Karriere in der US-Armee", pp. 309–317 in Valentin, H.; Haiden, S.; Maier, B. (eds.): Die Kärntner Volksabstimmung 1920 und die Geschichtsforschung, Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2002. .

Publications Archibald Cary Coolidge, Life and Letters, 1932 Thoughts on Thomas Jefferson, or, What Jefferson was not, 1936 (posthumous, edited by Lawrence Coolidge).

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