Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The cover of this blank book bears the title "Autographs," and blind tooling in a decorative ivy pattern. Among the signatures in the volume are those of Alice Vara Proctor, Cobb's future wife, as well as her brother Fred Proctor; many school friends from Spencer High School and one by teacher Marcia P. Hill; and the Proutys on whose farm he lived and worked. One decorative pen and ink illustration by American impressionist painter Joseph H. Greenwood shows wild grass and flowers. Other pages include "Of all the books beneath the skies/An Autograph Album I despise," and a quotation from William Shakespeare's sonnet 60, "Like as the waves make toward the pebbl'd shore." NB: Nathan Augustus Cobb (1859-1932) later became known as the "father of nematology."