Frank Cousins

Born: June 30, 1851, Salem, MA

Died: June 6, 1925, Salem, MA

Burial Location: Lilac Path Lot 1175, Grave 10

Frank Cousins’ parents were Mary Oldson Cousins and Thomas Cousins. He was educated in the Salem public schools and graduated from the Phillips School on April 17, 1866. The next day he went to work as a cash boy at JB and SD Dry Goods Store in Salem 170-174 Essex St. His brothers also worked there. Eventually it became the Cousins Brothers Store and then Frank Cousins Bee-Hive.

Frank Cousins was most famous for his thousands of photographs of houses, museums and landmarks, their architectural features both indoors and outdoors in Salem, Danvers, Peabody and Marblehead as well as in Waltham and further away in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City. He was also very interested in notable Salem author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and photographed the houses where Hawthorne had lived.

His talent for photography led to several collaborations with author Phil M. Riley. First they collaborated on the book The Wood Carver of Salem: Samuel McIntire His Life and Work. Little Brown and Company, Boston: (1916).This led to a second book: The Colonial Architecture of Salem. Little, Brown and Company, Boston; (1919) and then a third, The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia (1920).

In 1899, Frank Cousins was appointed money clerk for the Boston, MA Post Office. He was a Presidential Elector for Benjamin Harrison and was a member of the Electoral College until his retirement in 1907.  Never married, he was also a member of the Salem Athenaeum and of the First Baptist Church of Salem.