Henry B. Cox, 69; historian helped recover stolen Edison documents

Henry Bartholomew Cox, a historian and lawyer who helped recover more than $250,000 worth of documents stolen from the Thomas A. Edison historical site, died April 8 at his home in Fort Washington, Md. He was 69 and had Alzheimer’s disease.

Cox, an appraiser and collector who owned several early phonographs made by Edison, was alerted in 1984 by a North Carolina dealer that a California professor was willing to sell several rare documents signed by the famous inventor. The dealer bought one $600 sketch from the Californian and showed it to Cox.

“Bart recognized it and said it simply cannot be anything else” but documents missing from the federal historical site in New Jersey since 1976, said his wife of 33 years, Hannah Caffery Cox.

Working with the FBI, Cox and the dealer arranged a sting. Phillip Petersen, a former Stanford University language professor who had been fired after being convicted of embezzling university funds, was arrested by the FBI. He pleaded guilty to the theft of more than 143 binders stuffed with unique Edison documents detailing the development of the phonograph and inventions related to it.

Cox received a distinguished service award from the Department of the Interior for his role in the recovery of the documents.

He collected manuscripts and documents, originally focusing on those from the signers of the Declaration of Independence, later expanding into presidential memorabilia and artifacts of early 20th century inventors, musicians and political figures.

During his three years as a historian in the State Department in the late 1960s, Cox produced a study of protocol that is considered the standard on the topic. At the National Archives from 1971 to 1975, he was with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and served as chief of the bicentennial program.

Cox was a graduate of Princeton University and earned a master’s degree in 1962 and a doctorate in 1967, both in history, at George Washington University. He also earned a law degree at the university in 1976.