Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Unless noted, digital media are not available online. Copies of unrestricted digital files will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request. Access will be provided to use copies of unrestricted digital files rather than carrier media, such as CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks. Some or all electronic files may be unavailable or restricted due to privacy reasons, agreement with the donor, software is not available to interact with files, or because files cannot be retrieved from original media.
The Interview Transcripts, found in Box 1, Folder 7, are for use only in the Special Collections Reading Room. NO REPRODUCTIONS ARE PERMITTED OF THESE TRANSCRIPTS.
This collection contains research materials on Gertrude Cox, American statistician and former professor of Statistics at North Carolina State University, compiled by her great-niece, Helena Hoen. These include interview transcripts, research papers, and a book draft, as well as correspondence, photographs, and two scrapbook albums created by Cox herself.
Gertrude Mary Cox (1900-1978) was raised in Perry, Iowa, where she graduated from high school in 1918. Cox then studied to be a deaconess in the Methodist Episcopal Church, achieving probationer status in 1922 and full rank in 1924, while serving as a housemother and teacher at a Methodist children’s home in Helena, Montana. In 1925, Cox enrolled in Iowa State University, where she majored in mathematics and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1929. She continued her mathematical education at Iowa State and in 1931, she earned her MS in Statistics, the first master’s degree in statistics awarded by the university. After some graduate work in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Cox returned to Iowa State in 1933 to help establish the university’s Statistical Laboratory, where she taught courses on experimental design.
Cox was hired in 1940 by North Carolina State University to head up their new Department of Experimental Statistics, the first woman to receive a professional appointment at NC State. While at NC State, she was instrumental in developing and growing the statistics department into a robust and well-known program. Cox was also a founding member of the International Biometrics Society. She was then appointed director of the Institute of Statistics of the Consolidated University of North Carolina in 1945, a position that she would hold until her departure from NC State in 1960. After her retirement from NC State, Cox worked at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) for another five years before retiring for good, after which she continued to serve on committees and consult for a variety of organizations, including the Ford Foundation, the World Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Institute of Health. She received numerous professional honors throughout her life: in 1958, Iowa State University awarded her an honorary doctorate; in 1970, NC State renamed the statistics building Cox Hall in her honor; and in 1975, Cox was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She continued to live in Raleigh until her death in 1978 of leukemia.
Sources:
Holmgren, D. (2021). Cox, Gertrude Mary. Iowa State University Biographical Dictionary. Retrieved from Iowa State University Biographical Dictionary.
Powell, William S. "Cox, Gertrude Mary." NCpedia. State Library of NC. 1979.Retrieved from State Library of NC.
This collection contains an assortment of research materials on Gertrude Cox and personal effects of Cox herself, compiled by Helena Hoen, her great-niece. These include materials documenting Cox’s time as head of the Institute of Statistics at North Carolina State University, including professional writings and summer course offerings; her consulting work in Research Triangle Park (RTP), Egypt, and Thailand after leaving NC State in 1960; and personal correspondence with family and friends. It also includes two photo album scrapbooks compiled by Cox, spanning her childhood in and around Perry, Iowa, her training as a Methodist deaconess, and her first professional teaching work in Iowa and Helena, Montana. Research compiled after Cox’s death in 1978 include materials from the dedication of Cox Hall at NC State University in 1999; a conference paper on Cox by NC State history professor Edith Dudley Sylla (1941-2023); a book draft by Dr. Nancy Hall (1942-2022) of the University of Delaware with edits and comments by Helena Hoen; and transcripts of interviews conducted by Hoen in 1995 and 1996 with Cox’s family members, colleagues, and friends. Additional materials related to Gertrude Cox and research conducted on her can be found in the Nancy Hall and Edith Sylla Book Project on Gertrude Cox, MC 00760, and Gertrude Mary Cox Papers, MC 00117.
The collection also includes a digitally archived website featuring a blog post written by Helena Hoen about Gertrude Cox's work as a statistician and her impact on the field.
This collection is arranged in the order received.
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries' "Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain" and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.
[Identification of item], Helena Hoen Collection of Research Materials on Gertrude Cox, MC 00799, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Related Material
Gift of Helena Hoen, 2025 November (Accession 2026.0018).
Processed by: Rebecca Speas, February 2026; Collection guide written by: Rebecca Speas, 2026 February
This folder contains: a brochure for summer courses in Statistics offered at North Carolina State University; an article reprinted from the January 1947 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Agronomy; and the 1975 retrospective "Professional and Personal Glimpses of George W. Snedecor" by Gertrude M. Cox and Paul G. Homeyer, which was published in the Biometric Society journal.
This folder contains materials honoring Gertrude Cox after her death, including: obituaries, published tributes from colleagues, a biographical memoir by Richard L. Anderson published by the National Academy of Sciences, and materials from the Gertrude M. Cox Statistics Building Dedication at NC State University on September 9, 1999.
This folder includes two laminated sheets of cardstock.
This folder contains: letters and cards written by Gertrude Cox to her friends Jeanne and John Williams of Burlington, North Carolina, detailing her travels, social engagements, and medical procedures; newspaper and periodical clippings detailing Cox's professional activities; and a copy of a lecture given by Cox to the United States Department of Agriculture Committee on Experimental Design.
This folder contains a copy of a conference paper entitled "If you would consider a woman.... Gertrude Cox and Collaboration in Experimental Statistics, 1940-1964" by Dr. Edith Dudley Sylla. Dr. Sylla taught the history of science at NC State University for 41 years and conducted research on the life of Gertrude Cox.
This folder includes a draft of a book about Gertrude Cox compiled by Dr. Nancy Hall of the University of Delaware. It includes email correspondence and review comments from Helena Hoen, Cox's great-niece. There are handwritten notes on the first two pages, as well as one that reads "Nancy passed away 2/6/2022, exactly 1 year later".
This folder contains two sets of letters sent by Gertrude Cox while working abroad in Thailand and Egypt. The first set, spanning from August 1964 to July 1965, date from Cox's time in Cairo working as a constultant for the Ford Foundation to Cairo University's Institute of Statistical Studies and Researches (ISSR), and are addressed to her brother and sister-in-law Carlos and Elise Cox. The second set, spanning from November 1970 to May 1971, are addressed to Cox's niece Myra Hoen, and date from her time consulting at various institutions in Bangkok and Thailand.
This folder contains transcripts of 10 interviews conducted by Helena Hoen with family members, NC State faculty and staff, colleagues, and former students of her great aunt Gertrude Cox. It also contains personal memories of Cox by Hoen herself. Interview subjects include: Jan Hoen (Cox's grandnephew); Myra Hoen (Cox's niece); Julie McVay (wife to Cox's colleague, Dr. Francis McVay; includes obituary); Sarah Carroll (staff member in the statistics lab at NC State); Jack and Vi Rigney (Cox's student and colleague at Iowa State and NC State, and wife); Larry Nelson (PhD student at NC State); Bob Monroe (Cox's student at Iowa State and NC State); Klaus Hinklemann (Department Head at Virginia Tech); Bradley Wells (Cox's student at UNC Chapel Hill); and Al and Betty Finkner (NC State colleagues).
The Interview Transcripts, found in Box 1, Folder 7, are for use only in the Special Collections Reading Room. NO REPRODUCTIONS ARE PERMITTED.
This folder contains a matted photographic print. It is undated and unlabeled, except for a partial "Dayt--" on the back, most likely indicating Dayton, Iowa. It is likely that the photgraph depicts Gertrude Cox, her parents Allen and Emma Cox, and three of her siblings, Carlos, Leleand [or Leland], and Hazel Mateal, circa 1905.
This folder contains a single gelatin silver print with moderate silver mirroring deterioration around the edges.
This folder contains three photographic prints: 1) Three people standing on the porch of a farmhouse with outbuildings visible. Label on reverse: "Grandpa + Grandma Cox / 1910 / Iowa St / Perry, Ia." 2) Two young girls and a baby, likely Hazel Mateal, Gertrude, and Edith Cox, seated in an open-air automobile in front of a farmhouse. 3) Hazel Mateal, Gertrude, and Edith Cox, seated in the same automobile in front of a country road and field.
This folder contains three gelatin silver prints on postcards with mild silver mirroring deterioration.
This folder contains four photographic prints: 1) Two women standing in front of a farmhouse with a Model T automobile partly out of frame. Label on reverse: "Bess (sister-in-law) + Mateal (sister) / 1918." 2) A man and woman with a young girl between them, standing in front of a home and automobile. Label on reverse: "1934 / Carlos (Brother), Betty (Bro's daughter), and Emma Cox (Mom) / 5" 3) A three story house with snow. Label on reverse: "Our house / 1936 / Ames Iowa / Emma [and] Allen Coxs' [sic] / 12 / Ames Iowa winter / 1936" 4) 12 young boys in front of a pavilion. Label on reverse: "30". This photo likely dates from Gertrude Cox's time as a housemother for orphans in Montana.
This folder contains two photographs of Gertrude Cox and her family outdoors, Christmas 1946. In both photographs, Cox appears to be taking a picture herself with a small handheld camera.
This folder contains two photographs of Mateal Cox Waterhouse, Gertrude Cox's older sister. One dates from approximately the 1930s, with label on reverse: "Mateal Hoen [sic] / Gertrude's Older sister = Mom's mom". The other is a color print of Mateal, with label on reverse: "April 1958 / Mateal (Cox) Waterhouse as Mom (Myra Hoen) remembers her." This folder also contains a photograph of an elderly man entering the front door of a brick house. Label on reverse: "? Opa Hoen at house in Netherlands [crossed out] Probably Gertrude Cox's father. Gertrude's house at 1324 Brooks Ave, Raleigh, NC. She helped design it."
This folder contains four photographic prints: 1) Headshot of Gertrude Cox, circa 1950s. Label on reverse: "This was one of the poor ones not re-touched / 2-2879-a proof". 2) Photograph of Gertrude Cox and colleagues in a field, likely during her work in Thailand, 1970. 3) Unlabeled color photograph of Gertrude Cox and possibly family. 4) Bird's-eye color photograph of a highway, a complex of greenhouses, and an apartment complex. Label on reverse: "Carroll's Greenhouses / March 1977 / 25 yrs [underlined] / Started March 1952".
This folder contains four small photographic headshots of Gertrude Cox, ranging from 1931 - circa 1950s, and one group color photograph of Cox and her colleagues at the dedication of Cox Hall. Label on reverse: "Oct 19, 1970 / Dedication of Cox Hall / Gertrude Cox (70) with Richard Anderson (which one?) & others".
This folder contains two photographic prints, both undated. 1) "Cox Hall", North Carolina State University. 2) Allen Cox at Iowa State. Label on reverse: "Gert's father Allen Cox working in Machine Lab @ Eng. Dept. [Engineering Department] @ Iowa State College".
This folder contains materials documenting Gertrude Cox's training and installation as a deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Iowa and Montana, including certificates, a program and invitation to the commencement exercises of the Iowa National Bible Training School in Des Moines, and a flyer for the Montana Deaconess School in Helena. It also contains typed research from Helena Hoen regarding Cox's time as a deaconess, as well as a photocard of the Iowa National Bible Training School's graduating class of 1922: Gertrude Cox; Alta Wade, Rose Dawson, Edna Manning, Ruth Husband, and Vera Nicolas (all white women); and Florence Daniels and Alma Brown (both Black women).
This folder holds a cardstock folio, embossed with "Berkemann, Perry, IA", containing two unlabeled and unddated photographic portraits, potentially of one of Gertrude's older siblings and their spouse.
This folder contains a photographic print portrait of Gertrude Cox, matted in a cardstock folio. The matboard is labeled " Siddell - Raleigh, N.C."
This photographic print has som mild silver mirroring deterioration at the corners.
This folder contains an assortment of photographs, correspondence, and memorabilia that was initially found loose in one of Gertrude Cox's scrapbooks [now contained in Box 3, MC 00799]. Materials include: a program for the 1946 memorial service of George Washinton Riddle; a photograph of a house labeled "Hensinkvelds [?] House on their farm"; a photograph of Cox's house on Brooks Avenue in Raleigh, NC; a check for the amount of "one baby" to Sgt. and Mrs. A.W. Templet [Cox's sister Edith and her husband] to announce the birth of their daughter Bertha Louise Templet; pictures of Cox's grandnephew Mickey; and a telegram from George Simpson, President of the University of Georgia.
This box contains a photo album compiled by Gertrude Cox. While many of the included photographs and postcards are unlabeled, the available captions and labels point to Cox's childhood in central Iowa (Ames, Perry, Stratford, Liberty Center, and Indianola) as well as her schooling and professional work in Des Moines, Iowa, and Helena, Montana. The album includes family photos, outdoor group photos, landscapes, and local Iowa businesses. There is an inscription on the inside cover that reads "With Love to Mamma and Papa, Gertrude. -- 1923".
This photo album contains photographic prints pasted into paper pages, some with white pencil captions. Other prints are loose in the pages, which have been interleaved with acid free paper. Many of the silver gelatin prints have some silver mirroring deterioration.
This box contains a photo album and scrapbook compiled by Gertrude Cox featuring photographs and mixed material mementos dating from circa 1910 to 1927. It includes photographs of Cox's parents, siblings, and extended family; high school friends and extracurricular activities; and her time working and traveling in Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, and Montana. It also contains various paper materials, including correspondence, concert and commencement programs, conference materials, nameplates, and color postcards and brochures from parks and tourist sites in the American West. It also includes a hand-embroidered handkerchief, crepe tissue mementos, themed stationery, and a felt pennant for the Montana Deaconess School.
This album contains silver gelatin and other photographic prints, paper materials, crepe tissue paper mementos, an emroidered handkerchief, and a felt school pennant.
Online access is provided through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access will require additional advanced notice. Unless noted, digital media are not available online. Copies of unrestricted digital files will be provided for use in the SCRC Reading Room upon request. Access will be provided to use copies of unrestricted digital files rather than carrier media, such as CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks. Some or all electronic files may be unavailable or restricted due to privacy reasons, agreement with the donor, software is not available to interact with files, or because files cannot be retrieved from original media.
The Interview Transcripts, found in Box 1, Folder 7, are for use only in the Special Collections Reading Room. NO REPRODUCTIONS ARE PERMITTED OF THESE TRANSCRIPTS.
For more information contact us via mail, phone, or our web form.
Mailing address:
Special Collections Research Center
Box 7111
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Phone: (919) 515-2273
[Identification of item], Helena Hoen Collection of Research Materials on Gertrude Cox, MC 00799, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries' "Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain" and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.
The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.