Richard Osborn Cummings (1908–1973) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, graduating in 1932. Cummings received his master’s degree from Harvard in 1933 and continued his studies in American history; two years later he completed his PhD at Harvard. His dissertation was “The American Ice Industry and the Development of Refrigeration, 1790–1860.” After receiving his degree, Cummings became an assistant professor of history at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin.
