Thomas William Cowan

Thomas William Cowan (1840–1926) was a co-founder and president of the British Beekeepers' Association.^[1]

Cowan was born in 1840 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and died in 1926 in Clevedon, United Kingdom. In the UK census he described himself as a civil engineer^[2] and a farmer.^[3]

Cowan travelled to the US several times^[4] and in 1900 settled in Monterey.

Cowan founded the Beekeepers' Association with Charles Nash Abbott (1830-1894) in 1874: "For the Encouragement, Improvement and Advancement of Bee Culture in the United Kingdom, particularly as a means of bettering the Condition of Cottagers and the Agricultural Labouring Classes, as well as the advocacy of humanity to the industrious labourer – the Honey Bee."^[5]

Cowan designed the cylindrical honey extractor. He was the editor of the British Bee Journal and the Bee Keepers' Record.^[6]

Cowan authored books on beekeeping and related topics and was a collector of beekeeping books. Upon his death, his library numbered more than 1,800 books, which formed the basis of the Cowan Memorial Library.^[7]

• The Honey Bee: Its Natural History, Anatomy, and Physiology (1890)
• British Bee-Keeper's Guide Book (1911)

• Works by or about Thomas William Cowan at the Internet Archive