Harriet Marie Cogswell was born on May 29, 1900 in Ellington, Connecticut. She graduated from Rockville Public High School in 1918 and from Mount Holyoke College in 1922. She taught at two high schools and worked as a secretary at the YWCA for Mount Holyoke College before going to China in 1926. There she taught English at Ginling College in Nanking until 1931, taking a two-year furlogh from 1927-1929. On July 6, 1931 she married Paul Walter Meyer, a diplomatic secretary. They had a son, John, in 1935. They returned to the United States in 1941, but went back to China in 1946 as part of the American Consular Service. Meyer later taught in the Tolland School System. Harriet Cogswell Meyer died on June 2, 1983 in Tolland, Connecticut.