Joseph G. Cupples (1851-1915) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died in Brookline, Massachusetts. He immigrated to the United States in 1867 and became a naturalized citizen in 1883. In 1886 he married Harriet E. Cupples (b. Nichols) in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Cupples was a publisher and bookseller. He began his career as a clerk at A. Williams & Company, familiarly known as The Old Corner Bookstore, on the corner of Washington and School Streets in Boston. Williams left the business in 1883, and Cupples, in partnership with Henry M. Upham, carried it forward in the same location under the name Cupples, Upham & Co. In 1887 the firm changed its name to Cupples and Company, then to Cupples and Hurd, and finally J. G. Cupples Company in 1890. It went out of business in 1893. Cupples was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, a contributor to American and British Topographical Journals, and known as both an authority on New England booklore and as an avid outdoorsman. In his obituary, it was stated that he was also distinguished for having sold the first copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, while still a clerk for A. Williams & Company.

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