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{{Short description|American politician and businessman (1791–1883)}}
{{Other people|Peter Cooper}}
{{Infobox person
|image       = Peter Cooper Photograph.jpg
|caption     = Portrait, {{circa| 1870s}}   
|birth_date  = {{birth date|1791|2|12}}
|birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
|death_date  = {{death date and age|1883|4|4|1791|2|12}}
|death_place = New York City, U.S.
|burial_place = [[Green-Wood Cemetery]]
|spouse      = {{Marriage|Sarah Raynor Bedell|1813|1869|end=d}}
|children    = 2, including [[Edward Cooper (mayor)|Edward]]
|signature   = Peter Cooper signature.svg
}}
'''Peter Cooper''' (February 12, 1791{{spaced ndash}}April 4, 1883) was an American [[industrialist]], inventor, [[philanthropist]], and politician. He designed and built the first American [[steam locomotive]], the ''[[Tom Thumb (locomotive)|Tom Thumb]]'', founded the [[Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art]], served as its first president, and stood for election as the [[Greenback Party]]'s candidate in the [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 presidential election]].

Cooper began tinkering at a young age while working in various positions in New York City. He purchased a glue factory in 1821 and used that factory's profits to found the Canton Iron Works, where he earned even larger profits by fabricating machinery such as the ''Tom Thumb''. Cooper's success as a businessman and inventor continued over the ensuing decades, and he became the first mill operator to successfully use [[anthracite coal]] to [[puddling (metallurgy)|puddle iron]]. He also developed numerous patents for products such as [[gelatin]] and participated in the laying of the first [[transatlantic telegraph cable]].

During the [[Gilded Age]], Cooper became an ardent critic of the [[gold standard]] and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency, advocating instead for government-issued [[banknote]]s. Cooper was nominated for president at the [[1876 Greenback National Convention]], and the Greenback ticket of Cooper and [[Samuel Fenton Cary]] won just under one percent of the popular vote in the [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 presidential election]]. His son [[Edward Cooper (mayor)|Edward]] and his son-in-law [[Abram Hewitt]] both served as [[Mayor of New York City]].

==Early years==
Peter Cooper was born in [[New York City]] of [[Dutch American|Dutch]], [[English American|English]] and [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] descent,<ref name="gotham563">Burrows & Wallace p.563</ref> the fifth child of John Cooper, a [[Methodist]] hatmaker from [[Newburgh, New York]].<ref name="gotham563" /><ref>Raymond p.1</ref> His family descended from Obidiah Cooper, who had settled in New York from England around 1662.<ref>Raymond p.10</ref> Cooper lived in [[Peekskill, New York|Peekskill]] from a young age until age 17, when he returned to New York City to become an apprentice.<ref>Raymond p.15</ref> He worked as a coachmaker's [[apprentice]], [[cabinet maker]], hatmaker, brewer and grocer,<ref name=gotham563 /><ref>Raymond p.14</ref> and was throughout a tinkerer: he developed a cloth-shearing machine which he attempted to sell, as well as an endless chain he intended to be used to pull [[Barge|barges and boats]] on the newly completed [[Erie Canal]] (which was routed west to east across upper [[New York State]] from [[Lake Erie]] to the upper [[Hudson River]]) which its chief supporter, the [[Governor of New York]], [[De Witt Clinton]] approved of, but which Cooper was unable to sell.<ref name=gotham563 /> During the [[War of 1812]], Cooper ran a wood mill which supplied the Americans throughout the war, though this venture failed after the war's conclusion and he sold the business as a furniture shop.<ref>Raymond p.19</ref>

In 1821, Cooper purchased a glue factory on Sunfish Pond<ref>{{cite web |last1=Virgintino |first1=Mike |title=Little Old New York: Sunfish Pond |url=https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/little-old-new-york-sunfish-pond |website=The Patch |date=5 December 2016 |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref> on east side [[Manhattan Island]] for $2,000 at [[Kips Bay]], where he had access to raw materials from the nearby [[slaughterhouse]]s, and ran it as a successful business for many years,<ref>Raymond p.19</ref> producing a profit of $10,000 (equivalent to roughly $200,000 in 21st century value today) within 2 years, developing new ways to produce glues and cements, [[gelatin]], [[isinglass]] and other products, and becoming the city's premier provider to [[Tanning (leather)|tanners]] ([[leather]]), manufacturers of [[paint]]s, and [[dry-goods]] merchants.<ref name="gotham564">Burrows & Wallace p.564</ref> The effluent from his successful factory eventually polluted the pond so much that in 1839 it had to be drained and backfilled for eventual building construction.<ref name=gotham564/>

==Business career==
[[File:Peter Cooper cartoon.jpg|thumb|237px|left|[[Caricature]] of Peter Cooper by [[Thomas Nast]], depicting Cooper as a [[Cooper (profession)|cooper]].]]

Having been convinced that the proposed [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] would drive up prices for land in [[Maryland]], Cooper used his profits to buy {{convert|3000|acre|km2}} of land there in 1828 and began to develop them, draining swampland and flattening hills, during which he discovered iron ore on his property. Seeing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a natural market for iron rails to be made from his ore, he founded the Canton Iron Works in [[Baltimore]], and when the railroad developed technical problems, he put together the ''[[Tom Thumb (locomotive)|Tom Thumb]]'' steam locomotive for them in 1829 from various old parts, including musket barrels, and some small-scale steam engines he had fiddled with back in New York. The engine was a rousing success, prompting investors to buy stock in B&O, which enabled the company to buy Cooper's iron rails, making him what would be his first fortune.<ref name=gotham564 />

Cooper began operating an iron [[rolling mill]] in New York beginning in 1836, where he was the first to successfully use [[anthracite coal]] to [[puddling (metallurgy)|puddle iron]].<ref>Raymond p.22</ref> Cooper later moved the mill to [[Trenton, New Jersey]], on the [[Delaware River]] to be closer to the sources of the raw materials the works needed. His son and son-in-law, [[Edward Cooper (mayor)|Edward Cooper]] and [[Abram S. Hewitt]], later expanded the Trenton facility into a giant complex employing 2,000 people, in which iron was taken from raw material to finished product.<ref>Burrows & Wallace p.662</ref>

Cooper also operated a successful glue factory in [[Gowanda, New York]], that produced glue for decades.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/381229715? Community gets gift of Hollywood Theater for restoration], ''Buffalo News - Southern Tier Edition'', Buffalo, NY: Berkshire Hathaway, 16 December 1996, O'Brien, B. | Accessdate 2 November 2013.</ref><ref name="Redbook">Kirby, C.D. (1976).  ''The Early History of Gowanda and The Beautiful Land of the Cattaraugus''. Gowanda, NY: Niagara Frontier Publishing Company, Inc./Gowanda Area Bi-Centennial Committee, Inc.</ref> A glue factory was originally started in association with the Gaensslen Tannery, there, in 1874, though the first construction of the glue factory's plant, originally owned by Richard Wilhelm and known as the Eastern Tanners Glue Company, began on May 5, 1904.<ref name="Redbook" />  Gowanda, therefore, was known as America's glue capital.<ref name="Redbook" />

Cooper owned a number of patents for his inventions, including some for the manufacture of [[gelatin]], and he developed standards for its production. While his [[patent]] for “Portable Gelatine” bears a remarkable resemblance to the description of the dessert, [[Jell-O]], that product was [[trademark]]ed decades after Cooper's patent expired.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mann |first=Mary |title=The Cooper Union Library: The Cooper Union Archives & Special Collections: Cooperology |url=https://library.cooper.edu/archives/cooperology/The-Gelatine-Gentleman-a-USPTO-event |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=library.cooper.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Cooper later invested in [[real estate]] and [[insurance]], and became one of the richest men in [[New York City]].<ref name="gotham725">Burrows & Wallace p.725</ref><ref>In 1856, Cooper was one of the 9,122 individuals in New York City whose net worth for tax assessment purposes was over $10,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=10000|start_year=1856}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). Burrows & Wallace p.712</ref> Despite this, he lived relatively simply in an age when the rich were indulging in more and more luxury. He dressed in simple, plain clothes, and limited his household to only two servants; when his wife bought an expensive and elaborate carriage, he returned it for a more sedate and cheaper one. Cooper remained in his home at [[Fourth Avenue (Manhattan)|Fourth Avenue]] and [[28th Street (Manhattan)|28th Street]] even after the [[New York and Harlem Railroad]] established freight yards where cattle cars were parked practically outside his front door, although he did move to the more genteel [[Gramercy Park]] development in 1850.<ref name=gotham725 />

In 1854, Cooper was one of five men who met at the house of [[Cyrus West Field]] in Gramercy Park to form the [[New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company]], and, in 1855, the [[American Telegraph Company]], which bought up competitors and established extensive control over the expanding American network<ref>Burrows & Wallace p.675</ref> on the Atlantic Coast and in some Gulf coast states.<ref>Harding, Robert S. and Oswald, Alison [http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/fa_wu_index.aspx "Western Union Telegraph Company Records 1820–1995"] Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The American Telegraph Company would eventually, through mergers and buy outs, become part of [[Western Union]].</ref> He was among those supervising the laying of the first [[Transatlantic telegraph cable]] in 1858.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1863/03/05/news/local-intelligence-atlantic-telegraph-enterprisemeeting-merchants-chamber.html?pagewanted=all |title=Local Intelligence.; The Atlantic Telegraph Enterprise. Meeting of Merchants at the Chamber of Commerce—Interesting Addresses by Cyrus W. Field, Peter Cooper, E.E. Morgan, the Mayor, A.A. Low and others—Subscriptions to the Capital Stock of the Company. Peter Cooper's Remarks. |date=March 5, 1863 |work=New York Times |access-date=2010-06-23 |quote=Another great advantage would result from the avoidance of any misunderstanding between Great Britain and the United States – one such prevention would more than pay for the cable.}}</ref>

== Invention of first steel rocking chair (1830s) ==
[[File:Steel Chair Designed by Peter Cooper.jpg|thumb|Steel rocking chair designed by Peter Cooper in the 1830s]]
During the 1830s Cooper designed the first steel chair in America, which was a [[rocking chair]]. Cooper produced a functional, minimalist design radically different from the Victorian heavily decorated, ostentatious style of the time. Most rocking chairs had separate rockers fixed to regular chair legs, but Cooper's chair used the curve of its frame to ensure the rocking motion. Cooper's chair was made of steel or wrought iron with upholstery slung across the frame. The model was manufactured at R.W. Winfield & Co. in Britain. The firm exhibited examples of the chair at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (Crystal Palace Exhibition) in 1851 and the Great London Exposition of 1862.<ref>{{Cite web |last=sysadmin |date=c. 1953 |title=Steel Chair Designed by Peter Cooper |url=https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_5792 |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=Smithsonian Institution Archives |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Winfield, R. W. & Sons; Winfield & Co. (1820-1892) {{!}} BIFMO |url=https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/winfield-r-w-sons-winfield-co-1820-1892 |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=bifmo.history.ac.uk}}</ref>

==Political views and career==

In 1840, Cooper became an [[alderman]] of New York City.

Prior to the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Cooper was active in the [[Abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]] movement and promoted the application of Christian concepts to solve social injustice. He was a strong supporter of the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] cause during the war and an advocate of the government issue of paper money.

[[Image:Peter Cooper spanking Ed Cooper (1879 political cartoon).jpg|thumb|250px|right|1879 [[Puck (magazine)|Puck]] cartoon shows Cooper spanking his son [[Mayor of New York City|Mayor]] [[Edward Cooper (mayor)|Edward Cooper]].]]

Influenced by the writings of [[Lydia Maria Child]], Cooper became involved in the Indian reform movement, organizing the privately funded [[United States Indian Commission]]. This organization, whose members included [[William E. Dodge]] and [[Henry Ward Beecher]], was dedicated to the protection and elevation of Native Americans in the United States and the elimination of warfare in the western territories.

Cooper's efforts led to the formation of the [[Board of Indian Commissioners]], which oversaw [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s Peace Policy. Between 1870 and 1875, Cooper sponsored Indian delegations to [[Washington, D.C.]], New York City, and other Eastern cities. These delegations met with Indian rights advocates and addressed the public on United States Indian policy. Speakers included:  [[Red Cloud]], [[Little Raven (Arapaho leader)|Little Raven]], and [[Alfred B. Meacham]] and a delegation of [[Modoc people|Modoc]] and [[Klamath people|Klamath]] Indians.

Cooper was an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency. Throughout the depression from 1873 to 1878, he said that usury was the foremost political problem of the day. He strongly advocated a credit-based, Government-issued currency of [[United States Note]]s. In 1883 his addresses, letters and articles on public affairs were compiled into a book, ''Ideas for a Science of Good Government.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b24aAAAAYAAJ&q=Science%20Ideas%20for%20a%20Good%20Government&pg=PP1 |title=Ideas for a Science of Good Government. In Addresses, Letters and Articles on a Strictly National Currency, Tariff, and Civil Service |publisher=Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Co |year=1883 |location=New York}}</ref>

===Presidential candidacy===

Cooper was encouraged to run in the [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 presidential election]] for the [[Greenback Party]] without any hope of being elected. His running mate was former U.S. Representative and [[Prohibition|prohibitionist]] [[Samuel Fenton Cary]]. The campaign cost more than [[United States dollar|$]]25,000.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} The election was won by [[Rutherford B. Hayes|Rutherford Birchard Hayes]] of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. Cooper was surpassed by another unsuccessful candidate, [[Samuel J. Tilden]] of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].

===A political family===
[[File:Sarah Cooper b1793.jpg|thumb|175px|Sarah Cooper]]
[[File:Peter Cooper daguerreotype.png|thumb|175px|Peter Cooper posed with a young child believed to be one of his granddaughters.]]

On December 18, 1813, Cooper married Sarah Bedell (1793–1869), who herself was of Huguenot descent.<ref>Raymond p.19</ref> Of their six children, only two survived past the age of four years: a son, [[Edward Cooper (mayor)|Edward]], and a daughter, Sarah Amelia.<ref name="Hughes">{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtExAQAAMAAJ&q=%22peter+cooper%22+children&pg=PA222 |title=Life and Times of Peter Cooper |publisher=Macmillan And Co. |year=1886 |location=London |pages=222–226 |quote=Our fifth child was my son Edward, who is still living....My sixth and last child, was our daughter Sarah Amelia, now Mrs. Hewitt. |access-date=23 May 2013}}</ref><ref>[http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/64601 Sarah Cooper (1793–1869)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320052807/http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/64601 |date=2012-03-20 }}. picturehistory.com</ref> Edward served as [[Mayor of New York City]], as would the husband of Sarah Amelia, [[Abram S. Hewitt]], a man also heavily involved in inventions and industrialization.

Peter Cooper's granddaughters, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green founded the [[Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum]], then named the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, in 1895. It was originally part of The Cooper Union, but since 1967 has been a unit of the [[Smithsonian Institution]].<ref>[http://www.cooperhewitt.org/about "About the Museum"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121219184541/http://www.cooperhewitt.org/about |date=2012-12-19 }} on the Cooper-Hewitt website</ref>

==Religious views==
Cooper was a [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian]] who regularly attended the services of [[Henry Whitney Bellows]] at the [[Church of All Souls (New York)]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Timeline 1838 – 1860: The Bellows Era, Part 1: Gaining Prominence |url=https://www.allsoulsnychistory.org/timeline-1838-1860 |publisher=All Souls Historical Society |access-date=4 May 2022 |archive-date=26 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626192418/https://www.allsoulsnychistory.org/timeline-1838-1860 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and his views were [[Universalist]]ic and [[non-sectarian]].<ref name=cook />  In 1873 he wrote:

<blockquote>I look to see the day when the teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping powers and conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter.<ref name=cook>Cooke, George Willis. [https://archive.org/details/unitarianismina01cookgoog/page/n488 <!-- pg=408 quote="Peter Cooper" unitarian. --> ''Unitarianism in America: A History of Its Origin and Development, v.4''] Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1902.  pp.408-09</ref></blockquote>

==The Cooper Union==
Cooper had for many years held an interest in adult education: he had served as head of the Public School Society, a private organization which ran New York City's free schools using city money,<ref>Burrows & Wallace p.780</ref> when it began evening classes in 1848.<ref name="gotham782">Burrows & Wallace p.782</ref> Cooper conceived of the idea of having a free institute in New York, similar to the [[École Polytechnique]] (Polytechnical School) in [[Paris]], which would offer free practical education to adults in the mechanical arts and science, to help prepare young men and women of the working classes for success in business.

In 1853, he broke ground for The [[Cooper Union|Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art]], a private college in New York, completing the building in 1859 at the cost of $600,000. The Cooper Union offered open-admission night classes available to men and women alike, and attracted 2,000 responses to its initial offering, although 600 later dropped out. The classes were non-sectarian, and women were treated equally with men, although 95% of the students were male. Cooper started a Women's School of Design, which offered daytime courses in engraving, lithography, painting on china and drawing.<ref name=gotham782 />

The new institution soon became an important part of the community. The [[Cooper Union#The Great Hall|Great Hall]] was a place where the pressing civic controversies of the day could be debated, and, unusually, radical views were not excluded. In addition, the Union's library, unlike the nearby [[Astor Library|Astor]], [[New York Mercantile Library|Mercantile]] and [[New York Society Library|New York Society]] Libraries, was open until 10:00 at night, so that working people could make use of them after work hours.<ref name=gotham782 />

Today The Cooper Union<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/peter_cooper |title=Peter Cooper |last=Gordon |first=John |website=philanthropyroundtable.org |publisher=The Philanthropy Roundtable |access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref> is recognized as one of the leading American colleges in the fields of architecture, engineering, and art.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} Carrying on Peter Cooper's belief that college education should be free, The Cooper Union awarded all its students with a full scholarship until fall 2014, when the college began charging tuition, in part, due to the financial impact of construction loans taken before the [[Great Recession]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kaminer |first=Ariel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/nyregion/cooper-union-to-charge-undergraduates-tuition.html |title=College Ends Free Tuition, and an Era |date=April 23, 2013 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> The college is currently implementing a financial plan to restore full-tuition scholarships for all its undergraduate students by 2029.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Cooper Union Plan To Return To Full-Tuition Scholarships |url=https://cooper.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/assets/site/files/2018/PlantoFree_print.pdf |publisher=Cooper Union |access-date=4 May 2022}}</ref>

==Philanthropy==
In 1851, Cooper was one of the founders of [[Children's Village]], originally an orphanage called "New York Juvenile Asylum", one of the oldest non-profit organizations in the United States.<ref name="NYT-1860">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1860/01/31/news/our-city-charities-no-ii-the-new-york-juvenile-asylum.html?pagewanted=all |title=Our City Charities - No, IIL The New-York Juvenile Asylum. |date=January 31, 1860 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=November 21, 2015}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Cooper died on April 4, 1883, at the age of 92 and is buried in [[Green-Wood Cemetery]] in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City|New York]]. The lot number of his current burial site is [https://www.google.com/maps/place/40%C2%B039'10.3%22N+73%C2%B059'15.1%22W/@40.6528613,-73.9875293,18.42z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d40.6528611!4d-73.9875278?authuser=0&entry=ttu 3932 & C].

Aside from [[Cooper Union]], the [[Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village|Peter Cooper Village]] apartment complex in [[Manhattan]]; the Peter Cooper Elementary School in [[Ringwood, New Jersey]]; the Cooper School in Superior, Wisconsin, the [[Peter Cooper Station]] post office; [[Cooper Park]] in Brooklyn, [[Cooper Square]] in Manhattan, and Cooper Square in [[Hempstead, New York]], Peter Cooper Village Senior Section 8 Housing in [[West Long Branch, New Jersey]], are named in his honor.

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist|35em}}

'''Bibliography'''
* Mack, Edward C. ''Peter Cooper, citizen of New York'' (1949) [https://archive.org/details/petercoopercitiz00mack online]
*{{Cite web |url=http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Resources/Cooper_Peter.cfm |title=Cooper, Peter |website=Mechanical Engineering Biographies Throughout Time |publisher=ASME |access-date=2008-05-01}}
*{{Cite book |last=Raymond |first=Rossiter W. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.86817 |title=Peter Cooper |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |year=1901 |location=New York |quote=peter cooper raymond.}}
*{{cite gotham}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{AmCyc Poster|Cooper, Peter|Peter Cooper}}
*[http://www.petercooperstory.com/ Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story, as seen on PBS Jan. 2, 2011]
*[http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/petercooper.html Comprehensive Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111172939/http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/petercooper.html |date=2013-11-11 }} by Nathan C. Walker in the ''Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography''
*[http://www.cooper.edu/about/history/peter-cooper Facts About Peter Cooper and The Cooper Union]
*[http://library.cooper.edu/archive/cooper_portraits_frameset.html Information about Peter Cooper from The Cooper Union Library and Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126205237/http://library.cooper.edu/archive/cooper_portraits_frameset.html |date=2020-01-26 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20030708024526/http://www.ringwoodmanor.com/peo/ch/pc/pc.htm Brief biography]
*{{Find a Grave|229}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070201211611/http://petercooper.info/ Extensive Information about Peter Cooper]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071011093919/http://www.petercooper.info/html/HWautobiography.pdf Images of Peter Cooper's Autobiography]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071203085302/http://www.petercooper.info/html/autobiography.pdf  Peter Cooper's Dictated Autobiography]
*[https://archive.org/details/deathofslavery00cooprich ''The death of slavery'' by Peter Cooper at archive.org]

===Popular culture===
*John M. Loretz Jr. dedicated his song, [https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Hero_of_Our_Day!_(Loretz%2C_John_M.) The Hero of Our Day!] to Peter Cooper, "America's Great Philanthropist".

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Presidents of Cooper Union|President of Cooper Union]]|years|years=1859-1882}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Greenback Party|Greenback]] nominee for [[President of the United States]]|years|years=[[1876 United States presidential election|1876]]}}
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{{Hall of Fame for Great Americans}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Peter}}
[[Category:Peter Cooper| ]]
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