The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

PETER COOPER

Peter Cooper was an American inventor, manufacturer and philanthropist. He was born in 1791 at New York City and died in 1883. He started life with few advantages, being almost self-educated; but by his energy, perseverance, sagacity and integrity, accumulated a large fortune. He carried on the manufacture of glue and isinglass for over fifty years, and was also connected with the iron-manufacture, the railways (he designed and built the first American locomotive), and the telegraphs of the United States. He greatly promoted the progress of industrial improvement in the United States, and in 1854 to 1859 erected the 'Cooper Union for the advancement of Science and Art', where the working classes received free instruction. He was a careful thinker on questions of government and finance. In 1876 he was the Presidential candidate of the National Independent party.
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