Stone memorializing Peter Cooper
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- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Memorialized Subject
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- Memorial Inscription
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Memorial Object
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Plaque/Marker
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Cooper, Peter
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Stone memorializing Peter Cooper
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The “Walk of Fame” was created in 1929 by then-president Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.
Peter Cooper (1791–1883) was a unique inventor, engineer, and philanthropist of the industrial age, admired for his self-made wealth and genuine compassion for others. He worked in various trades in industrial New York, beginning as an apprentice in cloth-shearing and eventually starting his own successful shearing business. Cooper then shifted to running a grocery business, which he sold to establish a glue factory. His innovative glue production, including the creation of freeze-dried food-grade gelatin (later marketed as Jell-O), brought him great success.
Cooper used his wealth to invest in a steel mill and became a prominent figure in the steel, mining, and railroad industries, driving industrial innovation. In the 1830s, Peter Cooper addressed doubts about steam locomotives on curved, inclined rails by building the "Tom Thumb," the first steam locomotive in the U.S.
Peter Cooper was a staunch opponent of slavery, using his resources to support the abolitionist movement. He believed in the fundamental rights of every individual, advocating for freedom and justice for all, regardless of race. Peter Cooper wrote an 8-page letter to President Lincoln expressing his frustrations with slaveholders and the Confederacy.
This stone was found in the basement of Cooper Union, a free university that Cooper founded in 1859 for all people, regardless of gender or race in New York City. It was donated to Rollins College by Robert Cleveland, a Rollins alumnus and New York banker.
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This stone measures approximately 46.5 x 31 cm and has a roughly triangular shape with a broken, irregular edge. The surface is dark gray and smooth.
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PETER COOPER
COOPER UNION
NEW YORK CITY
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Robert Cleveland
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1934
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COOPER UNION (New York, N.Y.)
Position: 1720 (46 views)