Thomas Cooper Library; library dedicated to Thomas Cooper
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Memorial Structure
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Named Building
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Cooper, Thomas
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Thomas Cooper Library; library dedicated to Thomas Cooper
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Built in 1957 as the undergraduate library, the design by architect Edward Durrell Stone won the First Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1963. The trustees named the library after South Carolina College president Thomas Cooper during their meeting on Oct. 5, 1968, stating that Cooper “[did] more to give South Carolina a national reputation than anyone except Francis Lieber.” In 1976 a massive expansion designed by architects Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle and Wolff was completed, adding four underground levels and three above-ground floors to the rear of the building. A dedication ceremony was held on Dec. 8, 1976, after the building reopened.
Thomas Cooper was the second president of South Carolina College (pro tem 1820-1821, 1821-1834). Cooper used enslaved labor on the campus and requested permission from the trustees to rent enslaved persons for his sole use at the school. He disavowed his earlier antislavery views and presented intellectual defenses of slavery. Cooper was a strong proponent of nullification. His courses on political economy earned him the nickname “the schoolmaster of states’ rights.” He strongly opposed abolition and asserted that “a population of free blacks, is the most idle, debauched, thievish and insolent [group] that we have ever witnessed in the United States.”
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Large library with glass and marble facade. Three floors are above ground; four are underground.
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University of South Carolina
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1959
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December 8, 1976
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October 5, 1968
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1976
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University of South Carolina
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