Peter Cooper and Family

Inventor and millionaire industrialist Peter Cooper was among the leading nineteenth-century American businessmen. He was also a generous philanthropist who viewed wealth as a trust to be used “for the education and uplifting of the common people.” In 1857 he founded New York City’s Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—an innovative institution offering free vocational courses to adults. Peter and Sarah Cooper endured the loss of four of their six children in early childhood. Their bond with their surviving daughter, Sarah Amelia, and son, Edward, who appear with them in this family portrait, was particularly close.