PETER COOPER - AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIST INVENTOR & POLITICIAN 1878 PHOTO by SARONY

Description

We are offering a
RARE
1878 Cabinet Card Photograph of
Peter Cooper,
Famous American Industrialist, Inventor, Philanthropist and Politician.  Photograph is by Sarony, New York.
Peter Cooper
(1791-1883) designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the
Tom Thumb,
founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and was the Greenback Party's candidate in the 1876 presidential election.  Cooper developed numerous patents and participated in the laying of the first transatlantic cable.
Truly a self-made man, Cooper worked hard and smart, eventually amassing a great fortune.
As a young man, he purchased a glue factory on the east side of Manhattan, where he had direct access to raw materials from the nearby slaughterhouses, and ran it as a successful business for many years.
He developed new ways to produce glues, cements and other products and became New York's premier provider to leather tanners, manufacturers of paint and dry-goods merchants.  Cooper later invested in real estate and insurance, becoming one of the richest men in New York City.
Cooper purchased 3,000 acres of land in Maryland, and while clearing and developing the land, he discovered deposits of iron ore.
Anticipating the construction of the proposed Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and knowing the railroad would require iron rails, he founded the Canton Iron Works in Baltimore.
However, the railroad developed financial problems, and Cooper built the
Tom Thumb
steam locomotive for the railroad from various old parts including musket barrels, and some small-scale steam engines he had fiddled with several years earlier.  The locomotive was such a success that investors bought stock in the B&O enabling them to buy Cooper's iron rails.
Prior to the Civil War, Cooper was active in the anti-slavery movement and a supporter of the Union cause during the war.
He also organized the privately funded United States Indian Commission which led to the formation of the Board of Indian Commissioners whose goal was, during the years 1870 to 1875, to educate the government and the public about the plight of American Indians and to eliminate war in the western territories.
Native Americans from different tribes including Red Cloud and Little Raven spoke in Washington, DC in front of President Grant and audiences of notable politicians.
In 1876, Peter Cooper was encouraged to run in the presidential election for the Greenback Party.
At the age of 85, he was the oldest person ever nominated by any political party for President of the United States.
During his lifetime, Peter Cooper had many accomplishments, way too numerous to mention here.  His influence was so far-reaching that many institutions were named in his honor:
Cooper Union; the 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 and Cooper Square in Manhattan.
Peter Cooper died on April 4, 1883 at the age of 92 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
CONDITION: Excellent +