Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on Cooper's belief that an education "equal to the best technology schools established" should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be "open and free to all".
The Cooper Union's Foundation Building at Cooper Square and Astor Place in 2019
The interior of the Great Hall, c. 2005
Cooper Union in 1876
Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln February 27, 1860, the day of his famous Cooper Union speech in New York
Cooper Square is a junction of streets in Lower Manhattan in New York City located at the confluence of the neighborhoods of Bowery to the south, NoHo to the west and southwest, Greenwich Village to the west and northwest, the East Village to the north and east, and the Lower East Side to the southeast.
Cooper Square looking uptown in 1957
Cooper Square looking uptown in 2008
The Cooper Union's Foundation Building has anchored the north end of the square since 1859
The monument to Peter Cooper sits between the Foundation Building and the park at Cooper Triangle
