Editing Cooper Union (section)

===Founding and early history===
The Cooper Union was founded in 1859<ref name=CUCharter>{{cite book|title=Charter, Trust Deed, and By-laws of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art|year=1859|publisher=Wm. C. Bryant & Company|page=61}} Founding enabled by a NY State Act of February 17, 1857.  The land is conveyed for one dollar.</ref> by American industrialist [[Peter Cooper]], one of the richest businessmen in the United States. Cooper was a workingman's son who had less than a year of formal schooling. Cooper designed and built America's first steam [[Tom Thumb (locomotive)|railroad engine]] and made a fortune with a glue factory and iron foundry. He was a principal investor and first president of the [[New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company]], which laid the first [[transatlantic telegraph cable]], and once ran for [[President of the United States|President]] under the [[Greenback Party]], becoming the oldest person ever [[1876 Greenback National Convention|nominated for the office by a political party]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Cooper |url=http://www.ringwoodmanor.org/peter-cooper.html |access-date=2023-09-22 |website=Ringwood Manor |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-02-12 |title=Saluting Peter Cooper - Village Preservation |url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/02/12/saluting-peter-cooper/,%20https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/02/12/saluting-peter-cooper/ |access-date=2023-09-22 |website=www.villagepreservation.org |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:ForArch-1.jpg|thumb|left|The interior of the Great Hall, {{circa}} 2005]]

Cooper's dream was to give talented young people the one privilege he lacked: a good education from an institution which was "open and free to all".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwQLAAAAIAAJ&q=1864+peter+cooper+graduating+class+speech+%22open+and+free+to+all%22&pg=PA488 |title=Speech to the First Graduating Class |year=1864}}</ref> To achieve these goals, Cooper designated the bulk of his wealth to The Cooper Union. According to ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1863, "It was rare that those of limited means, however eager they might be to acquire a knowledge of some of the higher branches of education, could obtain tuition in studies not named in the regular course taught in our public schools."<ref name="nyt-1863-01-23" /> Discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, or sex was expressly prohibited.<ref name="nyt-1863-01-23">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1863/01/23/news/local-intelligence-cooper-union-most-successful-year-since-its-inauguration-it.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923122213/http://www.nytimes.com/1863/01/23/archives/local-intelligence-the-cooper-union-the-most-successful-year-since.html |archive-date=2018-09-23 |title=The  Cooper Union: The Most Successful Year Since its Inauguration. It is now Self-Supporting What is Done in it. The Bedford-street Church Scandal. Court of General Sessions. Before Judge McCunn. The Thumb-Warren Nuptials. Bishop Potter to Perform the Ceremony Great Anxiety on the Part of the Adult Population to See The Performance. A Calumny Silenced. Department of the East. International Postage The English Government Refuses to Reduce Postage. General City News. Brooklyn News. New-Jersey. |date=1863-01-23 |page=2 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=2016-11-05}}</ref>