Activities

Introduction | Events | Research | Preservation

Introduction

True to its roots, the Cooper Union History Project has no official membership, rules, calendar, etc. (see About CUHP). When this website was created in 2017, it had sponsored a booth at the Peter Cooper Street Fair, raised money for the Cooper Archive, and re-booted the tradition of visiting Peter Cooper's gravesite. Do you want to become a "member" of the CUHP? Are you already a "member"? Is there something you have done, or would like to do, and call it part of the "Cooper Union History Project"? This page contains suggestions and plans. Feel free to contact the webmaster for additions to this page, or any other page on the website.

Events

CUAA@Green-Wood

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 visit to Green-Wood Cemetery was changed to an on-line virtual visit on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. The presentation was recorded and is available on Youtube. The slides can also be accessed here. Due to the January/February 2022 Omicron surge, the 2022 visit was also cancelled, although the grave was decorated on April 24, 2022. In 2023, we were joined by Hewitt descendant Janet Stanwood. The next visit is scheduled for April 21, 2024.

Visiting Green-Wood Cemetery is free and open to the public. The entrance at 9th Avenue (Prospect Park West) at 20th Street is closest to the gravesite. Use the intersection of Central Avenue and Grove Avenue (both Avenue, not Street!) if you are using GPS and/or a digital map. The main gate closes at 6pm, the other gates close at 4pm. You can download a PDF map of the entire cemetery here. If you have further questions, visit the Green-Wood Cemetery website.

The tradition is to "decorate" the grave. Please do NOT bring flowers in vases or anything where mosquitos and the like can breed. Please dress, speak, and act appropriately for a cemetery. The event will be held rain or shine. Since we will probably leave well before the Prospect Park West gate closes at 4pm, we usually go to the Double Windsor at 210 Prospect Park West to catch a drink and some grub if desired.

Research

The Cooper Union History Project website is a space to publish research on Cooper Union’s history with the aim of amassing a faithful representation of the principles, aims, and lessons of Cooper’s past and present.

Here's a list of some things the CUHP doesn't have answers for:

Obviously, there are many portions of the website which are empty or only partially completed. Similarly, if you would like a question added to the above list, please contact the webmaster.

Preservation

The Annual Reports started as a multi-function document: they were reports to the NYC Common Council and NYS Legislature, they were financial reports, they were put on the chairs at every commencement (and listed every graduate), and they were published and distributed around the country (which is why they can be found quoted in newspapers, magazines, and books, and in library collections). By AY 1917, the names of graduates were no longer listed and, in addition to the financial reports, they were primarily donor reports. Later, annual donor reports were published separately, Form 990's were filed with the IRS, Consolidated Financial Statements were provided to trustees (and, upon request, to anyone else), and Commencement Programs joined with other documents, such as the student newspaper (The Cooper Pioneer), alumni publications (At Cooper Union), various accreditation reports, course catalogs, and recruiting and fundraising literature, to provide a full "picture" of the year. Although many of these documents existed on-line, during the Jamshed Bharucha Presidency there was a directed effort to erase most of them from the college's servers. Some members of the Cooper Union History Project had to dive into the Cooper Archive to retrieve some important documents. Members of Free Cooper Union had "Two Weeks of Leaks" where they made public other documents which had never been available on-line.

If you possess or locate an important artifact:

The current CUHP website cannot post single files over 10MB.

Sources:

Links to on-line sources and listings of other sources can be found on the homepage.

Abbreviations:

CY = Calendar Year; AY = Academic Year = July of CY-1 through June of CY; FY = Fiscal Year = CY (AY 1908 and before) = AY (AY 1917 and later)

The Cooper Union History Project website is currently maintained by Barry Drogin. This page last updated: April 12, 2024.