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New METRO Grant Supports Digitization of Peter Cooper's Papers

POSTED ON: July 15, 2025

Archival letter on old parchment paper with cursive writing

Detail of an 1813 letter about planning a beach day from the Erskine Hewitt collection

The Cooper Union Archives & Special Collections has received a grant from METRO, a non-profit member organization that works with New York City and Westchester County libraries and archives, to digitize a selection of Peter Cooper's papers. The “Unlocking Peter Cooper’s New York” project will transcribe and digitize correspondence to and from The Cooper Union’s founder that primarily spans the years between 1830 to 1880. The materials are part of the Erskine Hewitt collection of the Cooper-Hewitt papers and offer a private dimension into Cooper’s life. These manuscripts offer a unique and underexplored moment in New York City history during a period of immense transformation. 

This is the latest digitization work by the Archives & Special Collections which received a METRO grant in 2023 to digitize the Ledgers and Orders of The Cooper Union’s Great Hall.

More News from The Cooper Union

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.