Skip to main content

Peter Cooper and Family

Peter Cooper and Family
Artist
Unidentified Artist
Sitter
Peter Cooper, 12 Feb 1791 - 4 Apr 1883
Sarah Bedell Cooper, 1793 - 1869
Sarah Amelia Cooper Hewitt, 1830 - 1912
Edward Cooper, 26 Oct 1824 - 25 Feb 1905
Date
c. 1850
Type
Photograph
Medium
Three-quarter-plate daguerreotype with applied color
Dimensions
Image: 12.6 x 9.4 cm (4 15/16 x 3 11/16")
Plate [sight]: 16.5 x 13.5 cm (6 1/2 x 5 5/16")
Case Open: 18 x 30.2 cm (7 1/16 x 11 7/8")
Topic
Costume\Jewelry\Brooch
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses
Printed Material\Papers
Costume\Jewelry\Chain
Equipment\Drafting & Writing Implements\Writing implement\Pen
Costume\Headgear\Hat\Bonnet
Interior\Studio\Photography
Cased object
Sarah Bedell Cooper: Female
Sarah Amelia Cooper Hewitt: Female
Peter Cooper: Male
Peter Cooper: Business and Finance\Businessperson
Peter Cooper: Education and Scholarship\Founder\School
Peter Cooper: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Industrialist\Manufacturer
Peter Cooper: Society and Social Change\Philanthropist
Peter Cooper: Science and Technology\Inventor
Peter Cooper: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Industrialist\Manufacturer\Iron
Edward Cooper: Male
Edward Cooper: Business and Finance\Businessperson
Edward Cooper: Politics and Government\Public official\Mayor\New York, NY
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.96.86
Exhibition Label
Inventor and millionaire industrialist Peter Cooper was among the leading nineteenth-century American businessmen. He was also a generous philanthropist who viewed wealth as a trust to be used “for the education and uplifting of the common people.” In 1857 he founded New York City’s Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—an innovative institution offering free vocational courses to adults. Peter and Sarah Cooper endured the loss of four of their six children in early childhood. Their bond with their surviving daughter, Sarah Amelia, and son, Edward, who appear with them in this family portrait, was particularly close.
El inventor y empresario industrial millonario Peter Cooper fue uno de los empresarios estadounidenses más destacados del siglo XIX. Además, fue un generoso filántropo que entendía la riqueza como un fondo que debía ser utilizado “para la educación y la edificación de la gente de a pie”. En 1857, fundó la Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art de la Ciudad de Nueva York, una innovadora institución que ofrecía cursos vocacionales gratuitos a adultos. Pieter y Sara Cooper sufrieron la pérdida de cuatro de sus seis hijos en sus primeros años de vida. Su vínculo con la hija y el hijo que sobrevivieron, Sara Amelia y Eduard, quienes aparecen con ellos en este retrato familiar, fue particularmente estrecho.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view