e J. Fenimore Cooper, _The Chronicles of Cooperstown_ (Cooperstown,
1838).

COOPER UNION, a unique educational and charitable institution "for the
advancement of science and art" in New York city. It is housed in a
brownstone building in Astor Place, between 3rd and 4th Avenues
immediately N. of the Bowery, and was founded in 1857-1859 by Peter
Cooper, and chartered in 1859. In a letter to the trustees accompanying
the trust-deed to the property, Cooper said that he wished the endowment
to be "for ever devoted to the advancement of science and art, in their
application to the varied and useful purposes of life"; provided for a
reading-room, a school of art for women, and an office in the Union,
"where persons may apply ... for the services of young men and women of
known character and qualifications to fill the various situations";
expressed the desire that students have monthly meetings held in due
form, "as I believe it to be a very important part of the education of an
American citizen to know how to preside with propriety over a
deliberative assembly"; urged lectures and debates exclusive of
theological and party questions; and required that no religious test
should ever be made for admission to the Union. Cooper's most efficient
assistant in the Union was Abram S. Hewitt. In 1900 Andrew Carnegie put
the finances of the Union on a sure footing by gifts aggregating
$600,000. For the year 1907 its revenue was $161,228 (including
extraordinary receipts of $25,565, from bequests, &c.), its expenditures
$161,390; at the same time its assets were $3,870,520, of which
$1,070,877 was general endowment, building and equipment, and $2,797,728
was special endowments ($205,000 being various endowments by Peter
Cooper; $340,000, the William Cooper Foundation; $600,000, the
Cooper-Hewitt Foundation; $391,656, the John Halstead Bequest; $217,820,
the Hewitt Memorial Endowment). The work has been very successful, the
instruction is excellent, and the interest of the pupils is eager. All
courses are free. The reading-room and library contain full files of
current journals and magazines; the library has the rare complete old and
new series of patent office reports, and in 1907 had 45,760 volumes; in
the same year there were 578,582 readers. There is an excellent museum
for the arts of decoration. Apart from valuable lecture courses, the
principal departments of the Union, with their attendance in 1907, were:
a night school of