UNIQUE EARLY RAILROAD DOCUMENT HAND SIGNED BY PETER COOPER , INVENTOR OF AMERICA’S FIRST STEAM LOCOMOTIVE (THE TOM THUMB), U. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FOUNDER OF COOPER UNION!!! The name Peter Cooper is practically synonymous with early New York City (and Baltimore) railroad, industrial, political and educational history!! He built the legendary Tom Thumb, America’s first steam locomotive! He was also a candidate for President of the U. And founded Cooper Union, to this day one of the highest ranked educational institutions in the world. See his bio below for more history about this early 19th Century Renaissance Man!! Here you have an amazing Peter Cooper documentary discovery – an 1841 handwritten Notice of a New York and Erie Railroad Committee Meeting at Astor House that is eloquently hand signed by Peter Cooper personally!! Astor House was New York City’s first luxury hotel!! (See additional history below). The Notice also refers to the previous meeting which was held at Niblos Garden Theater , another major NYC landmark (See additional history below). The Notice consists of two panels, the portion shown, which has a unique embossed seal at the upper right, and one with the name and address of the recipient James Pollock Esq. A prominent NYC lawyer along with a small red wax seal. Choice crisp excellent to near mint condition!! Not only exceptionally rare as a Cooper autographed document but an invaluable piece of early New York City and Railroad history! April 4, 1883 (aged 92). New York City, New York. John Cooper and Margaret Campbell. Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791 April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist. And candidate for President of the United States. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive. And founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Peter Cooper was born in New York City. The fifth child of John Cooper, a Methodist. Hatmaker from Newburgh, New York. He worked as a coachmaker’s apprentice. Hatmaker, brewer and grocer, and was throughout a tinkerer: he developed a cloth-shearing machine which he attempted to sell, as well as an endless chain he intended to be used to pull boats. On the Erie Canal. Which De Witt Clinton. Approved of, but which Cooper was unable to sell. Where he had access to raw materials from the nearby slaughterhouses. And other products, and becoming the city’s premier provider to tanners. The effluent from his successful factory eventually polluted the pond to the extent that in 1839 it had to be drained and refilled. Cartoon of Peter Cooper by Thomas Nast. Having been convinced that the proposed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Would drive up prices for land in Maryland. Of land there in 1828 and began to develop them, draining swampland and flattening hills, during which he discovered iron ore on his property. Seeing the B&O as a natural market for iron rails to be made from his ore, he founded the Canton Iron Works in Baltimore. And when the railroad developed technical problems, he put together the Tom Thumb. Steam locomotive for them in 1830 from various old parts, including musket barrels, and some small-scale steam engines he had fiddled with back in New York. Cooper began operating an iron rolling mill. In New York beginning in 1836, where he was the first to successfully use anthracite coal. Cooper later moved the mill to Trenton, New Jersey. On the Delaware River. To be closer to the sources of the raw materials the works needed. His son and son-in-law, Edward Cooper. Later expanded the Trenton facility into a giant complex employing 2,000 people, in which iron was taken from raw material to finished product. Cooper also operated a successful glue factory in Gowanda, New York. That produced glue for decades. A glue factory was originally started in association with the Gaensslen Tannery, there, in 1874, though the first construction of the glue factory’s plant, originally owned by Richard Wilhelm and known as the Eastern Tanners Glue Company, began on May 5, 1904. Gowanda, therefore, was known as America’s glue capital. Cooper owned a number of patents for his inventions, including some for the manufacture of gelatin. And he developed standards for its production. Cooper later invested in real estate. And became one of the richest men in New York City. Despite this, he lived relatively simply in an age when the rich were indulging in more and more luxury. Cooper remained in his home at Fourth Avenue. Even after the New York and Harlem Railroad. In 1854, Cooper was one of five men who met at the house of Cyrus West Field. In Gramercy Park to form the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. And, in 1855, the American Telegraph Company. Which bought up competitors and established extensive control over the expanding American network on the Atlantic Coast and in some Gulf coast states. He was among those supervising the laying of the first Transatlantic telegraph cable. Cartoon shows Cooper spanking his son Mayor. Political views and career. In 1840, Cooper became an alderman. Of New York City. Prior to the Civil War. Cooper was active in the anti-slavery. Movement and promoted the application of Christian concepts to solve social injustice. He was a strong supporter of the Union. Influenced by the writings of Lydia Maria Child. Cooper became involved in the Indian reform movement, organizing the privately funded United States Indian Commission. This organization, whose members included William E. And Henry Ward Beecher. Was dedicated to the protection and elevation of Native Americans in the United States and the elimination of warfare in the western territories. Cooper’s efforts led to the formation of the Board of Indian Commissioners. Which oversaw Ulysses S. Between 1870 and 1875, Cooper sponsored Indian delegations to Washington, D. New York City, and other Eastern cities. These delegations met with Indian rights advocates and addressed the public on United States Indian policy. Speakers included: Red Cloud. And a delegation of Modoc. Cooper was an ardent critic of the gold standard and the debt-based monetary system of bank currency. Throughout the depression from 187378, he said that usury was the foremost political problem of the day. He strongly advocated a credit-based, Government-issued currency of United States Notes. In 1883 his addresses, letters and articles on public affairs were compiled into a book, Ideas for a Science of Good Government. Cooper was encouraged to run in the 1876 presidential election. For the Greenback Party. Without any hope of being elected. His running mate was Samuel Fenton Cary. At the age of 85 years, Cooper is the oldest person ever nominated by any political party for President of the United States. The election was won by Rutherford Birchard Hayes. Of the Republican Party. Cooper was surpassed by another unsuccessful candidate: Samuel Jones Tilden. Of the Democratic Party. Peter Cooper posed with a young child believed to be one of his granddaughters. In 1813, Cooper married Sarah Bedell (17931869). Of their six children, only two survived past the age of four years: a son, Edward. And a daughter, Sarah Amelia. Edward served as Mayor of New York City. As would the husband of Sarah Amelia, Abram S. A man also heavily involved in inventions and industrialization. Peter Cooper’s granddaughters, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green founded the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Then named the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, in 1895. It was originally part of Cooper Union, but since 1967 has been a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. Cooper was a Unitarian. Who regularly attended the services of Henry Whitney Bellows. And his views were Universalistic. In 1873 he wrote. I look to see the day when the teachers of Christianity will rise above all the cramping powers and conflicting creeds and systems of human device, when they will beseech mankind by all the mercies of God to be reconciled to the government of love, the only government that can ever bring the kingdom of heaven into the hearts of mankind either here or hereafter. When it began evening classes in 1848. Cooper conceived of the idea of having a free institute in New York, similar to the École Polytechnique. (Polytechnical School) in Paris. Which would offer free practical education to adults in the mechanical arts and science, to help prepare young men and women of the working classes for success in business. In 1853, he broke ground for the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Cooper Union offered open-admission night classes available to men and women alike, and attracted 2,000 responses to its initial offering, although 600 later dropped out. The classes were non-sectarian, and women were treated equally with men, although 95% of the students were male. Cooper started a Women’s School of Design, which offered daytime courses in engraving, lithography, painting on china and drawing. The new institution soon became an important part of the community. Was a place where the pressing civic controversies of the day could be debated, and, unusually, radical views were not excluded. In addition, the Union’s library, unlike the nearby Astor. And New York Society. Libraries, was open until 10:00 at night, so that working people could make use of them after work hours. Today Cooper Union is recognized as one of the leading American colleges in the fields of architecture, engineering, and art. Carrying on Peter Cooper’s belief that college education should be free, the Cooper Union awarded all its students with a full scholarship until fall 2014. In 1851, Cooper was one of the founders of Children’s Village. Originally an orphanage called “New York Juvenile Asylum”, one of the oldest non-profit organizations in the United States. Cooper died on April 4, 1883 at the age of 92 and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery. Aside from Cooper Union. The Peter Cooper Village. Apartment complex in Manhattan. The Peter Cooper Elementary School in Ringwood, New Jersey. The Peter Cooper Station. Post office; Cooper Park. In Brooklyn, and Cooper Square. In Manhattan are named in his honor. The Astor House in 1862, with St. The Astor House was the first luxury hotel in New York City. Located on the corner of Broadway. It opened in 1836 and soon became the best known hotel in America. The Astor House was built by John Jacob Astor. Construction began in 1834. And the hotel opened in June 1836 as the Park Hotel. It was located on the west side of Broadway. Between Vesey and Barclay Streets, across from New York City Hall. Park and diagonally across from the offices of the New York Herald. The building was designed by Isaiah Rogers. Who in 1829 had designed the first luxury hotel in the United States, the Tremont House, in Boston. The large four-square block. Was detailed in the Greek Revival style. Faced with pale granite ashlar. Corners treated as at Tremont House, as embedded Doric pillars, and a central entrance flanked by Greek Doric columns supporting a short length of entablature. Astor House contained 309 rooms in five stories, with servant’s rooms on the sixth floor, whose mezzanine windows opened in the frieze below the building’s cornice. The gas was produced in the hotel’s own plant. And bathing and toilet facilities on each floor, with the water pumped up by steam engines. Its tree-shaded central courtyard was covered over in 1852 by an elliptical vaulted cast-iron and glass “rotunda” designed by James Bogardus. That under the direction of its proprietor Col. Stetson (18371877) was the city’s most stylish luncheon place for gentlemen. It featured a curving bar, and side dining rooms entered from Vesey Street or Barclay Street. Guests could order from 30 meat and fish dishes offered daily. Although by the 1850s some restaurants allowed men and women to dine together, and others had special ladies’ dining room with separate entrances to reserved drawing rooms, the Astor House would not admit unaccompanied women to enter, a policy which prevented prostitutes from nearby brothels from plying their trade in the hotel. Guests to the hotel could take a horsecar. Directly there from the Madison Square Depot. Of the New York and Harlem Railroad. From left to right: St. Notable guests and events. For decades, the Astor House was the best known and most prestigious hotel in the country. And had an international reputation as the place where renowned literary figures and statesmen met. Lived there in the 1840s and William James. Was born there in 1842. In 1843, the Astor House hosted the recently married Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The couple, who renewed their friendship with fellow patron Fanny Kemble. Also dined there with Nathaniel Parker Willis. And his wife during their stay. The Norwegian violinist Ole Bull. Was a returning patron at the hotel on his American tours in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Stayed there in February 1861 on his way to his inauguration. And gave an impromptu speech. And in 1864 Thurlow Weed. Ran Lincoln’s re-election campaign from the hotel. Afterwards, on November 25, Confederate sympathizers set fires in 13 major hotels in the city, many of them along Broadway, including the Astor House; the fires were soon put out. The hotel was used as a safe haven during the Great Blizzard of 1888. And in 1916, Charles Evans Hughes. American Civil War Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes. Stayed at Astor House twice. Nearly five years later, on December 27, 1865, he again spent the night, this time as a prisoner of the North, while being escorted to the Washington Navy Yard. Where Federal authorities would decide whether to put him on trial. The Astor House Building, designed by Marc Eidlitz & Sons. The success of the Astor House invited competition. The St Nicholas Hotel. On Broadway at Broome Street. It was said to have ended the Astor House’s preeminence in New York hostelry. Opened in 1852 just north of Astor House, at Prince Street, was equally luxurious. But the new hotel to put all others in the shade was the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In the face of its competitors, by the early 1870s the Astor House was considered old-fashioned and unappealing, and was principally used by businessmen. Still, it remained such a seemingly permanent fixture of New York, that it was included in a fantasy short story by J. Mitchell, “The Last American”, set in the far future, when Persian explorers in the ruins of New York come upon “an upturned slab” inscribed “Astor House”: I pointed it out to Nofuhl and we bent over it with eager eyes… The inscription is Old English,’ he said. “House” signified a dwelling, but the word “Astor” I know not. It was probably the name of a deity, and here was his temple’. The south section was demolished in 1913. The victim of subway construction. And Bogardus’ luncheon pavilion went with it. Redeveloped the site at 217 Broadway as the “Astor House Building”, a modest seven stories tall, in 1915-16. The rest was demolished in 1926 and the site rebuilt as the Transportation Building, which was designed by York and Sawyer. The reputation of the hotel produced other “Astor House” establishments as far afield as Shanghai. Where the first foreigners’ hotel, Richard’s, erected in 1846, is currently known as the Astor House Hotel. The item “PETER COOPER SIGNED 1841 RR DOC! STEAM LOC INVENT/PRES CAND/FOUNDER COOPER UNION” is in sale since Friday, February 17, 2017. This item is in the category “Coins & Paper Money\Stocks & Bonds, Scripophily\Autographs”. The seller is “collect-a-thon” and is located in New York, New York. This item can be shipped worldwide.