COOPER

See also:

• UNION
• UNION (known locally as Union Hill and officially as Town of Union)

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 1.907 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 science—a five-year course in general science (667) and in chemistry (154), a three-year course in electricity (114), and a night school of art (1333); a day school of technical science—four years in civil, mechanical or electrical engineering—(237); a woman's art school (282); a school of stenography and typewriting for women (55); a school of telegraphy for women (31); a class in elocution (96); and classes in oratory and debate (146) . During the year 2505 was the highest number in attendance at any time, and then 3000 were on the waiting list . In the great hall of the Union free lectures for the people are given throughout the winter; one course, the Hewitt lectures, in co-operation with Columbia University, " of a very high grade, corresponding more nearly to those given by the Lowell Institute in Boston "; six (in 1907) courses in co-operation with the Board of Education of New York city, which, upon Mayor Hewitt's suggestion, made an appropriation for this work in 1887-1888, and extended such lecture courses to different parts of the city, all under the direction (after ago) of Henry M . Leipziger (b . 1854), and several courses dealing especially with social and political subjects, and including, besides lectures and recitals, public meetings for the discussion of current problems . CO-OPTATION (from Lat. co-optare; less correctly " co-option "), the election to vacancies on a legislative, administrative or other body by the votes of the existing members of the body, instead of by an outside constituency . Such bodies may be purely co-optative, as the Royal Academy, or may be elective with power to add to the numbers by co-optation, as municipal corporations in England .