As part of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art's original and state-ratified charter, The Cooper Union Library was originally established as a "free reading room" in the Laws of the State of New York of 1859, chapter 279 §2, p. 635 (see purpose #2, at the page's bottom). While it knowingly obtained some significantly special materials, to a much larger extent throughout the past 165 year, books originally acquired as library books later developed historical, intellectual, or intrinsic value over time. The Cooper Union Special Collections stewards these published book collections, ensuring their welfare and maintaining their significance to the institution's and society's intellectual history.
The Cooper Union Special Collections stewards published works that are uniquely rare, historically notable, monetarily valuable, or hold distinctive content or form to discrete research populations. The Cooper Union Special Collections were first established from published materials of unique and distinctive value culled from the library’s over-165-year-old and storied main collection.
Unlike the Library’s circulating collection, Special Collections materials are kept and preserved primarily for scholarship, not necessarily reflected in the Cooper Union’s current curricula. Additionally, they complement the archives by preserving published books.
The Collection instantiates the Cooper Union's physical campus as a microcosm of scientific advances and civic ideals. Drawing on the institution's own pedagogical history, it preserves materials on the design, planning, engineering, and development of primarily New York City infrastructure
The Cooper Union’s institutional archive is the organization’s main keeper of primary documents connected to the history of The Cooper Union and its development. Therefore, the book collections are almost exclusively comprised of published materials that the archives have chosen not to collect. Special book collections are meant to complement and not supersede those of the archive. For published materials with archival value (such as books with significant provenance, like items in the Cooper Family Collection) deference is to the archives and may be executed at any time, retrospectively and in the future.
The Cooper Square Special Book Collection consists of rare (mostly medium rare) published works that contextualize the historical development, use, and transformation of the physical and intellectual environment of The Cooper Union. Within the collection, Cooper Square serves as both historical subject and interpretive framework, providing a focal point for examining the institution’s civic pedagogical legacy, particularly in engineering, art, and architecture.
The collection is intentionally diverse in content and context. Ranging from curricular manuals once assigned in the day art school to works that may have informed the engineers who designed and constructed the subway tunnels adjacent to the campus, its boundaries are not rigidly delineated. Instead, taken together, these materials position the Cooper Square area and its infrastructure as a microcosm of broader social, cultural, and technological forces.
Preserving historical academic artifacts from The Cooper Union’s own library safeguards the educational and scientific context that both influenced and emerged from the institution. The collection reflects the school’s pedagogical history, with a particular emphasis on functional materials—works that professionals likely knew, studied, or utilized—across the disciplines of engineering, art, and architecture throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Preference is given to technical or cultural works directly—or likely—utilized by individuals working in, studying around, or helping to build Cooper Square.
The Cooper Square Special Book Collection is composed largely of volumes selected from the library’s nearly two-hundred-year-old general collection, representing history, design, literature, and science. When The Cooper Union opened in 1859, its library was free and open to the public, accessible after working hours, and unusual in not requiring letters of recommendation for entry. Before the establishment of the New York Public Library, it was one of the most frequented reading rooms in New York City. The general collection from which these materials are drawn provides insight into an early academic and technical publishing industry adapting to an emerging society shaped by mass industrialization and globalization, and offers a valuable perspective on the pursuits and concerns of New York City’s reading public in this era.
Materials selected for the Cooper Square Special Book Collection may be rare, historically significant, monetarily valuable, or distinctive in form or content for particular research communities. Items of value across all fields may be included. Materials meeting these criteria are transferred into the collection, predominantly from items identified in the stacks.
Inclusion is shaped by market conditions but driven primarily by institutional, intrinsic, or historical value, and may also be anticipatory. Preference is sometimes given to content related to faculty research. The collection grows only retrospectively through transfer or highly selective donation. Preservation needs and physical fragility are taken into account.
Acceptance of transfers (see transfer policy[forthcoming]) or donations to the Archives and Special Collections is at the discretion of The Cooper Union Library and Archives and Special Collections. The collection prioritizes historically primary materials and rarely includes recent circulating or non-circulating scholarly works on the subjects it encompasses.
Historical and contemporary technical manuals, handbooks, reports, design guidelines, and policy instruments informing the engineering, architecture, and artistry of Cooper Square.
Only published books and bound or unbound journals. Other media may be considered.
The Cooper Square Special Collection will collect materials in its historical context, and less so those recreated by facsimile or those with a tenuous connection to the Square. The focus is on use, not merely cooccurrence.
Due to their relative rarity and historical value, special attention is given to materials connected to the initial conception, decision, and development of the square. The square was donated to be a Public Space in 1850, and the Cooper Union’s Foundation Building began development in 1853, so the collection can be split into three time periods:
Materials in any language or published at any location may be collected as long as the Square’s practitioners or inhabitants utilize that specific language edition.
While not strictly geographically bounded, the collection employs a sliding scale of geographic relevance. Priority is given to materials originating from, documenting, or closely related to the following concentric areas:
The collection has been culled from two similar cleansing projects: the archives' published materials and the library’s general stacks. Therefore, there are some distinct areas of strength and some areas that need more coverage.
Materials may be acquired from preexisting collections, donations, or purchases when a direct connection can be established to a historical person, project, or development related to Cooper Square.
Published materials that significantly shape or document Cooper Square’s physical or cultural identity may be collected. Particular attention is given to architects, engineers, and artists contracted by or working with The Cooper Union.
Because of institutional and budgetary constraints, preservation capacity and physical space should be central factors in all collecting decisions. Budget limitations, finite shelving, and the library’s limited expertise and resources for rare book preservation require that each item’s acquisition or retention be weighed against competing spatial needs of students, the library, and the wider institution. (See Special Donation to Other Institution policy [forthcoming].)
Current infrastructure for special book storage is fragmented and incomplete. Four principal locations are available, each with distinct preservation, space, and security constraints. (See Special Books Preservation and Security Analysis [forthcoming].) Collecting and storage decisions must account for the following:
1. Archives: The Archives offer the strongest security and environmental controls: locked access, mediated retrieval, limited traffic, and modest climate regulation. However, available space is extremely limited and cannot be perpetually guaranteed due to ongoing archival growth. As a result, no special books will be permanently housed in the Archives.
2. Mezzanine: The southern mezzanine has historically served as the primary location for special books. It is neither locked nor climate-controlled. While one egress (the spiral staircase) is visible from the reference desk, another (a ladder) is unsupervised. Access to the mezzanine largely mediated and therefore low-traffic. (As a general rule only staff or patrons accompanied by staff are allowed entrance.) Although most existing special book collections are stable in size, the mezzanine has been slated by administration for eventual removal due to structural and architectural concerns. It should therefore be treated as a principal but, only semi-permanent storage location.
3. Work Room Cabinets: The north wall of the workroom contains cabinet shelving historically used for “closed stack” materials—items of value or security concern that do not require supervised use. Access is mediated, and staff presence in the workroom during open hours provides general oversight. Traffic is moderate. These cabinets are not climate-controlled and were not designed for preservation, making them environmentally risky for special materials. Space is limited, and any expansion requires relocating existing closed-stack holdings.
4. Work Room Stacks: The south wall of the workroom holds traditional metal stacks used for course reserves, DVDs, and supply storage. Access is mediated, and staff oversight is consistent during open hours. However, the area is an environmental hazard: high-traffic, lacks climate control, and is adjacent to a heavily used kitchenette. Space is limited.
5. Entry Exhibit Display: East of the library’s entry ramp, the Hejduk-designed enclave has traditionally been used for exhibitions and displays. The area consists of open shelving and sits directly along the path to a circuit breaker accessed at least twice daily, and intermittently by Buildings & Grounds for maintenance. Although the space is fully open to patrons—and therefore environmentally and security-vulnerable—it remains in direct line of sight of the staffed desk and is continuously monitored during open hours. The area is small and may hold varying amounts of material at different times. While it may temporarily house special books, it should be considered, at best, a semi-permanent storage location.
New York City has no shortage of rare-book and special-collection libraries, many of which emerged during the Progressive Era and reflect the cultural and intellectual forces that shaped the period of Cooper’s own special collection. Yet Cooper’s holdings remain distinct. As an institution founded on a mission of free education and with a heritage identity as a STEM school, our collections embody are unique.
The Cooper Union Special Book Collections are particularly contextualized by significant local collections from other academic and civic institutions:
However, The Cooper Union Special Book Collections content areas and scope are in comparison and conversation with the following local collections:
The Cooper Union is not the only local institution holding material and context from its history. As originally a part of The Cooper Union, the Cooper Hewitt’s Research Library collections contain materials dating from an extensive swath of the Cooper Union’s history. However Cooper Hewitt’s self-determined strengths as
early sample and trade catalogs, illustrated natural histories and travel guides, first editions of design inventories and manuals, as well as major 18th and 19th century works on gardens, furniture, architecture, fountains, textiles, and pattern. Included also in the Friedman Room are rare collections of home management and etiquette manuals, 19th century European and American children’s books, turn-of-the-century French fashion illustrated books and periodicals, and fine bindings.
Additionally Cooper Hewitt’s Rare Book Collections specialize in World’s Fairs, Pop-Up and Movable Books.