NYC - East Village: Cooper Park - Peter Cooper Monument
Image by wallyg
Since the 19th century, this statue of Peter Cooper (1791–1883), a philanthropist, industrialist, and inventor, has watched over the park and school that bear his name. Cooper was a native New Yorker and workingman’s son who, with less than a year of formal schooling, became one of the most successful American businessmen of his day. He made his fortune in iron, glue, railroads, real estate, and communications. His inventions include the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable and Tom Thumb, America’s first functioning steam engine. Cooper also invented Jell-o, with help from his wife, Sarah, who added fruit to his clarified gelatin.
Despite his many successful ventures, Cooper failed in an 1876 presidential bid on the Greenback ticket; he secured just 81,737 popular votes. The real contest was between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Jones Tilden. Although Tilden won a majority of the popular vote, he was denied the presidency by a partisan Electoral Commission.
Cooper dedicated his life and wealth to philanthropy. He wanted to ensure that immigrants and children of the working class would have access to the education which he never received. He believed that education should be “as free as water or air,” and in 1859 he established the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a coeducational college that continues to provide students with full-tuition scholarships in architecture, art, and engineering. Celebrated features of the institution included a free reading room and the Great Hall, the latter providing the setting for one of Abraham Lincoln’s most important speeches in which he established his anti-slavery platform. He delivered it on February 27, 1860 during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Following Cooper’s death in 1883, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the preeminent 19th century sculptor and one of the earliest alumni of Cooper Union (class of 1864), was commissioned to design a monument in honor of the great visionary. Saint-Gaudens collaborated with the renowned architect Stanford White who created the piece’s marble and granite canopy.
Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin and came with his family to the United States that same year. Besides studying drawing at the Cooper Union, he also trained at the National Academy of Design in New York and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to New York City in 1873, and in addition to the Cooper Monument he created such notable public works as Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park, the Shaw Memorial on the Boston Common, and General Sherman in Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza. A founding member of the National Sculpture Society in 1893, he also maintained a home and studio in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Saint-Gaudens labored for the Cooper Monument, completing 27 sketches of different versions before settling on the final impressive design. The monument committee raised ,000 in popular subscriptions, exceeding the construction cost of ,000, and expended the remainder on park beautification. The official dedication took place on May 29, 1897 at the northern end of Cooper Park.
The park was deeded to the City in 1828 for use as a public space by Charles H. Hall, a descendant of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Named Stuyvesant Square at the time it was acquired by Parks in 1850, it was referred to as Fourth Avenue Park when it was first planted in the late 1870s, and renamed Cooper Park in 1883.
In 1935, coinciding with reconstruction of the park, the newly created Parks Monuments Crew, with funding from the federal Works Progress Administration, performed extensive repairs and cleaned the monument. The monument was again restored in 1987 under the Adopt-a-Monument Program, a joint project of the Municipal Art Society, the Art Commission, and Parks.
NYC - East Village: Cooper Park - Peter Cooper Monument
Image by wallyg
Since the 19th century, this statue of Peter Cooper (1791–1883), a philanthropist, industrialist, and inventor, has watched over the park and school that bear his name. Cooper was a native New Yorker and workingman’s son who, with less than a year of formal schooling, became one of the most successful American businessmen of his day. He made his fortune in iron, glue, railroads, real estate, and communications. His inventions include the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable and Tom Thumb, America’s first functioning steam engine. Cooper also invented Jell-o, with help from his wife, Sarah, who added fruit to his clarified gelatin.
Despite his many successful ventures, Cooper failed in an 1876 presidential bid on the Greenback ticket; he secured just 81,737 popular votes. The real contest was between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Jones Tilden. Although Tilden won a majority of the popular vote, he was denied the presidency by a partisan Electoral Commission.
Cooper dedicated his life and wealth to philanthropy. He wanted to ensure that immigrants and children of the working class would have access to the education which he never received. He believed that education should be “as free as water or air,” and in 1859 he established the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a coeducational college that continues to provide students with full-tuition scholarships in architecture, art, and engineering. Celebrated features of the institution included a free reading room and the Great Hall, the latter providing the setting for one of Abraham Lincoln’s most important speeches in which he established his anti-slavery platform. He delivered it on February 27, 1860 during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Following Cooper’s death in 1883, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the preeminent 19th century sculptor and one of the earliest alumni of Cooper Union (class of 1864), was commissioned to design a monument in honor of the great visionary. Saint-Gaudens collaborated with the renowned architect Stanford White who created the piece’s marble and granite canopy.
Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin and came with his family to the United States that same year. Besides studying drawing at the Cooper Union, he also trained at the National Academy of Design in New York and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned to New York City in 1873, and in addition to the Cooper Monument he created such notable public works as Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park, the Shaw Memorial on the Boston Common, and General Sherman in Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza. A founding member of the National Sculpture Society in 1893, he also maintained a home and studio in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Saint-Gaudens labored for the Cooper Monument, completing 27 sketches of different versions before settling on the final impressive design. The monument committee raised ,000 in popular subscriptions, exceeding the construction cost of ,000, and expended the remainder on park beautification. The official dedication took place on May 29, 1897 at the northern end of Cooper Park.
The park was deeded to the City in 1828 for use as a public space by Charles H. Hall, a descendant of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Named Stuyvesant Square at the time it was acquired by Parks in 1850, it was referred to as Fourth Avenue Park when it was first planted in the late 1870s, and renamed Cooper Park in 1883.
In 1935, coinciding with reconstruction of the park, the newly created Parks Monuments Crew, with funding from the federal Works Progress Administration, performed extensive repairs and cleaned the monument. The monument was again restored in 1987 under the Adopt-a-Monument Program, a joint project of the Municipal Art Society, the Art Commission, and Parks.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC, with Northrop P-61C Black Widow in the background
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC:
Hawker Chief Designer Sydney Camm's Hurricane ranks with the most important aircraft designs in military aviation history. Designed in the late 1930s, when monoplanes were considered unstable and too radical to be successful, the Hurricane was the first British monoplane fighter and the first British fighter to exceed 483 kilometers (300 miles) per hour in level flight. Hurricane pilots fought the Luftwaffe and helped win the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.
This Mark IIC was built at the Langley factory, near what is now Heathrow Airport, early in 1944. It served as a training aircraft during the World War II in the Royal Air Force's 41 OTU.
Donated by the Royal Air Force Museum
Manufacturer:
Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
Date:
1944
Country of Origin:
United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 12.2 m (40 ft)
Length: 9.8 m (32 ft 3 in)
Height: 4 m (13 ft)
Weight, empty: 2,624 kg (5,785 lb)
Weight, gross: 3,951 kg (8,710 lb)
Top speed:538 km/h (334 mph)
Engine:Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid-cooled in-line V, 1,300 hp
Armament:four 20 mm Hispano cannons
Ordnance:two 250-lb or two 500-lb bombs or eight 3-in rockets
Materials:
Fuselage: Steel tube with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling
Wings: Stressed Skin Aluminum
Horizontal Stablizer: Stress Skin aluminum
Rudder: fabric covered aluminum
Control Surfaces: fabric covered aluminum
Physical Description:
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC single seat, low wing monoplane ground attack fighter; enclosed cockpit; steel tube fuselage with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling, stressed skin aluminum wings and horizontal stablizer, fabric covered aluminum rudder and control surfaces; grey green camoflage top surface paint scheme with dove grey underside; red and blue national roundel on upper wing surface and red, white, and blue roundel lower wing surface; red, white, blue, and yellow roundel fuselage sides; red, white and blue tail flash; Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid cooled V-12, 1,280 horsepower engine; Armament, 4: 20mm Hispano cannons.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Northrop P-61C Black Widow:
The P-61 Black Widow was the first U.S. aircraft designed to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at night and in bad weather, a feat made possible by the use of on-board radar. The prototype first flew in 1942. P-61 combat operations began just after D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Black Widows flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road traffic. Operations in the Pacific began at about the same time. By the end of World War II, Black Widows had seen combat in every theater and had destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 German V-1 buzz bombs.
The Museum’s Black Widow, a P-61C-1-NO, was delivered to the Army Air Forces in July 1945. It participated in cold-weather tests, high-altitude drop tests, and in the National Thunderstorm Project, for which the top turret was removed to make room for thunderstorm monitoring equipment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Northrop Aircraft Inc.
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 450 x 1500cm, 10637kg, 2000cm (14ft 9 3/16in. x 49ft 2 9/16in., 23450.3lb., 65ft 7 3/8in.)
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat:
The Grumman F6F Hellcat was originally conceived as an advanced version of the U.S. Navy's then current front-line fighter, the F4F Wildcat (see NASM collection). The Wildcat's intended replacement, the Vought F4U Corsair (see NASM collection), first flown in 1940, was showing great promise, but development was slowed by problems, including the crash of the prototype.
The National Air and Space Museum's F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo. 41834, was built at Grumman's Bethpage, New York, factory in February 1944 under contract NOA-(S)846. It was delivered to the Navy on February 7, and arrived in San Diego, California, on the 18th. It was assigned to Fighter Squadron 15 (VF-15) on USS Hornet (CV12) bound for Hawaii. On arrival, it was assigned to VF-3 where it sustained damage in a wheels-up landing at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. After repair, it was assigned to VF-83 where it was used in a training role until February 21, 1945. After numerous transfers 41834 was converted to an F6F-3K target drone with the installation of sophisticated radio-control equipment. It was painted red with a pink tail that carried the number 14. Its mission was to be used in Operation Crossroads - the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. It flew on June 24, 1946, with a pilot, on a practice flight and was launched, unmanned, soon after the first bomb test. Instrumentation on board and photographic plates taped to the control stick obtained data on radioactivity. Three more manned flights preceded the final unmanned flight on July 25, 1946, which evaluated the first underwater explosion. Records indicate that exposure of this aircraft to the radioactive cloud was minimal and residual radiation is negligible.
F6F-3K 41834 was transferred to NAS Norfolk and logged its last flight on March 25, 1947, with a total of 430.2 flying hours. It was assigned to the National Air Museum on November 3, 1948, and remained at Norfolk until October 4, 1960, when it was moved by barge to Washington and placed in storage. In 1976 this Hellcat was loaned to the USS Yorktown Museum at Charleston, South Carolina. A superficial restoration was performed at the museum, but because of the harsh environment and its poor condition the Hellcat was returned to NASM on March 16, 1982. In 1983, it was sent to Grumman Aerospace where a team of volunteers completely restored the aircraft. In 1985, it was shipped back to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and put in storage. NASM's F6F-3 Hellcat is scheduled to be displayed in the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in 2004.
Transferred from the United States Navy.
Manufacturer:
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 338 x 1021cm, 4092kg, 1304cm (11ft 1 1/16in. x 33ft 5 15/16in., 9021.2lb., 42ft 9 3/8in.)
Physical Description:
Heavy armor plate, reinforced empennage, R-2800-10W engine, spring tabs on the ailerons (increased maneuverability), could carry rockets as well as bombs.
Kimberly P. at the Grand Canyon
Image by Snaptotes.com
Learn more about our photo handbag challenge.
'GRAND CANYON: On our trip out west, we enjoyed spotting locations to photograph my Snaptotes Bucket Bag. Since we did not limit ourselves to the list of eligible sites, we came home with over 20 pictures of my bag (including 6 National Park entrance signs, Four Corners and Glen Canyon Dam). Thanks for the fun idea. ' -Kimberly P.
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