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Lantern Slides

The Lantern Slide Collection was donated to the Architecture Archive by The Cooper Union Library in 1987. This broad assortment of over 10,000 4”x 5” glass slides, formerly used to teach History of Architecture and Town Planning, encompasses historical sites, architecture, painting, sculpture, manuscripts, city planning, drawings, jewelry, and mosaics from ancient history through the 20th century. An Ideal View: City Plans without Cities is one of several Third Floor Hallway Exhibitions featuring images from the Lantern Slide Collection. 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.