Below we see an image of a box of "Peter Cooper's Clarified Gelatine," which was extensively marketed throughout the Northeastern US and beyond. Peter Cooper bought his then-famous glue factory in 1822. There he developed methods for manufacturing glue, isinglass and gelatin. Cooper was a shrewd businessman, one of the most successful of his day, and he also had a talent for invention. Thomas Edison (who eventually took a free course in chemistry at Cooper Union) had more patents of course; but Cooper's range of patents rivaled Edison's for sheer variety, going far beyond glue and gelatin manufacture and touching on the most important technologies of his day (for example, steam rail travel - he designed and built the famous "Tom Thumb" locomotive - and transatlantic communications).

The patent date shown on the box front (September 14, 1897) is currently a bit of a mystery. It refers not to Cooper's original patent (1845) but to a new, better process for purifying gelatin. However, by 1860 Cooper has completely given over control of his glue concerns to his son Edward Cooper and his son-in-law, Abram Hewitt. Moreover, Peter Cooper passed on in 1883. We don't currently know whether the new patent was issued to one or more of these three individuals (Peter Cooper's name could have appeared on the patent posthumously along with Edward and/or Abram), or to someone else entirely.

Note that on the right side panel, a recipe is given for "lemon table jelly," a fruit-flavored gelatin (the ancestor of Jell-O). Cooper never preflavored his gelatins, but left it to the imagination of the cook to devise flavorings and other uses (such as "blanc mange," or "white sauce"). Gelatin desserts and dishes were extremely popular at the time this box was printed throughout Europe and America, due to Cooper's invention of clarified gelatin, as discussed on the following page. Flavored gelatins, which were more expensive and not as versatile as unflavored gelatin, would probably not have sold as well (or Cooper, the consummate marketer, would surely have done so). Legend around the Cooper Union has it that these recipes was concocted by Peter Cooper's wife, Sarah Cooper (nee' Bedell).

The box images were donated to the Cooper Archives by Mrs. Patricia Hewitt Pantaleoni, and we have scanned in a photocopy.