PETER COOPER Peter Cooper’s role in saving Limestone College will no longer be hidden history with the recent release of a documentary about his life.

Cooper, an inventor and successful businessman, founded Cooper Union college and is credited with saving Limestone College after the Civil War. His life has been the subject of a 5- year research project and documentary.

Limestone College will present the new documentary “Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story” on Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. in Stephenson Dining Hall on the college campus. Filmmaker Janet Gardner and Clemson University history professor Dr. Paul Anderson will be on hand to answer questions.

Cooper made his fortune from popular inventions like glue. He worked with his wife, Sarah, to develop instant flavored gelatin for household use, now known as “Jell-O.” He built America’s first steam locomotive called the “Tom Thumb.”

Janet Gardner (far right) is shown at Limestone College in 2004 with Keith Yeager and Zelda Fazaeli while doing research on the life of Peter Cooper. The Gardner Documentary Group has released a new film about Cooper. Historians credit Cooper with saving Limestone College from financial ruin after the Civil War. Since 2004, the Gardner Documentary Group has been researching different elements of Cooper’s life. Gardner, a Cooper Union graduate, took on the film project when she discovered how little was known about the college’s founder.

“What we wanted to do was bring him back and make him relevant for today,” Gardner said. “He was wary of bankers and brokers because many banks had failed in the mid-19th century. He called them ‘the dangerous classes’ and said that there would be a whirlwind precipitated on the monied men of this nation. During this recession, he spoke to us and his business advice brought him back in a fresh and startling way.”

A self-made man with little formal education, Cooper became intrigued with the idea of making a free college education widely available.

He felt it was important to provide education opportunities so all social classes could benefit economically.

He opened Cooper Union in New York City in 1859, nearly 15 years after William Curtis established Limestone College as an allwomen’s college. Curtis later sold the college to Thomas Bomar and Charles Petty.

After the Civil War, Cooper was called to South Carolina to save The Limestone Springs Female High School from bankruptcy. The school became known as the Cooper-Limestone Institute.

The name was changed to Limestone College after Cooper’s death at the age of 92 in 1883.

“Peter Cooper was not only a mechanical genius, but a man of conscience with a vision of social justice,” Gardner said. “By making free education available to the working classes, women, and people of color in 1859, he changed thousands of lives.”