Robert Leob Cooper papers

Robert Loeb Cooper was a social worker in New York whose primary career focus was on troubled youth. His papers consist largely of materials generated by his career and professional activities. Record types include correspondence, clippings, photographs, printed items, a scrapbook, and reel-to-reel tapes.

Items pertaining to his personal life include those regarding his marriages, including his second marriage to Ida Cullen Cooper; docuemnts on his college and professional education; and some family correspondence with children, in-laws, and siblings. Professional records include financial documents, employment data such as civil service test scores, and correspondence on workshops conducted by Cooper. These materials also reflect his work in the West Indies and throughout the United States conducting workshops as a specialist in social services for troubled youth. Related materials include the Robert L. Cooper Library Newsletter containing an article on the dedication of the facility in October 1967.

Cooper's most visible and rewarding positions was as the director of the Wiltwyck School for Boys in Esopus, New York. The programs he developed there attracted national attention and visits from notable individuals such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Paul Robeson. Clippings, photographs, correspondence, and other materials all document his work at the institution, which served African American boys between the ages of eight and twelve. The institution inspired the 1948 film The Quiet One , which was written by James Agee.

The collection also contains approximately fifty black and white photographs, including an autographed photograph of Adam Clayton Powell and another of Eleanor Roosevelt when she visited Wiltwyck School. The scrapbook contains Cooper's 1949 resume on Wiltwyck School letterhead, a reprint with Cooper on the cover of Young America (May 1948), various articles written by Cooper, and reviews on The Quiet One. This includes a 1949 column discussing The Quiet One in The New York Age under the by-line of heavyweight champion Joe Louis.