Cooper Union

Ashley F. Bryan is an American author and illustrator noted for his children's books. His subjects most often are from the African-American... experience. Bryan was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. His father worked as a printer of greeting cards. He loved birds. Bryan once counted a hundred caged birds in his childhood home. Bryan grew up with six brothers and sisters and three cousins. Bryan recalled his childhood in New York the 1930s as an idyllic time, full of art and music. He excelled in school, graduating from high school at the age sixteen. Bryan attended the Cooper Union Art School, one of the few African-American students at that time to be awarded a scholarship. He had applied to other schools who had rejected him on the basis of race, but Cooper Union administered its scholarships in a blind test: “You put your work in a tray, sculpture, drawing, painting, and it was judged. They never saw you. If you met the requirements, tuition was free, and it still is to this day,” explained Bryan. At the age of nineteen, World War II interrupted his studies. He was drafted and assigned to serve as a porter in Europe.
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