Having trained in Stoke-on-Trent, Herbert Cooper (1842–1916) was employed as a professor at the Queen’s Institute in Dublin. Established in 1861, the Institute was the first technical college for women in Europe. The roots of the institute were in the Society for the Promotion of Employment of Women, founded in England in 1859, which in 1861 had its conference in Dublin. The Queen's Institute received royal patronage from Queen Victoria and was radical in the concept of not only training women in practical arts, but in a vocation that would enable them to work for an independent wage.
In 1869, William Henry Kerr—a significant figure in the development of the pottery works at Worcester and at Belleek Pottery in County Fermanagh—invited Cooper to manage the tuition at the Queen's Institute. In 1873–4, Herbert Cooper formed a brief partnership in Dublin with the celebrated ceramic designer Frederick Vodrey (1845–97). The work of these potters played a key role in the social change in late 19th-century Ireland that led to the beginning of women’s education and recognition of artisans’ rights.
