From 1983 to 2002, the Indiana Cooler was constructed and operated at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility. During that period, a relatively small group of people built an accelerator complex, explored the new technology of electron cooling, and demonstrated its usefulness in nuclear and particle physics. This review recounts the history of the project, describes the facility, and summarizes the scientific results in atomic, nuclear, and particle physics, and in the physics of beams.