- Creator
- Thalheimer, Ross, 1905-
- Physical description
- .4 linear feet
- Preferred Citation
- Ross Thalheimer papers, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Some collections held by the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture are held off-site and must be requested in advance. Please check the collection records in the NYPL's online catalog for detailed location information. To request access to materials in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, please visit: http://archives.nypl.org/divisions/scm/request_access Request access to this collection.
The Ross Thalheimer Papers consist of papers relating to Thalheimer's activities as a civil rights supporter from the 1940's to the 1970's. Files relate primarily to the funding and presentation of the Thalheimer Award to the National Urban League, including the prize winning essays written by students, and for the Thalheimer Awards he funded for the NAACP including information about the recipients and associated programs, 1942-1976. Collection also contains letters from Kenneth B. Clark and Lester B. Granger, typescripts of interviews given by Thalheimer, copies of an advertisement placed in The New York Times in 1964 by the Psychologists' Committee on Interracial Relations concerning violence and race relations, and telegrams to Thalheimer from Martin Luther King, Jr. inviting him to join King on what would become known as the Selma to Montgomery March on March 9 and 21, 1965. There are also an address Thalheimer delivered in 1940 called "The Need for Equal Educational Opportunity in a Democracy;" an article he wrote entitled "What Can the Church Do About Juvenile Delinquency," 1954; biographical information about Thalheimer prepared by his widow; and expressions of sympathy upon his death.
Biographical/historical information
Ross Thalheimer, psychologist, university professor and author was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1905. Thalheimer received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins from 1927-1928, at the University of Washington (Seattle) from 1928-1929, and intermittently at the University of Baltimore and Johns Hopkins from 1929-1938. Before entering the Army in 1941, Thalheimer was National Legislative Representative of the American Federation of Teachers for two years. In 1946 he entered private practice as a psychotherapist and in 1953 founded the Community Guidance Service, a service agency staffed by psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, providing low-cost personal guidance services at private offices throughout the New York City area. He was also the founder and executive director of the American institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
Beginning in about 1937, Thalheimer endowed the annual Thalheimer Awards, presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for outstanding branch fund raising program activities. He also made an annual grant to the National Urban League from 1945 until the 1960's. Initially this award was presented to the branches with the largest number of subscriptions to Opportunity Magazine, but from 1948-1953 awards were given to students who wrote the best essay for its vocational Opportunity Campaign. In 1954, this prize was replaced with cash awards provided to local branches for notable achievements in the field of vocational guidance. Thalheimer served as chairman of the Psychologists' Committee on Interracial Relations in the 1960's. He died in 1977.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift, Helen Thalheimer, 1989 Gift, William R. Coleman, 2005Key terms
Names
- Thalheimer, Ross, 1905-
- Clark, Kenneth Bancroft, 1914-2005
- Granger, Lester B. (Lester Blackwell), 1896-1976
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- National Urban League
- Psychologists' Committee on Interracial Relations (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects
- African Americans -- Civil rights
- Civil rights workers -- United States
- Psychologists -- United States
Material types
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor