{"value"=>"<p>Includes incomplete minutes of the Executive Committee and some additional early committee and treasurer's reports. The board minutes are the secretary's copies and notes. They are supplemented by copies of the official minutes for any years that do not appear in the secretary's copies. Original bound volumes of Board of Trustees minutes remain at the Phelps-Stokes Fund offices. The minutes include committee reports, discussion and approval of grants and research projects, and proposals for additional foundation and government support. Other significant topics discussed include the surveys by the two African Education Commissions, the controversial 1930 visit to the United States by South African general Jan Smuts, retrenchment during the depression, a dispute over housing issues and the direction of the Fund which resulted in a change of treasurers in 1936, and debates over the Fund's role in the establishment and administration of the Booker Washington Institute in Liberia.</p> <p>The general administrative correspondence includes routine matters such as notices of meetings and by-law changes as well as reports to the trustees regarding grants to education and housing projects and visitor exchange programs. There is also a 1924 confidential memorandum regarding Carter G. Woodson's criticism of Thomas Jesse Jones, whom Woodson believed was influencing several white philanthropists to reject his requests for funds. Of particular interest are the files of the Committee on Phelps-Stokes Fund Policy, established in 1944 to review the direction of the Fund and nominate the new board president and director in preparation for the proposed retirement of Anson Phelps Stokes and Thomas Jesse Jones in 1946. These discussions resulted in the nomination of Channing H. Tobias as the first African-American director of an influential American foundation.</p> <p>The sub-series also contains the correspondence of individual trustees. These include many Stokes family members, such as Anson Phelps Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes II, Helen Phelps Stokes, Olivia E. P. Stokes, and in-law Edwin K. Merrill, as well as other influential trustees such as Robert R. Moton (the first African-American trustee, elected in 1922), Channing H. Tobias, Ralph J. Bunche, Frederick D. Patterson, Emory Ross, James H. Dillard, and Jackson Davis.</p>"}