Collections in Manuscripts and Archives Division

The 9/11 United Services Group was formed in December 2001 to facilitate, expedite, and enhance coordination of services among various charities and agencies in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The September 11th Fund, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Safe Horizon were responsible for spearheading this collaborative charitable response after recognizing the need for coordinated service. The 9/11 United Services Group records hold administrative files, service coordination files, and files from the Ongoing Needs Study and the Framework for the Coordinated Delivery of Social Services in Future Major Emergencies report. There are also documents outlining the group's Financial Advice Referral Program and files documenting its work with victim advocacy and community relations. less

The Aaron Diamond Foundation was a philanthropic foundation in New York City established by Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Diamond for the purpose of serving the public interest. From 1986 until its termination in 1996 the Foundation awarded financial grants to a broad range of charitable and non-profit organizations in various fields including education, bio-medical research, public health, social welfare, human rights, and the performing arts. Most of the grantee organizations were located in New York City. The bulk of the collection consists of grant files arranged alphabetically by year which record the awarding and administration of financial grants to charitable and non-profit organizations in the fields of medical research, education and culture mainly in New York City who appealed to the Foundation for funds for general support or for special projects and programs. The files include correspondence of the executive director with grantee organizations; copies of proposals and other documents including annual reports, auditors' reports, newsletters and miscellaneous printed matter submitted by grantees in support of their requests for funds; and documents relating to the administration of the grants including grant agreement letters, interim and final reports, internal memoranda, grant data worksheets, and other records. Included also are minutes of the Foundation's board of directors; and miscellaneous records including a chronological file of grant agreement letters sent; and a file of correspondence of the executive director acknowledging and rejecting requests for financial aid. less

Edward Alfred Allworth (1920-2016), a specialist on ethnic minority populations in former Soviet Central Asia, was a professor of Turco-Soviet Studies in the Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures Department at Columbia University. The Edward Allworth papers, spanning 1934 to 2012, document his interest in and research on ethnic minority groups and the question of nationality in Soviet Central Asia and on the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan, as well as the drama and theater of Central Asian cultures. Populations represented in the collection are Crimean Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Bukharan Jews. The collection contains correspondence, writings, interview transcripts, research notes, citations, statistical analyses, photographs, biographical scrapbooks, printed matter, artifacts, and oral history and audio recordings. They also hold a small file of personal papers and a memoir. less

The Anderson Map Company created isometric maps, drawn by cartographer and urban planner Constantin Anderson. The company's most significant project was a map of Midtown Manhattan, periodically updated to reflect the city's rapidly evolving architecture from 1961 until 1980. The collection contains the company's papers and examples of all aspects of production materials, including Anderson's original pencil sketches, blueprints, and transparencies. less

The Association of Village Homeowners was formed in 1960 in response to new construction, supporting protection and long-term regulation of the Greenwich Village neighborhood. The Association of Village Homeowners records document the changing concerns of the Greenwich Village neighborhood from 1960 to 2003. less

Ken Auletta (b. 1942) is a journalist and author known for his coverage of political, governmental and economic matters, often focused on New York; since the early 1990s he has written mainly about the media and communications industries. The Ken Auletta papers contain correspondence, typescripts, galleys, research materials, sound recordings and a video recording representing his writings, including feature articles for The New Yorker, his Daily News column, and several books. Correspondence (1975-1993) contains letters from prominent figures in politics, business and the media reacting to Auletta's work. Writings are documented by typescripts and galleys with revisions by Auletta and/or Jacob Epstein, his editor at Random House, and research materials, including interview transcripts and subject files containing clippings, press releases and some correspondence. Also present are notebooks (1983-1993) used for his Daily News column and other work; sound recordings (mainly interviews and speeches recorded as research material for his books and articles); and a video (1995) recording an event at which Auletta was the speaker. less

Geoffrey Biddle is a photographer whose book Alphabet City (published 1992) documented the Puerto Rican community on New York City's Lower East Side in the late 1970s. This collection contains photographs taken in the Alphabet City neighborhood in the late 1970s and 1980s, including but not limited to those published in Alphabet City. The collection also contains sound recordings and partial transcripts of the interviews that Biddle conducted in 1988 and 1989 for use in the book, and correspondence and reference material related to the Lower East Side and the development and publication of the book. less

John Baxter Black (1924-2014) was a writer and historian who wrote daily diary entries from 1936 to 2014. His diaries chronicle his life in Mansfield, Ohio; London; New York; at boarding school and university; and in the army. This collection contains Black's diaries, letters, and a two-volume family history he wrote, as well as diaries and letters of his uncles John Baxter Black (dating from 1914 to 1918) and Donald Black (dating from 1926 to 1927). less

Block Communities, Inc. (BCI) was a community organizing anti-poverty agency that operated in New York City from 1966 until 1968. Originating in East Harlem, the group consisted of community organizers who moved onto a city block, surveyed the residents, and spearheaded various community development programs. This collection consists of administrative materials, daily and weekly reports by block workers, and publicity materials that include moving images. The collection also holds latter day reflections from BCI alumni. less

Carmen Boullosa (1954-) is one of Mexico's leading novelists, poets and playwrights. Boullosa also writes and prints art books, mixing image and text. She is a professor, the co-founder of Cafe Nueva York, and the host of the CUNY-TV program, Nueva York. The Carmen Boullosa papers (1970-2016) contain the following groups: Correspondence, Writings, Artist Books and Artwork, Publicity Materials, Academic and Professional files, and Personal files. less

Jim Carroll was an American poet, diarist, and rock musician associated with the downtown arts scene in New York City. Carroll is known for his published diaries of youth and early adulthood and as vocalist and songwriter for the Jim Carroll Band. The Jim Carroll papers date from 1906 to 2009, and contain notes, manuscripts, sound and video recordings, printed matter, correspondence, photographs, personal memorabilia, and Carroll's personal library. The collection documents his work across artistic media, with an emphasis on his music, fiction, and poetry after 1980. less

The Century Foundation, established in 1906 as the Cooperative League and renamed the Twentieth Century Fund in 1922, is a non-profit research institution that supports the study of political and economic issues in the United States. Since its inception, the organization has funded research projects—primarily books and reports, but also pamphlets, papers, committees, task forces, conferences, seminars, and educational films—with the aim of influencing and improving public policy. The Century Foundation records, dating from 1906 to 2010, contain correspondence, reports, minutes, memorandum, manuscripts, and publications that document the work of trustees, staff, and funded project directors. The records provide extensive documentation of projects conceived of, funded by, and associated with the organization, the bulk of which date from 1960 to the mid-1990s. These projects, and the development of the foundation's areas of study, track the evolving focus of progressive political thought and economic policy in the 20th century United States. less

The City Club of New York was founded in 1892 by Edmund Kelly as a men's club to promote effective and honest government in New York City. The collection dates from 1892 to 2004, and consists mainly of records from the early years of the organization, as well as the latter part of the 20th century. The files contain addressees, articles, correspondence, memoranda, memorabilia, meeting minutes, reports, and audio and video recordings. less

Joanne Carson (1931-2015) was an American model, flight attendant, and television host who was close friends with Truman Capote. Capote (1924-1984) was an American author and frequent house guest at Carson's Bel Air, California home. The Joanne Carson papers related to Truman Capote primarily consist of manuscripts, notes, and ephemera Capote left behind in Carson's house when he died there, as well as manuscripts written by Carson and candid photographs of Capote, Carson, and their friends. less

Phyllis Dain is a Professor Emerita of Library Service at Columbia University. The Phyllis Dain papers consist of documents relating to her work as a library educator and historian, including the campaign to save the Columbia University Library School, her work on two histories of the New York Public Library, her professional papers, and speeches and writings. less

The Morris Dickstein papers, dating from 1940 to 2018 (bulk dates 1962-2018), chronicle the career of American literary scholar, author, critic, and former Distinguished Professor of English and Theatre at the City University of New York Graduate Center, Morris Dickstein (1940-2021). The collection contains drafts of Dickstein's writings; correspondence with academics and literary figures; materials related to the Graduate Center; galley proofs; printed matter; grant applications; biographical materials; and audio and video recordings. less

Joan Didion (1934-2021) and John Gregory Dunne (1932-2003) were writers closely associated with the New Journalism movement who wrote novels, essays, long-form nonfiction, and screenplays. Didion and Dunne's papers date from the 1840s through 2022 (bulk dates 1950s-2010s) and chronicle their literary and screenwriting careers through correspondence, publishing files, notes for writing projects, photographs, and research files. The papers also include objects from their home lives, certificates and awards, personal and family ephemera, and artwork. less

The Year of Magical Thinking is a play adapted from the memoir of the same name by by American author Joan Didion (1934-2021). Didion was a writer associated with the New Journalism movement. This script is an early draft of the play, given by Didion to her nephew, Tony Dunne, along with a handwritten note. less

John Patrick Diggins (1935-2009) was an intellectual historian, university professor, and the author of numerous publications, including Mussolini and Fascism; the view from America (1972), The American Left in the Twentieth Century (1973), The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority (1994), and Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom and the Making of History (2007). His papers consist of correspondence, project files, and teaching files. less

Ecco Press was an independent small-trade publisher known for presenting distinguished new work in international poetry and fiction writing through its books and its journal Antaeus, and for reissuing neglected classics in a variety of fields, including travel and food writing. Daniel Halpern (b. 1945) started Antaeus in 1970 with the help of Paul Bowles. His search for financial backing for Antaeus led to the creation of Ecco Press in 1971 with co-founder and publisher Drue Heinz. Heinz retired in 1991, transferring ownership of Ecco Press to Halpern, its editor-in-chief. Ecco Press remained an independent firm, although affiliated with publishers Viking Press and W.W. Norton & Company for sales and distribution, until its acquisition by HarperCollins in 1999. The Ecco Press records contain correspondence, memoranda, administrative and financial records, typescripts, galleys, page proofs, bound books and periodicals, photographs, jacket art, posters, a sound recording and computer data storage that document the founding and day-to-day operations of the press. The records also reflect the personal life and career of Daniel Halpern as an editor, poet, teacher, anthologist, and prominent literary figure, as well as such literary activities as the National Poetry Series which Halpern ran out of the Ecco Press offices. Halpern's papers contain correspondence, diaries, notebooks, writings, subject files and academic, financial and real estate papers. less

The Economic Club of New York is a nonpartisan and nonprofit membership organization that promotes the study and discussion of social, economic, and political questions. The Club's records document its meetings through audio and moving image recordings, transcripts, photographs, and programs. less

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan region. In 1982, the MTA launched its first Capital Program, a five-year investment in improvements that addressed vast structural and ridership problems. The MTA 1982 and 1987 Capital Programs oral histories contain audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with ten major figures who worked for the MTA during its first two Capital Programs from 1982 to 1991. The interviews focus on this era of transformation in the MTA's history, covering the years 1979 to 1992. Nine interviews were conducted during 2020 and 2021 by former MTA employee Wendy Feuer; an interview with Feuer herself was conducted by Susan Weiner in 2022. less

Israel David Fishman (1938-) is best known for founding the Task Force on Gay Liberation (TFGL), a section of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Libraries Association. His papers document the early years of TFGL, Fishman's collaboration with other activists, and the issues surrounding being an openly gay professional in the late-1960s and early-1970s. less