Scope and arrangement
The records of the Committee of Fifteen contain the correspondence of its assistant secretary, George W. Morgan, with the public, committee members, New York State Assembly members, and the New York City Department of Health. The 258 letters to the Department of Health report the location of "disorderly houses." Other records of the committee's investigations include two notebooks containing entries for each location visited with a chronological log of visits made and actions taken against the various dwellings and businesses, typed lists of the locations visited and the types of violations found there, and 28 boxes of affidavits and reports made by the investigators. The amount of information for each location varies, but many of the report forms include the name of the investigator, his age and address, date of his visit, address of the building, description of activity at that site and investigator's action, amount of money paid, name, physical description, and ethnic background of the prostitute or others at the location, and general remarks. The reports are arranged by police precinct.
In addition, the collection contains 30 scrapbooks of press clippings about New York City politics, police, and vice (November 8, 1900-November 30, 1901), typed abstracts of the events of the day (for the same period), and a typescript of the defense testimony in the trial of police captain John D. Herlihy (1900-1901).