Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

This collection of about 80 items relates to the founding and activities of the society and includes a printed constitution of the organizational list of charter members, some miscellaneous notes and memoranda, and a group of letter from various people addressed principally to Charles A. Joy. The letters deal mostly with attendance at meetings.

Letters written to James Ripley Wellman Hitchcock, to Mrs. Hitchcock, and to Richard Henry Stoddard from various people in literary artistic and dramatic circles, mainly of New York. There are letters and documents relating to Hitchcock's early life, photographs, a group of materials relating to the American Art Alliance in which Mrs. Hitchcock was interested, and a group of miscellaneous papers and letters relating to the publication, dramatization, filming, and radio rights of Edward N. Westcott's DAVID HARUM which Mr. Hitchcock was instrumental in having published. Also, manuscripts and printed versions of Charles Chapin Sargent, Jr.'s (brother of Hitchcock's second wife, Helen Sargent Hitchcock) writings including short stories and a libretto for an operetta "Cleopatra" written for the Columbia College Musical Society in 1897, two scrapbooks containing mementos of his college years, two pictures, and a Columbia College diploma.

Correspondence relating to Erskine's various educational, musical and literary interests; manuscripts of his writings; lecture notes for college courses; souvenirs of his army service in World War I and his Columbia University professorship, and student papers from his own school and college days. Also, biographical file, scrapbooks, and articles.