Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

The professional and personal correspondence, papers, and pamphlet collection of Melvil Dewey, relating to libraries, the American Library Association, library classification, the Lake Placid Club, Columbia College, the New York State Library, and spelling reform. Included are notes for and a typescript of Grosvenor Dawe's biography of Dewey.

Robert M. Morgenthau (1919-2019) served as the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan) for 35 years (1974-2009) and made a reputation for prosecuting white-collar crime. In this regard, the Papers hold many research files covering such aspects of white-collar crime as money laundering, offshore banking and tax havens. Morgenthau rarely handled a case himself. He delegated prosecutions to key aides in his office of 500 lawyers. Although not comprehensive, the Papers do contain a few files of assignment sheets covering the period (1938-2008). These sheets indicate which bureau each Assistant District Attorney was assigned to each month. The Papers, in turn, do not have any employment information about individual lawyers or the specific cases they worked on while employed in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office under Morgenthau. However, researchers should review "Series VI: Press Releases" and "Series VIII: Statements and Testimonies before Local, State and National Governmental Bodies," in order to gain an understanding of the issues handled by the Manhattan DA office during Robert Morgenthau's tenure.

The Corporation awards grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions for projects that are broadly educational in nature and that show promise of having national or international impact. Certain appropriations are made for activities, such as Corporation-led initiatives that are administered by the foundation's officers. The trustees set the overall policies of the foundation and have final authority to approve all grants above $50,000 recommended by the program staff. Grants of $25,000 or less, called discretionary grants, are made upon the approval of the president and are reported to the board; larger discretionary grants, those between $25,000 and $50,000, are also reviewed by a Corporation-wide group, which makes recommendations to the president. (from Program Guidelines 2003-2004 (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/areas.html))

Letters written to Gouverneur Morris from many of his contemporaries including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Paul Jones, Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler, Robert Morris, George Plater, William Short, William T. Franklin, and Thomas Pinckney. Letters from Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, John Jay, Lafayette, Philip Schuyler, Nathaniel Greene, and others. Personal correspondence from Madame Foucault, John Parish, and others. Manuscripts and documents relating to events in which Morris was a participant or interested party such as the Genet Affair and the "Lost Million" Affair; diplomatic correspondence with French ministers of foreign affairs, 1792-1794, and miscellaneous articles and reports by Morris, many on public finance and economics.

Collection of 8 manuscript checks on 7 sheets to various payees, chiefly for public utilities expenses; directed to Daniel Phoenix, the Treasurer, by order of the Common Council, and signed by Richard Varick, Mayor, and Robert Benson, Clerk; endorsed by payee on verso. 1793 July 29, to Lazalier & Williamson£7 8s 3d, from the pump fund for repairs to public pumps -- 1793 Sept. 30, to Edward Day£27 3s 7d, from the city contingency fund for making two cisterns at the City Hall -- 1793 Oct. 11, to Alsop & Hicks£9 1s, from the lamp fund, for lamp oil; an attached note indicates that the Common Council directs that no more whale oil be purchased for the lamps -- 1794 April 1, to Robert Valentine£12 7s 2d, from the street fund for carpenters work and materials at Broad Street common sewer -- 1794 Apr 1, to Latham Bunker£192 4s, from the lamp fund for lamp oil, and to Willson Rawson £617 3s 4d, from the lamp fund for lamp oil -- 1799 Aug 19, to the street commissioners£20 14s for expenses of the jury assessing lands taken for a new road in Harlem -- 1799 Sept. 2, to Alexander Phoenix£3 12s, for travel expenses to Harlem to pay proprietors for land taken for the new road.

Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs. The files contain much material of the League of Women Voters of New York State as well, and some material pertaining to the national organization. The files document the League's activities in the areas of voter registration, election reform, New York City government, foreign policy, ecology, and numerous other concerns, and contain the records of city, state, and national conventions, annual reports, and Board and Council minutes. Major correspondents include Emanuel Teller, Stanley M. Isaacs, Jacob K. Javits, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward I. Koch, John Vliet Lindsay, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Anna Lord Strauss, and Percy E. Sutton.