Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

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))

Correspondence, manuscripts, lectures, notes, diaries, notebooks, reports, financial records, blueprints, photographs, and printed materials of Y.C. James Yen and the IIRR concerned with the development, sharing, and financing innovative methods of teaching, improving agriculture, health and family planning, and education in impoverished villages. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Pearl Buck, William O. Douglas, Nelson Rockefeller, and DeWitt Clinton.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, notes, inteviews, articles, newspapers, clippings, and press releases of Harrison Evans Salisbury, a prominent journalist and editor.

Correspondence, contracts, reviews, brochures, fliers, and photographs of various theatrical productions involving Ann Greyson.

Minutes, correspondence, annual reports, press releases, financial records, photographs, memorabilia, audiovisual, digital and printed materials document the philanthropic activities and administration of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The collection is actively growing, primarily through regular document transfers from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Andrew Carnegie's biographical information and personal philanthropic activity can be found in Series VII. In addition, his pre-1911 gifts, most notably his donations for libraries and church organs, can be found on microfilm (Series II), in the Home Trust Company Records (VI.A), and Financial Record Books (I.C.1). Grant files (Series III.A), which comprise the bulk of the collection) provide information on projects and institutions founded, endowed or supported by the Corporation. The Special Initiatives series (Series IV) contains the records of task forces, commissions and councils, formed by the Corporation mostly during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to address specific issues. The Corporation's records include those of other Carnegie philanthropic organizations (Series VI), including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Home Trust Company, both of which shared staff, officers, and office space with the Corporation for a period of time.

Correspondence, speeches, speech materials, news clippings, subject files, audio and videotapes relating to the professional activity of Arthur Levitt, Jr. The papers and audiovisual material deal primarily with his tenure as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1993-2001), but also contain earlier records, including some materials relating to Levitt's school years at the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School and at Williams College, and his work at Hayden Stone, the American Stock Exchange, and the New York Economic Development Corporation, and his advocacy of the National Endowment of the Arts during the 1991-1992 funding controversy. These papers also contain materials relating to his father, Arthur Levitt, Sr., who served for 24 years as New York State Comptroller.