Search

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, technical reports, memoranda, questionnaires, interview schedules, personal and professional documents, several photographs, one tape recording, and printed materials. The correspondence files contain letters to colleagues and researchers such as Bernard Berelson, Robert Lynd, Robert Merton, and Frank Stanton. The subject files document Lazarsfeld's many research projects such as the Admissions Officers Project, 1964-1970, the Planning Project for Advanced Training in Social Research, 1950-1955, and his first major endeavor, the Princeton Radio Research Project, 1937-1940. There are complete records for his 1954-1955 study on McCarthyism's effect on college teaching. These original materials consisting of correspondence, interview schedules, and questionnaires contain many detailed comments which could not be included in the published version of this study, THE ACADEMIC MIND (1958). Numerous files relate to Lazarsfeld's position as Associate Director of the Bureau of Applied Social Research (BASR). There are manuscripts of books, research papers, lectures, and articles by Lazarsfeld as well as by his students and colleagues.

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))

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.