Collections

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, documents, book typescripts, photographs, and printed materials covering the time from Dorfman's early interest, as a graduate student, in the economic thought of Thorstein Veblen until his retirement. There is correspondence with his academic colleagues, students, publishers, and the family and students of Thorstein Veblen, as well as manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, revisions, notes, photographs, pamphlets, and related materials for his articles and books which include: THORSTEIN VEBLEN AND HIS AMERICA, 1934; THE ECONOMIC MIND IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION, 1946-1959; EARLY AMERICAN POLICY, 1960; INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS, 1963; TYPES OF ECONOMIC THEORY, 1967; and NEW LIGHT ON VEBLEN, 1973

Personal, academic, and legal correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and memoranda. Among the legal files, there is particular emphasis on labor and welfare law. The files also contain materials about his judicial appointment, the American Law Institute, the Columbia University School of Law, and the Project on International Procedure. Among the major correspondents are: James A. Farley, Arthur J. Goldberg, Philip C. Jessup, Robert F. Kennedy, Harold R. Medina, James A. Pike, and Lionel Trilling

Correspondence, playscripts, screenplays, scenarios, short stories, and other manuscripts, drafts, photocopies, contracts and other documents, tearsheets, clippings, and other materials relating to his career as a screenwriter, playwright, and author of short stories. Correspondence with friends, students, admirers, and professional colleagues concern his teaching, playwriting, films, articles, photography, and literary topics. There are also two groups of letters from students and readers about his textbook, "The Human Nature of Playwriting" (1949). Among the cataloged correspondence are William Gibson, MacKinlay Kantor, Anna Louise Strong, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Doren. Included are manuscripts, drafts, or photocopies of almost all his films, plays, and short stories, such as playscripts and drafts of his plays, "The Jazz Singer" (1922), "Skylark" (1939), "Jason" (1942), and others; screenplays and scenarios, many in photocopy, of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "The Shop Aroung the Corner" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), and many other films; and manuscripts, drafts, tearsheets, and printed copies of his short stories and articles of film and television criticism. There are also many clippings and reviews, programs, and other printed materials about his plays and films.

Correspondence, by-laws, memoranda, contracts, permission forms, reports, bank statements and other legal papers, advertising, and printed materials.

Letters written to Gay from political and literary contemporaries such as Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner, and William Bryant; reports in letter form from his reporters at the front during the Civil War; and personal correspondence including many letters from his wife, Elizabeth Neall Gay. Letters written to Mrs. Gay from family friends and business associates including many from her husband. Correspondence of other members of the Gay family including Walter Gay, Sarah Gay, and Allan Gay. Diaries, notebooks, and journals of Sydney Howard Gay.

This collection of contracts, patent assignments, other legal documents, and correspondence of Edison and others, deals with the development of the telegraph and the expansion of the telegraph network. There are 31 cataloged legal documents concerning his telegraphic patents, his company (Pope, Edison & Company), and its purchase by The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in 1870. Other contracts concern the early work of Samuel F.B. Morse and other inventors, and later telegraph companies.