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Papers concerning both the administration of the Henry Street Settlement and Wald's involvement in numerous philanthropic and liberal causes. Her office files trace the foundation and growth of the Henry Street Settlement from 1895 until 1933. Her other activities include child welfare, civil liberties, immigration, public health, unemployment, and the peace movement during World War I. The correspondence files contain letters from public figures and writers including Jane Addams, Roger N. Baldwin, Van Wyck Brooks, Lavinia L. Dock, John Galsworthy, Samuel Gompers, William D. Howells, Charles Evans Hughes, Mabel Hyde Kittredge, Frances Perkins, Dorothy Thompson, Norman Thomas, Ida Tarbell, Margaret Sanger, and Jacob A. Riis.

The papers include correspondence, subject files, photographs, and printed materials. The majority of the collection concerns the mission of the American Red Cross to Russia in 1917-1918; Thacher served as a secretary of the mission. There are letters and telegrams by W.B. Thompson and Raymond Robins, records of supplies, shipments, and distribution reports and over 600 photographs from Russia, China, and Romania. There is substantial correspondence from 1918-1919 concerning Russia, including letters by Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Lillian Wald. A substantial part of the collection concerns Russian war relief in 1941-1942, an area in which Thacher was active. Printed materials include a pamphlet and an article on Russia prepared by Thacher after his return from that country in early 1918.