Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

The records comprise the archives of the Woman Suffrage Association of New York State, 1869-1917, and the Woman Suffrage Party of New york City, 1910-1919. Included are minute volumes of the two organizations as well as other related materials such as constitutions, membership lists, pamphlets, clippings, photographs and other printed materials. There are a few letters, but the collection is chiefly documents of the organizations.

Minutes, reports, press books, scrapbooks, correspondence, lists, financial records, and printed materials of the Woman's Press Club of New York City.

Letters written by and relating to Watts and members of his family. There are 45 letters written by Charles Wats, dated principally from Biloxi, Miss., to members of his family in New York, and 21 letters from, to, and relating to his sister, Helen Watts, and her husband, H. Floyd Jones, and his family. Also, a few letters from Charles Watts, Sr., to his son, Judge Charles Watts. The letters are personal in nature, dealing with family affairs, daily life, and friends.

The incoming correspondence of Vanderpoel, containing letters from friends, clients, and colleagues and dealing with personal and legal matters. Correspondents include Henry M. Alexander, William Allen Butler, John P. and William V. S. Beekman, G. W. Bulkey, Joseph H. Choate, Frederic R. Coudert, Lewis L. Delafield, Jay Gould, William D. F. Maurice, Edward Pierpont, J. Bryce Smith, John Van Alen, John and Thomas Van Buren, and Henry Vanorden. Letters of a personal and business nature from various family members include several from Aaron and John Vanderpoel and Lewis Oakley, his uncles, and from Henry C. Van Schaack, his father-in-law. There are approximately twelve manuscripts of essays and speeches by A. J. Vanderpoel while he attended Kinderhook Academy and New York University, as well as a few by other family members. Various documents including mortgages, deeds, indentures, agreements, and court records relate to Vanderpoel's law practice and to family property.

A photostatic copy of the diary of Strong. The diary, running without interruption from Oct. 1835 through June 1875, contains a wealth of information about life in New York City. Its scope broadens to include the national scene with the outbreak of the Civil War. There is also a miscellaneous assortment of approximately 150 photostatic copies of personal correspondence with family and friends, correspondence during his term as treasurer of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, original drawings, caricatures and doodlings, invitations, guest lists, theater and concert programs, newspaper clippings, a family tree, and photographs. Includes typed index of Columbia references in Strong's diary.

Correspondence, legal papers, and letter books of Shepard. The correspondence, which comprises the largest part of the collection, is rich in information about New York politics and social activities at the turn of the century. The letter books cover the years 1890-1911. The collection also contains legal papers, drafts of speeches, clippings, and memorabilia. Correspondents with Shepard include Felix Adler, Thomas Willing Balch, Frederic Bancroft, Bernard Baruch, Richard Rogers Bowker, William Jennings Bryan, Alfred Clark Chapin, Grover Cleveland, Hamlin Garland, Richard Watson Gilder, Edward Everett Hale, Fletcher Harper, Abram S. Hewitt, Charles Evans Hughes, John La Farge, Henry Cabot Lodge, Josephine Shaw Lowell, Hamilton Mabie, Walter H. Page, Alton B. Parker, George Foster Peabody, Bliss Perry, Joseph Pulitzer, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Carl Schurz, Kate Nichols Trask, Oswald Garrison Villard, and Booker T. Washington.

Correspondence, art work, and memorabilia of Rood, including letters to Rood from colleagues, scientists, and artists including Albert Bierstadt, Arthur J. Evans, Joseph Henry, and Charles Eliot Norton. Family letters to and from his wife, Matilda, and children; letters from his wife to her mother, Anna Prunner, in Germany; sketchbooks, drawings, and etchings of Rood and his son, Roland Rood; and photographs and memorabilia.

The collection includes seven volumes of scrapbooks containing clippings on current affairs roughly between 1939 and 1950 with particular reference to the trials of the German War Criminals at Nuremberg and the state of Germany after World War II. Also, general items on President Franklin Roosevelt and U.S. foreign policy. There are several complete copies of newspapers folded and inserted in the scrapbooks. The second and more important part of the collection consists of typescripts of Dr. Pfeiffenberger's writings. These occupy one and one-half manuscript boxes (Boxes 4 and 5). Included are about 45 pages of poetry in German, about 120 pages of selected stories of New York Life (in German), about 30 pages on The European State-System, 1848-1890 (in German), 127 pages of manuscript entitled "The Spirit of the Code of Hammurabi" (this is a preliminary draft in English of a short book or article by Pfeiffenberger), about 305 pages of typescript on "Compensation in the Western Zone of Germany" by Pfeiffenberger, Dr. H. Klein, and Dr. Klavehn-Berndt (there are many changes and notes in script, and this item is accompanied by another typescript of approximately the same size on the same subject), and several other items.

Correspondence to Parsons from numerous well-known contempories relating chiefly to political and social matters. Also, miscellaneous reports and printed materials.

Correspondence and papers of Low. Both sides of the correspondence are almost intact from 1890 on, with copies of outgoing letters for the two previous decades. There are also four letterpress copybooks, numerous scrapbooks of clippings relating to Low's career and activities, a large number of photographs and other memorabilia, and printed and manuscript copies of many of Low's speeches. Also, contains ten boxes of Annie Low's (Mrs. Seth Low) business and financial correspondence, invitations and regrets, requests for donations, and bills for the period 1914 to 1930.