Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

This collection includes a short typed biography of Bert'e-Delagard (titled "Autobiographical note") with holograph edits; photographs of Bert'e-Delagard, his sister Sofiia L'vovna and Aleksandra Karlovna Barantsova; lists and photographs of ancient jewelry items found in the Greek cities on the shores of the Black and Azov seas from Bert'e-Delagard collection; architectural plans of Bert'e-Delagard house; 1918 issue of Izvestiia︡ Tavricheskoĭ Uchenoĭ Arkhivnoĭ Kommissiĭ dedicated to Bert'e-Delagard; publication of Bert'e-Delagard article "Proshloe Koreiza."

Correspondence, documents, and financial records relating almost entirely to the last ten years of Cora Crane's life, dealing largely with the operation of her brothel, The Court, and touching on her last marriage to Hammond P. McNeil and to her work on the invention of a new army canteen. Much of the collection consists of bills, receipts, insurance policies, cancelled checks, and other fairly routine financial papers. Also, a Harold Frederic manuscript and the last known signature of Stephen Crane.

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.

Collection contains watercolor renderings, sketches, technical drawings (ground plans, elevations and details), photographs, glass plate and acetate negatives, scrapbooks, set models and some related papers covering Urban's career in Vienna and New York as an architect, set designer, decorator and illustrator. There is a thorough representation of his New York career including his set designs for Florenz Ziegfeld (1915-1932) and the Metropolitan Opera (1917-1933). The collection also contains information on Urban's work for William Randolph Hearst as art director for Cosmopolitan Studios, his exhibitions including his 1921 Wiener Werkstätte store, and his many architectural projects. Biographical information and research gathered by Richard Cole and Randolph Carter including contributions from his daughter,Gretl Urban, and biographical notes and some letters from his widow, Mary Urban, are also present.

Personal and professional correspondence, including 25 long letters from Professor Henry F. Herbig; manuscripts (mainly speeches); specifications for patents in electrical fields; technical and personal photographs; and memorabilia. Included is a copy of the famous "shot in hand" x-ray photograph, ca. 1896, one of the first ever to be taken. This collection also contains the correspondence, manuscripts, documents, and memorabilia of Professor Pupin's daughter, Varvara Smith, and his son-in-law, Louis Graham Smith. His daughter's letters and documents deal with her financial difficulties, her administration of Pupin's estate and her claims against Columbia University. Louis G. Smith's letters deal with his anti-Communist sentiments and his manuscripts are mainly ideas for popular songs and plays. There are three letters (photostatic copies) to Smith from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Working files of the architectural historians Rudolf and Margot Wittkower, dealing with Baroque and Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture. Included are manuscripts, notes, drawings, annotated proofs of articles and books, and some correspondence related to his writings and lectures. The majority of the files document his teaching, research, and writing at the University of London, 1934-1955, and at Columbia University. There are also some manuscript notes from his early years in Italy and Germany. Series I has been divided into six parts: Artists, Subjects, Book Manuscripts, Proofs, Notes, and Printed Materials. Some of the major files are Bernini, Bramante, Carracci, Michelangelo, and Raphael (Artists); Baroque Painting, Patronage, Rome, St. Peter's, Slade Lectures on the history of art (Subjects); ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY, BORN UNDER SATURN, and MATTHEWS LECTURES: GOTHIC VS. CLASSIC (Book Manuscripts). In addition there are proofs of essays and reviews with manuscript corrections and emmendations, copies of several of his own published works with his manuscript corrections, and typescript insertions for new editions. The Notes consist of eight card file boxes with notes chiefly relating to the Baroque period and Bernini. Materials created by or related to Rudolf Wittkower's wife, the architect and interior designer Margot Holzmann Wittkower, can be found primarily in Series II, IV, V, and VI. Material created or maintained solely by Margot Wittkower is located in Series VI; however, material she shared with Rudolf Wittkower is located in Series II, IV, and V.

The records include annual reports, correspondence, memos, minutes, program files, news clippings, administrative records and photographs. They document the agency from its origins in a committee led by the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association to its work during the 1990s providing social services to thousands of East Side residents. The founding and early history of the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center are best documented by minutes in Series II, showing the collaboration between the New York City Housing Authority and the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association to establish the agency. They also offer the most comprehensive view of administrative, fundraising and program decisions from the early years to the 1990s. This series is supplemented by architectural drawings and plans for the community center in Series VI. Program records in Series V focus on the period 1980-90, with a few items from the 1960s and '70s. The agency's fundraising efforts are documented in Series III, which includes correspondence with foundations and individuals, donor lists and committee files.