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The LaGuardia Memorial House Records document the settlement's activities from its earliest years as "The Home Garden" to its current social service programs for the youth of East Harlem. They offer a unique view of the first wave of the settlement movement in America, and document social conditions, demographic change, political activity, philanthropy and social work in East Harlem over a 90 year period. The records include: annual reports, board minutes and correspondence, headworker correspondence, financial records, fundraising information, and photographs.

The Union Settlement Association Records document a century of the settlement's activities, and provide a unique view of the first wave of the settlement movement in America. They document social conditions, demographic change, political activity, philanthropy and social work in East Harlem with a strong emphasis on the urban renewal period of the 1950s and '60s. The records include: annual reports, board minutes and committee files, headworker and executive director files, program reports, community organization files, and visual materials such as photographs, maps and architectural drawings.

The collection of historical photographs and lithographs of New York City consists of about 3,000 items dated from the 1850s until the 1980s. The collection is made up of color photographic prints, color negatives, black-and-white photographic prints, black-and-white negatives, copy prints, studio and cabinet cards, stereo cards, cyanotypes, albumen prints, gelatin silver prints, lantern slides, glass negatives, and Polaroid prints, lithographs, woodcuts, tear sheets, and engravings. The collection also includes official images, newspaper images, and candid images. Also included are images from the photo morgue of the New York Herald-Tribune newspaper, which ceased publication in 1966. Other images were purchased as copies from New-York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, WNYC-FM Radio, the Bettman Archive, and from collectors, private vendors, and other institutions. Photos by noted photographers are included.

This collection contains reprographic architectural drawings for the Empire State Building; photographs of the demolition of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which occupied the Fifth Avenue site; photographs of the Empire State Building under construction, circa 1930-1931 (one photograph shows former governor Alfred E. Smith standing in the building during construction), including 232 photographs by photographer Lewis Hine; photographs showing the building after completion, circa 1931-1956; scrapbooks of clippings of articles about the building, 1930-1957; and illustrations of the Empire State Building, circa 1930s-1960s. These subgroups of materials also have records in CLIO with more detailed descriptions of items; for these records, please search under "Empire State Building" or "Shreve, Lamb & Harmon" or "Hine, Lewis Wickes".

Correspondence, reports, memoranda, case records, photographs and printed material. The archive include central and district administrative records; cammittee correspondence and minutes; and files on the various programs--such as sheltered workshops, tuberculosis sanitariums and health centers, public baths and employment bureaus--run by the two organizations. The archive also contains hundreds of photographs, including works by Lewis Hine and Jessie Tarbox Beals; extensive casework files from the beginning of social work (originally referred to as "friendly visiting among the poor"); and copies of masters and doctoral theses from the New York School of Sociel Work and other schools. Much of the research for these theses was based on the CSS files