Collections

The records include addresses, annual reports, correspondence, memos, minutes, program files, newsclippings, administrative records, photographs, video tape, and film. They include material dating from the decades prior to the establishment of the settlement which shed light on the philosophy and motivation of its founders, and offer a unique view of the first wave of the settlement house movement in America. The records document social conditions, demographic change, political activity and philanthropy in New York City. Addresses by East Side House founder Everett P. Wheeler, included in Series I, document his family history and career as a lawyer and civic reformer prior to the founding of East Side House. Wheeler's correspondence details his role in establishing the settlement and managing it during its first decades.

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.

Correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, contracts, legal briefs, patents, and other documents, music scores, cartoons, technical drawings, account books, blueprints, photographs, clippings, printed legal briefs & transcripts, proofs, scrapbooks, and other printed materials of William M. Speer.

The records of W.R. Grace & Co. cover the rise of the Grace shipping business from 1864 until World War II. The early correspondence concerns all aspects of the shipping business in New York and South America, mining interests in Peru and Chile, the railroad in Costa Rica, the inter-ocean canal planned for Nicaragua, and political interests throughout Central and South America. There are letter books, correspondence, and scrapbooks of clippings for all aspects of W.R. Grace's career. There are minute books and other documents for more than 50 subsidiary companies owned by W.R. Grace & Co. or by family members. The papers of Joseph Peter Grace (1872-1950) continue the business, family, and philanthropic activities until 1942. There are also 20 reels of motion picture film about the Grace Co. South American interests in the 1950s.