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Included are architectural drawings, surveys, maps, and site proposals, for Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, designed primarily by McKim, Mead & White. Other architects represented include Adams & Woodbridge; Arnold Brunner (who designed the School of Mines); Eggers & Higgins; the Columbia University Buildings and Grounds Department; Howells and Stokes (designed St. Paul's Chapel); Reinhard, Hofmeister and Wahlquist; and James Gamble Rogers. Drawings for buildings no longer in existence or never constructed and drawings for later alterations, are included. Architectural drawings of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, and surveys of the asylum site prepared for Columbia, 1888-1894. Also included are site plans and proposals, surveys, and maps, circa 1890s-1910s, showing the surrounding area, including such institutions as the Jewish Theological Seminary, St. Luke's Home, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grant's Tomb, and others. Drawings for the Womans's Hospital in the State of New York (designed by Allen & Collens, erected 1903, demolished in the 1970s), circa 1903-1914, are also included. This building was used to house the Columbia School of the Arts in the 1960s since it was located near the campus.

This family archive includes numerous letters which shed light on MacDonald's career and the operation of the Sanford Hall asylum: 4 letters from James MacDonald to brother Allan MacDonald concerning the operation of their asylum, 1842-48, including one concerning admission of the widow of John Delmonico, the famous restaurateur, 22 March 1843: "They are respectable folks and want everything done for the comfort and advantage of Ms. D." * 7 letters of introduction and other documents relating to Dr. MacDonald's tour of European asylums, 1831-2 * Letter from Dr. MacDonald to his wife, who was apparently running the Murray Hill asylum briefly in his absence: "I hope you will have a more quiet afternoon than yesterday. Pray do all you can to keep the place quiet, particularly in front of the house." 17 June [1841?] * Letter from James MacDonald to Dr. Ranny of Blackwell's Island, referring a patient, 30 April 1849 (shortly before his death) * 18 letters from Dr. Josiah W. Barstow (superintendent of Sanford Hall) to widow Eliza H. MacDonald, circa 1857-60, most concerning the asylum * One long letter from C.M. Kittredge to Dr. Barstow, 1870, concerning a new Sanford Hall patient, B.B. Colah, a Parsi from India * Letter from Dr. Pliny Earle to widow Eliza MacDonald, 1857, researching Dr. MacDonald's use of restraints in the 1830s, with her draft response * plus more than a hundred family letters and receipts.

Eight large ledgers that record nearly 750 case studies of both female and male inmates, with their medical histories, background information, patient notes, and, in many instances, photographs.