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Personal, administrative, political, and investigative files of Nickerson. The papers deal almost entirely with his eight years as County Executive, and consist of correspondence, memoranda, manuscripts of speeches, notes, press releases, photographs, and clippings. Among the major correspondents are James A. Farley, Hubert H. Humphrey, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward I. Koch, and Percy E. Sutton. The Investigation Files, which amount to nearly half the collection, document investigation into corruption and mismanagement in numerous Long Island businesses and governmental departments. These investigations, instigated and overseen by Nickerson, were carried out largely by the Commissioner of Accounts, Milton Lipson, and later by Samuel Greason, the first governmental ombudsman in the United States. These files consist primarily of memoranda, transcripts of hearings, payroll and financial accounts, notes, and tape recordings.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, oral histories, photographs, audio cassettes, and printed material. Family and personal correspondence; materials related to his secondary, college, and university education; materials related to his tenure at the National Council of the Protestant Church; business correspondence of St. Philip's Episcopal Church and the St. Philip's Community Service Council; bulletins of church services; drafts of sermons and speeches, as well as numerous audio-tapes; manuscripts and publications; correspondence related to the construction and on-going maintenance of several senior-citizen and other community housing; correspondence related to various community redevelopment initives and campaigns for affordable housing; materials related to college courses including oral histories for his Black Family Research project; photographs of St. Philip's Church and of activities of the St. Philip's Community Service Council.