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The George A. Plimpton Papers consist largely of personal and professional correspondence, financial and real estate records, personal diaries and albums, writings, and lectures produced by or for George Arthur Plimpton. But the Papers also contains not only the correspondence and records of Plimpton's colleagues at Ginn and Company, the publishing house that Plimpton led for decades, but also correspondence and records relating to the dozens of other institutions and organizations that Plimpton helped lead. In addition to extensive correspondence relating to Plimpton's collecting of rare books, manuscripts, and historical artifacts, the Papers also contain such diverse items as autographs of presidents, handwriting specimens, studies of medieval manuscripts, and documents relating to the American slave trade.

The Morningside Area Alliance is an organization working for community improvement on behalf of its member institutions in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York City. The organization was founded as Morningside Heights Inc. in 1947 through joint action of fourteen Morningside Institutions--Columbia University, St. Luke's Hospital, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Teacher's College, Barnard College, Corpus Christi Church, Home for Old Men and Aged Couples, International House, Jewish Theological Seminary, Juilliard School of Music, St. Hilda's and St. Hugh's School, The Riverside Church, Union Theological Seminary, and the Women's Hospital of St. Luke's Center--with the expressed purpose of "[promoting] the improvement of Morningside Heights as an attractive, residential, educational, and cultural area." The collection includes much, if not all, of the material that was created by the organization as part of its daily business from 1947 to 1992, when the materials were accessioned into University Archives at Columbia University. This includes records of the Board of Directors and the various Committees within the Alliance; assorted publications, reports, pamphlets, and theses both acquired and created by the organization; files of the different offices within the organization; maps, plans, and photographs used and created by the Alliance for its work; and the collected materials and files created for the organization's projects in different subject areas--specifically buildings, community services and programs, public safety, schools, and the Morningside General Neighborhood Renewal Plan. The collection also includes a large quantity of material rearranged into subject files on different areas of concern within the organization.