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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.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, financial records, photographs, memorabilia, and printed materials. The Foundation's correspondence files consist of letters from different organizations and foundations, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Social Change, The NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the YWCA. Also included in this collection are community dialogues on race relations (1974-1975); proposed dialogues (1979) on such subjects as the Boy Scouts of America, Columbia University, and the National Council of Christians and Jews; and files on the Whitney M. Young Fellows Retreat Conferences (1980-1984). The collection contains many files on Ed Wilson's bust of Young (1991), including contracts and agreements, records of payments to Wilson, documents concerning the bust's placement in various locations, correspondence with Wilson (1983-1991), and miscellaneous photographs and pictures. The contributions files contain annual listings of contributions and records of contributions from the National Urban League, assorted organizations, corporations, individuals, foundations, and Philip Morris.

Papers of Stillman include over 100 items pertaining to the business enterprises of his father, Charles Stillman of Brownsville, Texas, who was engaged in shipping and trade, real estate, and railroad investment. A large portion of the collection documents of James Stillman's activities in banking, in railroad financing, and in other of his business and industrial interests. The letters, legal documents, and miscellaneous papers are representative of the entire span of his career. Included in the correspondence are letters from many prominent financiers and industrialists of his day, including many from William Rockefeller; letters from President Grover Cleveland, some personal in nature and some concerned with business transactions; nine letter books of James Stillman, covering the years 1886-1897, 1906-1918; letter books of his secretary Miss K. Bredin, 1908-1916; journals for the years 1889, 1891, 1898, 1899; bank book recording Stillman's drafts, 1911-1914, on the London firm of Baring Brothers; four diaries, 1881-1884; six notebooks; one cash and journal and one ledger, 1868-1871.

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.

Correspondence, by-laws, memoranda, contracts, permission forms, reports, bank statements and other legal papers, advertising, and printed materials.

Correspondence, playscripts, screenplays, scenarios, short stories, and other manuscripts, drafts, photocopies, contracts and other documents, tearsheets, clippings, and other materials relating to his career as a screenwriter, playwright, and author of short stories. Correspondence with friends, students, admirers, and professional colleagues concern his teaching, playwriting, films, articles, photography, and literary topics. There are also two groups of letters from students and readers about his textbook, "The Human Nature of Playwriting" (1949). Among the cataloged correspondence are William Gibson, MacKinlay Kantor, Anna Louise Strong, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Doren. Included are manuscripts, drafts, or photocopies of almost all his films, plays, and short stories, such as playscripts and drafts of his plays, "The Jazz Singer" (1922), "Skylark" (1939), "Jason" (1942), and others; screenplays and scenarios, many in photocopy, of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "The Shop Aroung the Corner" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), and many other films; and manuscripts, drafts, tearsheets, and printed copies of his short stories and articles of film and television criticism. There are also many clippings and reviews, programs, and other printed materials about his plays and films.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, memorabilia and printed materials of John Mitchel, John Purroy Mitchel, and other members of the Mitchel and Purroy families. The collection concerns Irish nationalism, family matters, Purroy family business interests in Central America, the John Purroy Mitchel Memorial and William Brown Meloney's files relating to his research and writing of "The Story of John Purroy Mitchel" along with the manuscript and typescript drafts for this unpublished biography.