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This unique collection contains letters from all over the world sent in response to an announcement by Michael Brody Jr., the 21-year-old heir to a margarine fortune, that he would give away his inheritance to people in need, and in doing so would solve the problems of the world.

The bulk of the collection consists of memoirs and manuscripts on historical military themes by Pavel Nikolaevich Chizhov. The memoirs deal with such topics as Chizhov's military education, his military service (garrison duty in Warsaw, the Far East, World War I, and the Civil War in the south), and his life in the emigration.

The collection consists of personal, professional, and project-related papers. The project and professional papers are made up of contracts, specifications, proposals, published speeches, reports, clippings, trade catalogs, and engineering drawings and documents. Among the projects documented in the collection are T. Kennard Thomson's Niagara River Water Power project, Manhattan Extension project, New York City Belt Line Railroad and Elevated Highways project, and Fifth Avenue Traffic Puzzle project. Additional engineering projects represented in the collection include those primarily related to bridge and elevated railroad projects. The personal papers include photographs, financial records, obituaries, clippings, and collected ephemera of Thomson and his extended family members. The personal papers also include menus, programs, and bulletins from various clubs and societies Thomson was associated with, including the Canadian Club of New York and the University of Toronto Engineering Society (founded by Thomson while at University).

The most important parts of this collection is his primary longitudinal research data, his efforts at institutional and capacity building at Teachers College (and Columbia University, as the former head of the Institute of African Studies), and his teaching materials.