This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
Contents list
This collection is arranged into 10 series.
Boxes 1 (cataloged correspondence), 67-69 (phonograph disc boxes), and 597-598 (flat boxes) are onsite. The remainder of this collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Papers of the Society, including correspondence among the officers and directors of the Society, memoranda, reports, legal papers, minutes, financial records, radio scripts, clippings, scrapbooks, comic books, and a subject file of pamphlets and clippings on all aspects of crime prevention. Also, an extensive history of the Society.
Some officers of the Society who appear in the correspondence:
Frank Moss [Counsel 1887-1908; President 1908-1909]
Charles Henry Parkhurst [President 1891-1908]
Samuel Marcus [Counsel 1908-1936]
Charles E. Bruce [President 1909-1921]
S. Edward Young [President 1921-1927]
Howard Clark Barber [Superintendent -1932; Director 1925-1932, 1936-1939]
William Jay Schieffelin [President 1927-1933]
Albert E. Roraback [Vice-President 1926-]
Howard M. Bassett
George P. Hammond [Superintendent 1932-1935]
George Drew Egbert [President 1933-1940]
Henry N. Pringle [Investigator; Superintendent]
Harry Sussman [Investigator]
Lionel J. Freeman [Superintendent 1935-1937]
J. Edward Lumbard [Counsel 1937-]
Benjamin M. Day [President 1940-1942]
Paul Blanshard [Ex Secretary 1941/1942]
George H. Sibley President 1942-1948]
Edwin Jay Lukas [Ex Secretary 1943-1950; Ex Director 1950]
Clarence O. Dimmock [Counsel 1943-]
Bernhard K. Schaefer [President 1948-]
K. Brent Woodruff [Ex Director, 1950/1951]
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Society for the Prevention of Crime records; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Source of acquisition--Society for the Prevention of Crime. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1980. Accession number--M-80.
The Society for the Prevention of Crime was founded in 1877 in New York City. It has worked, successively, for the promotion of temperance, for judicial and legislative reform, and for public and legal education. During its most active periods, the Society brought about the formation of of the Lexow Committee to investigate the New York City Police in 1894, contributed to the Albany Crime Commission during the 1930s, and broadcast popular radio programs on criminal behavior, 1946-1948. In 1948 the Society absorbed the Vocational Foundation Bureau, a job placement agency for parolees. Since 1956, the Society's only activity has been its annual grant to Columbia Law School for research in penology.
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 09/--/89. Processed by Henry Rowen, September 1980.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Society for the Prevention of Crime, MssCol 2811, Manuscripts and Archives Division, NYPL.
[Henry Dexter, 1813-1910, philanthropist and President of the American News Company, made a bequest to the Society in his will which was contested on behalf of his daughter - legal papers, 1910-1936]
Formerly described as "oversize #6"
(1842-1933) Pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, was President of the Society from 1891 to 1908 and a leader in the reform movement in New York City politics. A memorial to him was proposed for Madison Square but was never built.
This subseries consists of an incomplete set of transcriptions of the radio program "I Was A Convict." These three boxes contain 78 16-inch aluminum-base transcription discs that were found in a closet in Lehman Library in 2019, in boxes numbered 1, 3, and 5. The item numbers are the number written on the sleeve of each phonograph record. The dates are transcribed from the "Date recorded" given on the label. The serial numbers were also transcribed from the labels.
Some duplication was found during digitization. The best quality version was assembled for each show. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more details if needed.
"Open Letter" from Edwin J. Lukas, Executive Director of the Society for the Prevention of Crime
"I Was a Convict", 1946-01-03
Serial number: 8-9351
"I Was a Convict", 1946-01-12
Serial number: 8-9817
"I Was a Convict", 1946-01-19
Serial number: 9-0029
"I Was a Convict", 1946-01-26
Serial number: 9-0318
"I Was a Convict", 1946-02-02
Serial number: 9-0674
"I Was a Convict", 1946-02-16
Serial number: 9-1310
"I Was a Convict", 1946-03-30
Serial number: 9-3370
"I Was a Convict", 1946-04-06
Serial number: 9-3785
"I Was a Convict", 1946-04-13
Serial number: 9-4140
"I Was a Convict", 1946-04-20
Serial number: 9-4512
"I Was a Convict", 1946-04-27
Serial number: 9-4824
"I Was a Convict", 1946-05-04
Serial number: 9-5133
"I Was a Convict", 1946-05-07
Serial number: 9-5302
"I Was a Convict", 1946-05-11
Serial number: 9-5487
"I Was a Convict", 1946-05-18
Serial number: 9-5806
"I Was a Convict", 1946-05-25
Serial number: 9-6081
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-01
Serial number: 9-6366
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-08
Serial number: 9-6661
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-15
Serial number: 9-6912
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-22
Serial number: 9-7218
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-22
Serial number: 9-7396
"I Was a Convict", 1946-06-29
Serial number: 9-7460
"I Was a Convict", 1947-01-08
Serial number: 10-5285
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-22
Serial number: 10-9959
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-29
Serial number: 11-0302
Serial number: 11-0657. Duplicates, not digitized. See Box 69, Item 142 -144.
"I Was a Convict", 1947-05-15
Serial number: 11-0905
"I Was a Convict", 1947-05-22
Serial number: 11-1151
"I Was a Convict", 1947-05-29
Serial number: 11-1517.
"I Was a Convict", 1946-10-03
"I Was a Convict", 1947-03-06
Serial number: 10-7762
"I Was a Convict", 1947-03-13
Serial number: 10-8068
"I Was a Convict", 1947-03-27
Serial number: 10-8685
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-03
Serial number: 10-9015
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-10
Serial number: 10-9349
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-12
Serial number: 10-9482
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-15
Serial number: 10-9635
Item 141 seems to be an alternate version of the second half of this episode, substituting in place of 138-139_01 and 136-137_01. The first few seconds are identical to those of 138-139_01 before it diverges.
Serial number: 10-9742
Serial number: 10-9637
Serial number: 10-9636
Serial number: 11-1957
"I Was a Convict", 1947-04-08
Serial number: 11-0674
"I Was a Convict", 1947-10-24
Serial number: 11-7951
Item 145 lternate is an altrenate 10-minute version of interview section of episode. Item 146-148 5-minute is a 5-minute version of interview section of episode, possibly same version as in 149-150.
Includes a folder on the George Appo case, which contains a tyepscript of Appo's autobiography, clippings and correspondence, and photographs.
[G.D. Egbert was President of the Society from 1933 to 1940 and Pastor of the First Congergational Church, Flushing, NY]