Carnegie Corporation of New York records, circa 1872-2015

Summary Information

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

Arranged into 11 series. When requesting material from this collection please request by Series and subseries as well as box number.

• Series I: Administrative Records, 1872-2008
• Subseries I.A. Secretary's Office Records, 1911-2004
• Subseries I.B. Finance Committee Records, 1923-1997
• Subseries I.C. Financial Record Books, 1872-1987
• Subseries I.D Policy and Program, 1916-2005
• Subseries I.E Staff and Trustee Files, 1913-1996
• Subseries I.F General Files, 1911-1987
• Subseries I.G. Press Releases and Clippings, 1953-2008
• Subseries I.H Legal Files, 1915-2002
• Series II: Microfilm, circa 1886-1977
• Subseries II.A: Gifts and Grants, circa 1886-1977
• Subseries II.B: Index to Board Minutes, 1911 November 10 - 1946 September 17
• Subseries II.C: Carnegie-Myrdal Study, The Negro in America: Correspondence and research memoranda for use in the preparation of Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma, 1939-1953
• Subseries II.D: General Ledger and Securities Cards, circa 1886-1930s
• Series III:Grants, 1911-1994
• Subseries III.A. Grant files, 1911-1994
• Subseries III.B. Reports on Grants, 1911-1983
• Subseries III.C Institutions, Individuals, Subjects, 1934-1997
• Subseries III.D Travel Grants, 1929-1965
• Subseries III.E: Indices
• Subseries III.F: Rejected Grants
• Series IV: Special Initiatives, bulk 1986-1999
• Subseries IV.B. Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government (CCSTG), bulk 1986-1995
• Subseries IV.D. Carnegie Council on Children, 1969-1979
• Subseries IV.F. Task Force on Meeting the Needs of Young Children (TFMNYC), 1991-1995
• Series V: Papers of CCNY Staff Members, 1955-1997
• Subseries V.A. Avery Russell Papers, bulk bulk 1970-1997
• Subseries V.B Alan Pifer Papers, bulk bulk 1955-1993
• Series VI: Other Carnegie Organizations
• Subseries VI.A: Home Trust Company, 1884-1975
• Subseries VI.B. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, circa 1932-1965
• Subseries VI.C: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, 1917-1981
• Series VII: Carnegiana, circa 1898-2010
• Subseries VII.A: CCNY Carnegie Files
• Subseries VII.B: Printed Material
• Subseries VII.C: Scrapbooks
• Subseries VII.D: Libraries
• Series VIII: Printed Materials, 1889-2010
• Subseries VIII.A. CCNY Publications, 1889-2010
• Subseries VIII.B. Related to CCNY, 1899-1998
• Subseries VIII.C. Grant Books, 1910-2000
• Series IX: Oversize
• Series X: Graphic Materials
• Subseries A: Andrew Carnegie
• Subseries B: Carnegie Centenary
• Subseries C: Staff and Trustees
• Subseries D: From Grants
• Subseries E: Miscellanous
• Subseries F: Photographic Plates
• Series XI: AV and Digital Materials
• Subseries XI.A. Corporation
• Subseries XI.B. Andrew Carnegie
• Subseries XI.C. Grantees
• Subseries XI.D. Digital - Archived Websites, 2012-2019

Description

Summary

Minutes, correspondence, annual reports, press releases, financial records, photographs, memorabilia, audiovisual, digital and printed materials document the philanthropic activities and administration of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The collection is actively growing, primarily through regular document transfers from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Andrew Carnegie's biographical information and personal philanthropic activity can be found in Series VII. In addition, his pre-1911 gifts, most notably his donations for libraries and church organs, can be found on microfilm (Series II), in the Home Trust Company Records (VI.A), and Financial Record Books (I.C.1). Grant files (Series III.A), which comprise the bulk of the collection) provide information on projects and institutions founded, endowed or supported by the Corporation. The Special Initiatives series (Series IV) contains the records of task forces, commissions and councils, formed by the Corporation mostly during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to address specific issues. The Corporation's records include those of other Carnegie philanthropic organizations (Series VI), including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Home Trust Company, both of which shared staff, officers, and office space with the Corporation for a period of time.

• Series I: Administrative Records, 1872-2008

  The administrative series consists of trustee minutes, executive minutes, finance committee records, financial records and books, legal files, staff and trustee files, and policy and program files.

• Series II: Microfilm, circa 1886-1977

  Most of the original (paper) files represented in this series on film were discarded after they were filmed in the 1940s and 1950s. In a few instances, the files exist only on microfiche rather than microfilm. The 107 reels consist of correspondence files and index card files. They chiefly pertain to gifts and grants made by Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Corporation for free public library buildings and academic library buildings. The reels also include files pertaining to grants-in-aid to individuals, gifts and grants to communities for church organs, and miscellaneous "General Donations."

  In addition, Reels 41-42 (II.B) contain an index to the minutes of the meetings of the Corporation's Board, and Reels 90 and 91 (Subseries II.C: General Correspondence on Myrdal, "An American dilemma : the Negro problem and modern democracy") pertain to the Corporation study which resulted in Gunnar Myrdal's highly influential book, An American Dilemma. Reel 107 (II.D) contains General Ledger and Securities Cards.

• Series III:Grants, 1911-1994

  The Corporation awards grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions for projects that are broadly educational in nature and that show promise of having national or international impact. Certain appropriations are made for activities, such as Corporation-led initiatives that are administered by the foundation's officers. The trustees set the overall policies of the foundation and have final authority to approve all grants above $50,000 recommended by the program staff. Grants of $25,000 or less, called discretionary grants, are made upon the approval of the president and are reported to the board; larger discretionary grants, those between $25,000 and $50,000, are also reviewed by a Corporation-wide group, which makes recommendations to the president. (from Program Guidelines 2003-2004 (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/areas.html))

  The Grants series contains correspondence, records of phone and in-person meetings, memoranda, and reports that document CCNY's grant-making and grant-monitoring activities, as well as the work carried out by grantees. While most of the subseries reflect CCNY's dealings with external institutions and individuals that received or applied for funding, this series (especially subseries A and C) also includes files for: organizations with which CCNY collaborated rather than supported (e.g. Ford Foundation), individuals and staff who worked with or for CCNY on several projects, and subject or geographic areas that reflect ongoing programmatic focus by the Corporation. Subseries A and C also contain files for the Corporation's grants for its own Program Development and Evaluation. Grant numbers are prefaced with a B (for board appropriation) or a D (for discretionary grant).

  Please note that because of the extent of the materials described in this series, this page may take up to a minute to load.

• Series IV: Special Initiatives, bulk 1986-1999

  Records of Corporation-led study groups and task forces, that were administered by the foundation's officers. See also III.A. Grant files.

• Series V: Papers of CCNY Staff Members, 1955-1997

  This series includes papers of former staff members.

  Avery Russell served the Corporation for 30 years starting in 1970. Avery was Director of Publications and Program Manager. Alan Pifer joined the Corporation in 1953, served as acting President 1965-1967, and President 1967-1982.

• Series VI: Other Carnegie Organizations

• Series VII: Carnegiana, circa 1898-2010

• Series VIII: Printed Materials, 1889-2010

  This series includes publications by and about Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

• Series IX: Oversize

• Series X: Graphic Materials

  Includes photographs, posters, drawings, and prints. While some photographs in this series were removed from other series, many photos can still be found in the other series, especially the Grant Files (III.A) and the Staff and Trustee Files (I.E).

• Series XI: AV and Digital Materials

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

The Collection is open for research with the following standard embargoes: Series I.A. Board Meeting materials are embargoed fifteen (15) years from date of creation. Series I.E. Staff and Trustee Files are embargoed fifteen (15) years from date of creation. Series III.A Grants, Series III.B. Reports on Grants are embargoed twenty-five (25) years from the date the grant closed.

Please be advised that parts of the collection are housed offsite and we request five (5) days advance notice. For Series III.A. Grants, boxes 1701-2085; Series IV.A CCPDC, Series IV.B CCSTG, IV.C CCAD, Series IV.E TFLPG, Series IV.G MGSSPI, Series V.A Russell, Series V.B Pifer, Series VIII.C. Grant Books, Series XI.A, Series XI.B and Series XI.C are all offsite.

Please note that due to the size of the finding aid, some pages may load slowly. In particular, the container list for Series III and the "View all" function may take up to a minute to load.

As of October 2021, Series I.A (Secretary's Office records) is closed for digitization.

Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Permission to publish and quote materials must be obtained in writing from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Preferred Citation

Carnegie Corporation of New York Records. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Columbia University Libraries. [Series. Subseries. Box Number].

Related Archival Materials

The Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University is the repository for the records of four philanthropic organizations founded and endowed by the Scottish steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. In addition to this collection, the records of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the RBML holds the records of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT), and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (CCEIA).

For more information, see https://library.columbia.edu/locations/rbml/units/carnegie.html.

Other related collections at RBML include the Frederick P. Keppel Papers and the Carnegie Corporation of New York Project: Oral History project.

Andrew Carnegie Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Alternate Form Available

Parts of collection are available on microfilm. Please consult the curator or finding aid for details.

Digitized material is linked in the container list. All of Series II (Microfilm) and Series XI (AV) has been digitized. Parts of Series I, VIII, IX, and X have been digitizied.

A stand-alone website at dlc.library.columbia.edu/carnegie/ highlights digitized content from this colletion, and provides a portal into the Corporation's philanthropy from the 1870s to the 21st century.

Ownership and Custodial History

Gift of the Corporation of New York, 1990. Part of Home Trust Company files were purchased from private collectors in 1998 and 2003.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Date of acquisition--1990. Accession number--M-1990.

Publications About Described Materials

Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe. The Politics Of Knowledge: The Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy And Public Policy., Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Entered in AMC 01/30/91.

Processed WS 2000.

Finding aid encoded spring 2019 from legacy HTML, Word, and Excel finding documents.

Revision Description

2017-04-13 File created.

2018-12-12 Series II added

2018-12-27 Series I, Subseries A-D, F-G added

2019-01-11 Series I, Subseries E added

2019-01-11 Series III, box prefix prepended

2019-01-11 Series III.C added

2019-02-06 Series III.D, III.F added; outline of series IV

2019-02-06 Series III.B added from Word doc; sorted subsubseries into one subseries

2019-02-07 Series III.B added from Excel III.B Reports on grants FULL; sorted alpha by title

2019-02-13 Added series II approximate dates kws / jc

2019-03-08 removed temp links in series kws

2019-03-08 Added Series IV.A kws

2019-03-08 Added Series IV.B kws

2019-03-08 Added Series IV.E kws

2019-03-12 Added Series IV.F kws

2019-03-12 Added Series IV.G kws

2019-03-12 Added Series IV.C kws

2019-03-14 Added Series V.A and V.B kws

2019-04-04 Added Series VIII kws

2019-05-07 Added links to archived websites kws

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

2019-06-28 Added Series VII kws

2019-07-02 Added links to digitized material kws

2021-08-06 Subsuberies I.A.6 Legal Files moved to Subseries I.H Legal files. kws

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding" is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations. Since its inception it has provided grants for research and educational studies in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in other parts of the English-speaking world outside of the United Kingdom. Carnegie Corporation has contributed to the expansion of higher education and adult education; the research on learning and cognitive development; the promotion of educational and public interest broadcasting; and the advancement of minorities. It has funded the writing of books and studies, as well as the organization of conferences and international exchanges, radio shows, legal proceedings and other activities. Over the century of its existence, the Corporation has helped establish or endowed a variety of institutions, including thousands of Carnegie libraries, TIAA-CREF, the National Research Council, National Bureau of Economic Research, Brookings Institution, American Law Institute, American Association for Adult Education, Russian Research Center and other research institutes in Harvard University, Children's Defense Fund, National Assessment of Educational Progress, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Children's Television Workshop, and many others. In the 1980s and 1990s, it helped heighten public understanding of the education and health needs of children and adolescents, as well as brought to public attention the risks of superpower confrontation, nuclear war, and ethnic and civil strife. For many years Carnegie Corporation provided financial support to Carnegie's other philanthropic organizations. Through its activities the Corporation has had a significant influence on public discourse and policy.

In the Corporation's early years, Carnegie himself was president and a trustee. James Bertram, his private secretary, and Robert A. Franks, his financial agent, were also trustees and, respectively, secretary and treasurer of the Corporation. These three comprised the first executive committee and made most of the funding decisions. The other seats on the board were held ex-officio by the presidents of the five previously established Carnegie organizations in the United States-Carnegie Institute (of Pittsburgh) (est. 1896), Carnegie Institution of Washington (est. 1902), Carnegie Hero Fund Commission (est. 1904), Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (est. 1905), and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (est. 1910). Shortly after Carnegie's death in 1919, the trustees elected a full-time, salaried president as chief executive officer of the Corporation and made him an ex officio member of the board. The presidents since Andrew Carnegie have been: Elihu Root (1919-1920), James R. Angell (1920-1921), Henry S. Pritchett (1921-1923, acting), Frederick P. Keppel (1923-1941), Walter A. Jessup (1941-1944), Devereux C. Josephs (1945-1948), Charles Dollard (1948-1955), John W. Gardner (1955-1967), Alan Pifer (1967-1982, acting 1965-1967), David A. Hamburg (1982-1997), Vartan Gregorian (1997-present).