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New-York Historical Society management committee records

Call Number

NYHS-RG 1

Date

1804-1938, inclusive

Creator

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society. Executive Committee

Extent

15 Linear feet in 31 volumes, 25 document boxes, and three oversize folders

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The New-York Historical Society management committee records group includes records associated with the organization's governance structure of 1804-1937. The record group includes minute books from the meetings of the Society's members (1804-1937) and from the meetings of the Executive Committee (1842-1937), as well as from other committees and the first year (1938) of the newly-constituted Board of Trustees. The record group also includes files of so-called official papers, which include ad hoc committee reports, draft annual reports, correspondence, financial information, membership nominations, and other material directly related to the proceedings of the Society and Executive Committee meetings. Select documents have been digitized and are in the process of being made available on-line; currently available materials can be accessed via links in the finding aid.

Biographical/Historical Note

From its founding in 1804 until late 1937, when a corporate governance structure with a Board of Trustees was established, the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) was governed by its general membership. Although N-YHS's Constitution and By-Laws were revised many times, for over one hundred years, until 1917, regular meetings of the members were required to be held at least quarterly. Special meetings were also often called. At these meetings, in addition to hearing presentations on historical and other topics or conducting a special event, business matters were considered by the members present, such as accepting new members, considering major purchases, accepting donations, establishing collection access policies, and overseeing activities related to the collections and other aspects of the organization. At the January meeting of each year, the members held their annual election for officers, who served one year terms, and named members to the standing committees.

Although the general membership deliberated and voted on business matters at their meetings, many matters were referred to either standing or ad hoc committees for consideration and for reporting back to the membership. Of the standing committees, the most longstanding and ultimately most important was the Executive Committee. Created in November 1842, the Executive Committee lasted for the next ninety years, until it was replaced by the newly formed Board of Trustees in the organizational restructuring of November 1937. Over its lifetime, an increasing degree of responsibility was placed with the Executive Committee. By the 1890s, all standing committees existed as subcommittees of the Executive, including the Committees on Finance, Papers (called Lectures, beginning 1913), Library, Publications, Anniversary, Building, Fine Arts, and Membership (after 1917).

Standing committees other than the Executive existed at various times during the nineteenth century. In some instances, the Constitution and By-Laws were amended to specifically require the named committee. One of these was the Committee on Fine Arts, which was formed in March 1856 for the purpose of expanding N-YHS's holdings in that regard; the committee lasted until May 1895 when it was deleted from the N-YHS governing documents and replaced by a sub-committee of the Executive Committee. Various committees related to buildings, including fundraising and construction oversight, were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A Field Exploration Committee, headed by William L. Calver, existed from 1918 to 1937 for the purpose of conducting archaeological digs and other field research. N-YHS's founding Constitution included a so-called Standing Committee, elected by the members, to solicit donations and develop plans for N-YHS's operations; this committee lasted until 1829. In 1817, various committees, including one on mineralogy, were formed as N-YHS expanded its collecting focus.

In addition to standing committees, through the nineteenth century, and especially in the earliest decades, ad hoc, or short term, committees of two or more members would be formed at the member meetings for the purpose of pursuing various specific initiatives. These initiatives included, among other things, making arrangements for a given year's anniversary celebration speaker, negotiating for available manuscript collections, overseeing production of a publication or building construction, or auditing the Treasurer's accounts. Over time, the Executive Committee absorbed these functions, but in any case it was the membership that conducted these affairs. Indeed, into the early decades of the twentieth century, N-YHS had less than ten staff members, most of whom were responsible for library support, facilities maintenance, or clerical work. Much of the managerial level work was carried out by the elected officers, especially by the Librarian, who acted as something of a chief operating officer and was responsible for N-YHS's entire range of collections and activities.

Despite the growing importance of the Executive Committee, until 1917 much business was still brought to the regular member meetings for discussion and final resolution. In 1917, N-YHS's Constitution and By-Laws were amended to place virtually all governance and management powers with the Executive Committee, which comprised all N-YHS officers and twelve other members named by the President. The general membership's role in business matters was consequently reduced, mostly to electing officers. This role, too, had been reduced. Prior to 1914, these elections were held annually, at the regular January meeting; beginning with the 1914 election, the terms of office were extended to three years. Consequently, with a 3-year election cycle and the Executive Committee's increased authority in place, regular membership business meetings were held only every three years after 1917. This cycle lasted until the governance changes of 1937, which ended the participation, however limited in practical effect, of the members in the management of the Society and converted the Executive Committee into an independent Board of Trustees.

(Principal sources for the above were R.W.G. Vail's Knickerbocker Birthday, N-YHS's Annual Reports, and the records themselves.)

Arrangement Note

The New-York Historical Society management committee records (NYHS-RG 1) record group is organized in 4 series:

Series I. Society Meeting Minutes (1804-1937)

Series II. Executive Committee Minutes (1843-1938)

Series III. Other Committee Minutes (1806-1822, 1856-1880)

Series IV. Official Papers (1805-1938)

Scope and Contents Note

The New-York Historical Society management committee records group (NYHS-RG 1) includes records associated with the organization's governance structure of 1804-1937. The record group includes ten volumes of minute books from the meetings of the Society's members (1804-1937) and twenty volumes of minute books from the Executive Committee (1842-1937). The final volume of the Executive Committee minutes also includes the minutes for the 1938 meetings of the newly-formed Board of Trustees. The record group also holds the minute books for three other committees: the Standing Committee (1806-1822, with gaps), the Mineralogical Committee (1818-1819), and the Committee on Fine Arts (1856-1880). The Standing Committee book includes mostly lists of donations to N-YHS for many of these early years.

The record group also includes so-called "official papers" (1804-1938). Most of these papers are preparatory material for the Society and Executive Committee meetings, preliminary notes and drafts of meeting minutes, or supporting or source materials concerning matters presented at the meetings, such as correspondence, reports, invoices, nominations of new members, and so forth. Taken together, the minute books and the supporting official papers form the framework of the basic narrative of the history of N-YHS to 1938.

Access Restrictions

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation Note

This record group should be cited as New-York Historical Society Management Committee Records (NYHS-RG 1), New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Related Archival Materials Note

This finding aid relates to just one record group of the New-York Historical Society archives. For information about the other record groups and for overall information about the archives, please see the Guide to the New-York Historical Society Archives (NYHS-RG Archives). Other record groups that are processed and available to researchers and are especially related to the New-York Historical Society management committee records (NYHS-RG 1) are as follows:

Although this management committee record group holds reports and includes references in the minute books to the work of the various buildings committees active in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to 1938, most material on the subject of building construction, including several standalone committee minute books, will be found in the New-York Historical Society original buildings planning & construction records (NYHS-RG 3).

For the early to mid-nineteenth century records, there is not a consistently sharp distinction between the content of the official papers and of the correspondence files that were maintained by N-YHS. Accordingly, researchers should also see New-York Historical Society general correspondence (NYHS-RG 2).

In late 1937, N-YHS changed its organizational structure from a member-governed one to one governed by a Board of Trustees. The 1938 Board records were maintained in the same volumes and files as those of the previous governing body, the Executive Committee, and so are found here in NYHS-RG 1. Subsequent Board records from 1939 and later are found in a different record group (NYHS-RG 18).

Existence and Location of Copies

With the generous support of the Leon Levy Foundation, the minute books from the record group (30 volumes) were digitized in 2019-2020. Metadata is currently being applied to these images and the volumes are being made available on-line as each is completed. The on-line images can be accessed via links in the finding aid and from within the Shelby White and Leon Levy Digital Library.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:38 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid is written in English

Processing Information Note

The record group was processed in 2015 by project archivist Larry Weimer.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024