Scope and Contents Note

The Official Papers series, which is the original name of the files, primarily includes material that directly relates to the Society membership and Executive Committee meetings and minute books (see Series I and II). Most of the documents are preparatory material for the meetings, preliminary notes and drafts of meeting minutes, or supporting or source materials concerning matters presented at the meetings. Much of the material in this series is likely also found recorded in the minute books or in print form, but that may not be true in all instances and these documents are typically the draft or manuscript versions which can have a research value separate from the final versions.

For each year's files from the 1840s to the 1910s, the overall content is fairly consistent. The files for these years primarily include documentation of proposed new members; drafts or manuscripts of the Librarian and Executive Committee's annual reports; drafts of statements and resolutions, including memorial remarks for recently deceased members; and documentation of the annual nomination and election of officers. The membership documentation is especially extensive and includes the original correspondence, paper slips, business cards, or standardized forms nominating candidates as members; the extract from the minutes recording the nominations, which were forwarded to the Executive Committee for its consideration; and the communication from the committee recommending acceptance of the nominees.

Also commonly found in the files of the 1840s to 1910s, though less consistently than the above materials, are remarks made by newly-elected presidents, reports of various committees formed on an ad hoc basis for particular purposes, and some financial and donation information. Some legal documents are in the series, including the agreement by which N-YHS acquired the collection of the New York Gallery of Fine Arts. Documentation related to the funding and construction of buildings for N-YHS is found in the years 1840s-1850s, and again in the 1880s-early 1900s. References to the publications program and its funding and to various special events are found here also. The container list below includes notes at the folder level to highlight at least some of the noteworthy items identified during processing.

The series includes a set of files dating from 1899-1905 that were maintained by Sydney H. Carney, Jr., N-YHS's Recording Secretary for much of this period. Carney was also a member of the Central Park West Building Committee during this period and was that committee's secretary in some years. The most substantive portions of Carney's files relate to the building project, especially in regard to controversy over the architect's unanticipated need to change the building design. These documents include correspondence from architects York & Sawyer and others; draft resolutions; drafts of Carney's outgoing correspondence to the architects, to N-YHS presidents Eugene and Samuel Hoffman, and to others; notes taken about telephone calls; draft committee minutes; a subscription book; and other documents related to the project. Carney's files also include correspondence related to his Recording Secretary responsibilities, including requests from Librarian Robert H. Kelby for signatures on meeting extracts, member certificates, and Publication Fund shares and share transfers; requests for resolutions to be drafted; notices from officers and committee members of meetings they would be unable to attend; and other such routine business matters.

Subsequent to the 1910s, for the files of the 1920s and 1930s, the scope of the documentation narrows, with little material related to the monthly Executive Committee minutes. Much of the routine matter for these years includes the manuscript Annual Reports (Librarian, Executive Committee, and Field Exploration Committee) and lists of approved new members and of deaths ("necrology"). The bulk of the documents for these years relate to the triennial officer elections, the by-law changes of 1917 and 1937, and the special membership meeting called in 1936 to approve the Executive Committee's decision to initiate construction of the Central Park West building expansion. Proxy voting was introduced with the 1917 elections and much of the bulk of the material for the 1920s and 1930s includes the proxy certificates and the recordkeeping concerning them. Nonetheless, the contentious elections of 1917 and 1920, driven by charges of mismanagement by Mrs. Van Rensselaer, are well-documented here with correspondence, circulars, meeting transcripts, and competing ballots.

For consistency with the Executive Committee minutes series, the Official Papers series includes the year 1938, the first year that N-YHS was governed by a Board of Trustees, newly-constituted under the by-law changes of 1937.

The earliest files in this series, from prior to the 1840s, are much more uneven in content and are of a different character than the later files. The bulk of the documents for these first three decades of N-YHS's history are invoices, receipts, and account statements, such as those related to purchases of books, moving the library to and setting up the rooms at the New York Institution and other places, creating the mineralogy cabinet, printing circulars and publishing advertisements, and other expenses. Files in the late 1820s are especially rich with regard to N-YHS's efforts to resolve its debts. This material concerns the claims of John Pintard and John Francis for purchases they made for N-YHS, and the releases obtained from various creditors. Other than financial matters, the early files contain some of N-YHS's early circulars to the public, meeting agendas and extracts, and librarian and committee reports.