Scope and Contents Note

The General Correspondence (1908-1982) series begins with the summer of 1908, when the N-YHS has officially reopened in its new (and current) building on Central Park West. The majority of correspondence between 1908 and 1926 continues to be offers for donation or purchase; historical and genealogical reference inquiries from across the country and world (many of which it cannot accommodate owing to limited staff); documentation of N-YHS involvement in local events and advocacy for memorials and preservation; arrangements and receipts for various lecturers, services and goods, and materials exchanged with other institutions; and letters concerning membership (dues, member election and acceptance, Publication Fund shares). Toward the end of the 1910s, the Library took on more freelance consultants and cataloging staff.

During this time, N-YHS continued to field complaints about its governance and operations (culminating with the Van Rensselaer attacks in 1917), while also extending counsel to emerging societies and other historical institutions. Funding problems abounded, with a prevailing sentiment that upper class New Yorkers, despite widespread interest in local and national history, were not willing to contribute to the sustainability of N-YHS. Some women, youth, and school groups voice a sense of exclusion, while others decry it as an old-fashioned boys club that could be more civic-minded. N-YHS shifted its scope to more strictly address New York state and some larger United States history and focuses its art collecting on portraits of local importance. Photostatting was a prominent technological development, and N-YHS collaborated with a variety of organizations to assemble and share reproductions of old newspapers and other materials. Controversially, the Society continued to pour money into the preservation and cataloging of its Egyptian antiquities (primarily, the Abbott Collection), bringing Caroline Ransom Williams on to the staff for that purpose. A new initiative begun in 1917 was the creation of a Field Exploration Committee; headed by William Calver and Reginald Bolton, the Committee conducted amateur excavations at various New York sites, finding Indian, colonial, and Revolutionary War era artifacts. This series includes extensive correspondence regarding this important period in N-YHS's history and the new directions it took through the 1920s.

Beginning in the latter 1920s, there was an increased interest of organizations to preserve and celebrate places of historical consequence. The N-YHS served at the forefront of this preservation movement, and N-YHS's efforts and activism would continue throughout the 20th century. N-YHS provided documentation and illustrations from its collection to Colonial Williamsburg's restoration project, including to T.R. Goodwin (Director, Department of Education). Notably, N-YHS was involved in the preservation efforts of Castle Clinton (see also Series V), Fort Ticonderoga, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, and the Schenck Homestead (Brooklyn). Notable correspondents include Robert Moses, Stephen H. Pell, Robert F. Wagner, and the New York Historical Association. The bulk of correspondence of incoming and outgoing responses from Librarian Alexander J. Wall (who was appointed Director in 1937) continued to be exchanged with patrons, historians, genealogists, vendors (book and art dealers), and outside institutions (e.g., American Antiquarian Society, Chicago Historical Society, Colonial Williamsburg, Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, New York State Historical Association, Smithsonian Institution, Sons of the American Revolution). These matters included reference inquiries (particularly genealogical, Revolutionary War related, or concerning New York City or State); invitations to commemorations; personal information including change of address and death announcements; and continued exchanges with other museums and historical societies. Lecture proposals were arranged between N-YHS and lecturers Poultney Bigelow, Harry T. Peters and many others. N-YHS continued to be involved with historical events and commemorations across New York State and the country by loaning materials or advising (e.g. George Washington Birthday Bicentennial, the American Revolution Sesquicentennial, United States Constitution Sesquicentennial, 1939 New York World's Fair).

By 1937, as a result of several large bequests to N-YHS (in particular the Elizabeth Gardiner Thompson estate), the institution was able to proceed with a major building expansion and renovation, during which time the building was closed for over a year. Many materials were moved offsite during reconstruction, including the Egyptian collection which was loaned and ultimately sold to the Brooklyn Museum. N-YHS was therefore able to make more storage room for collections related to New York history, such as a separate room for the Bella Landauer Collection. Other additions to the museum included new lighting following a trip abroad by Director A.J. Wall and George Zabriskie (Treasurer) to study proper lighting of European museums. Continuing up through the 1940s, storage continued to be problem for the museum's growing collections; letters exchanged concern Philip N. Youtz being commissioned as Architect for unrealized plans for a further expansion of the building to encompass an Education Building. The N-YHS's quest to be recognized as an educational museum had finally been realized in 1928 when the museum was declared a tax-exempt educational institution. This recognition opened the door for generous donations, and allowed the institution to take a more involved role in reaching out to schools and students in the city. In the following decades, N-YHS played a large role in furthering the education of students by offering programs, classes, film series, and the distribution of half tone reproductions of portraits, early views, and objects owned by the Society. The correspondence consists of letters from school children with historical-related questions, as well as thank you notes for tours of exhibitions or talks. The N-YHS welcomed and accomodated children even during challenging times, such as a school strike in 1968.

When America entered World War II, the N-YHS took an active part in efforts at home. In 1942, N-YHS formed the Museums Committee of the American Red Cross War Fund. Comprised of 26 institutions, the Committee took part in a community effort to protect area buildings and people from potential air raids or fires. N-YHS opened a part of its building as a Red Cross surgical dressing unit. Essentially, museum functions were directly affected by the war with considerable staff reductions (resulting in fewer exhibitions), and precautions taken to ensure the safety of collections with off-site storage and the covering of skylights. A.J. Wall (Director) took an active role in collecting information from state organizations in regard to the protection of state records during war time. The correspondence includes rich material concerning these wartime concerns and preparations.

Throughout the series, letters provide insight into the production of the various publications produced by the N-YHS, including the Edwin Smith Surgical Papers translated and edited by James H. Breasted, Williams Sawitzky's monograph on the artist Ralph Earl, and N-YHS's Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860 (George C. Groce and David H. Wallace). Included among these publications are the   Quarterly journal, reports, annual reports, and meeting minutes. Financial and real estate matters will give researchers a sense of the decisions the institution made over the years with regard to purchases, sales, and other matters (e.g. mortgage certificates, sales of properties owned by N-YHS, investments, securities, and taxes). Frequent correspondents concerning finances include N-YHS Treasurers Frederic D. Weekes, R. Horace Gallatin, Thomas Streeter, George Zabriskie, and William Van Alstyne. Bequests are noted in the series, as are additions to significant library collections (e.g. those from Bella C. Landauer, Leonidas Westervelt, Thomas O. Mabbott, Katherine Prentis Murphy, and Harold Seton).

Further information about documents and correspondents identified by the processing archivist as being of substance and/or significance to N-YHS institutional history or historical thought are identified in folder-level notes in the container list.