Marci Reaven Research Files on the Cooper Square Committee
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Abstract
The Marci Reaven Research Files on the Cooper Square Committee (dated, 1954-2015) contain Marci Reaven's research files for her New York University PhD dissertation on the history of citizen participation in New York City urban planning, which she completed in 2009. Reaven's files consist of primary and secondary source materials compiled on the Cooper Square Committee (CSC). They include records collected directly from the offices of the CSC, personal files of former CSC members Walter Thabit, Lois Dodd, Rita Lee, and Frances Goldin, and records related to community activism collected from other archives.
Historical Note
Marci Reaven (1954- ) is a scholar of American history and urban planning. She completed a PhD in American history at New York University in 2009. Reaven collected a wide array of documents on the Cooper Square Committee (CSC) for her dissertation "Citizen Participation in City Planning, New York City, 1945–1975,"which focused on community organizations in New York's Lower East Side and prominently featured the role of the CSC. In support of her research, she collected primary source materials directly from regional archives including the New York City Municipal Archives, Long Island University, the Social Welfare Archives at the University of Minnesota, and the New York State Archives in Albany. She also collected documents directly from the Cooper Square Committee offices and from individuals involved with the CSC including Walter Thabit, Lois Dodd, Rita Lee, and Frances Goldin.
Arrangement
Materials in this collection are in the order in which they were received by the donor, and have been divided into four series based on groupings established by the creator. Materials in each series are arranged in roughly chronological order. Series I: Marci Reaven Files reflects research files assembled and arranged by Marci Reaven. Materials in Series II: William Thabit Cooper Square Committee Files, Series III: Lois Dodd Cooper Square Committee Files, and Series IV: Collected Publications were sent to Reaven separately and are maintained in the order in which Reaven received them.
Scope and Contents
The Marci Reaven Research Files on the Cooper Square Committee (dated, 1954-2015) contain Marci Reaven's research files for her New York University PhD dissertation on the history of citizen participation in New York City urban planning, which she completed in 2009. Reaven's files consist of primary and secondary source materials compiled on the Cooper Square Committee (CSC), an organization focused on affordable housing and community development in Manhattan's Lower East Side. Reaven's research files include records collected directly from the offices of the CSC, personal files of former CSC members Walter Thabit, Lois Dodd, Rita Lee, and Frances Goldin, and records related to community activism collected from other archives. These records document the Cooper Square Committee's involvement in campaigns for affordable housing, community health initiatives, and against urban renewal projects around Cooper Square between the 1950s and 1990s.
Research files assembled by Reaven are largely maintained in chronological files, and individual documents are annotated with source information. Files from Lois Dodd and Walter Thabit were given to Reaven by Dodd and Thabit and consist of personal files related to their organizing activities with the CSC.
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection that were not created by Marci Reaven. Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) to items created by Marci Reaven, the creator of this collection, were relinquished and transferred to the public domain in 2017 by Marci Reaven. These materials are governed by a Creative Commons CC0 license. Users need not secure permission from the Tamiment Library to publish or reproduce these materials.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Marci Reaven Research Files on the Cooper Square Committee; TAM 724; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Marci Reaven in 2017. The accession number associated with this gift is 2017.022.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, the collection was described at the collection level with a box-level inventory. Materials listed in a box-level inventory based on an inventory supplied by the donor. Materials have been moved into archival housing, but have not been arranged by an archivist.
