Early Alumni Materials Collection
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Early Alumni Materials Collection contains materials related to the meetings of New York University's early graduating classes. These were typically formal dinner meetings, which were first held during the class' freshman year and continued annually for the rest of the members' lives. The complete history of the collection is not known, though it is believed that the Director of the University Heights Library, Theodore F. Jones, began the collection in 1922 as part of his efforts to document the early history of NYU. The materials provide a rare glimpse into student life and alumni activities during roughly the first century of New York University's history.
Biography of Theodore F. Jones
Though the history of the Early Alumni Materials Collection is unclear, Theodore F. Jones (1885-1968) of the University Heights Library certainly had a hand in collecting some of the materials. Jones was responsible for beginning the collection that would eventually become the New York University Archives, and though documentation exists only of Jones' involvement with three folders of correspondence in the Early Alumni Materials Collection, he may have accumulated the majority of the collection. After completing a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1910, Jones joined the faculty of New York University. He served as Director of the University Heights Library from 1923-1948 and as a professor of History from 1924-1951. His best-known work was a centennial history of NYU, New York University, 1832-1932, published by the New York University Press in 1933. Upon his retirement in 1951, Jones received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from NYU and the status of professor emeritus. He continued to collect NYU memorabilia for the university for a short period after retiring. Biographical information about creators of individual items can be found on the item level of this collection.
Source: Theodore Jones biographical file, New York University Archives, New York University Libraries.
Arrangement
The Early Alumni Materials Collection is arranged into series according to the genre of the materials. Within each series, the materials are organized chronologically by the date of the graduating class that produced them. This method of chronological organization was retained from the partial processing of the collection that occurred in 1983. However, series have been imposed in order to create a more manageable order in a collection that is otherwise piecemeal. This collection is arranged into 7 series.
The Early Alumni Materials Collection is arranged into series according to the genre of the materials. Within each series, the materials are organized chronologically by the date of the graduating class that produced them. This method of chronological organization was retained from the partial processing of the collection that occurred in 1983. The materials have subsequently been arranged in 7 series to reflect the different formats present in the collection.
Series I: Correspondence
- Correspondence
- Events
- Minutes
- Publications
- Class catalogs and directories
- Scrapbooks and memory books
- Memorabilia
Scope and Content
The bulk of the collection relates to the meetings of NYU's early graduating classes. These were typically formal dinner meetings, which began in the members' freshman years and continued annually until all but one member of the class had passed away. The Class of 1843 Minute Book documents this fact particularly well: it includes the complete minutes of each meeting from 1843 until 1914, when Lewis B. Reed noted that he had become the sole surviving member of the class. The Class of 1894 minute books are similarly detailed. Portions of minutes from other classes' meetings are also included in Series III of the collection.
Series I includes scattered correspondence among members of various graduating classes, as well as between University Heights Library Director Theodore F. Jones and alumni who owned photographs of their graduating classes. Jones wished to add the photographs to the NYU library's collections. It is not known whether these photographs were ever a part of the Early Alumni Materials Collection, though they are not included in the 1983 inventory.
Series II includes menus from class dinners that were held at restaurants and clubs throughout the city between 1854 and 1977. They provide a small cross-section of the evolution of New York City food culture over one and a quarter centuries. Series IV includes a handful of publications created by and about members of graduating classes.
Biographical information about individual alumni from various classes comprises a large component of the collection. The class catalogs, directories, and record books in Series V list alumni names, addresses, occupations, and other identifying characteristics, including achievements pre- and post-graduation. The scrapbooks in Series VI include more detailed biographical information about alumni, particularly when they were created by a single alumnus, as in the Memories of P.L. Schenck scrapbook and the Augustus Hewlett Skillen scrapbook. Other scrapbooks document class activities as a whole, as in the Class of 1890 scrapbooks, or consist simply of the signatures of the members of the graduating class, as in the three autograph books dating from 1843-1853. Biographical information about individual alumni can also be found among the memorabilia in Series VII, along with information about student life at NYU in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Repository permission is required for access. Please contact New York University Archives, (212) 998-2641, university-archives@nyu.edu.
Use Restrictions
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the creator are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from New York University Archives, (212) 998-2646, university-archives@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Identificantion of item, date (if known); Early Alumni Materials Collection; MC 237; box number, folder number; New York University Archives
Custodial History
The Early Alumni Materials Collection likely did not have a single creator or even a singular purpose for its creation. Rather, it seems to have accumulated gradually under a succession of custodians who both actively solicited and happened to be given materials and ephemera related to the annual meetings of nineteenth and early twentieth century graduating classes of New York University. The earliest materials in the collection date from 1843, and the most recent date from 1987 (though they refer to the Class of 1937).
Theodore F. Jones, library director at the University Heights campus in the early 20th century, began accumulating materials for a "New York University Collection" in 1922. This collection was meant both to provide the library with documentation of the early history of NYU, and to support Jones' work on a centennial history of the university (New York University, 1832-1932, published by the New York University Press in 1933). Only the correspondence in Folders 1-3 of Box 1 can be definitively attributed to Jones, however, and some later materials in the collection are attributed to other custodians.
According to correspondence found in the collection's administrative file, items relating to the Class of 1894 were donated to NYU by the Estate of John V. Irwin in 1979. These items were discovered at 64 West 3rd Street and transferred to to the University Archives in 1994.
The collection was present in more or less its current form in the University Archives as early as 1983, when it was titled the "Class Collection" and partially processed. However, other information about its provenance has been lost. It seems to have been through multiple cycles of accumulation and dispersal throughout its lifetime. Pieces of correspondence within the collection refer to materials that are no longer included in it, and some ephemera included in the collection when it was processed in 2013 were not included in the 1983 inventory. However, while the collection is somewhat of a fractured whole, the materials within it are still quite illuminating sources of information about the organization and activities of early graduating classes of NYU.
Source: Theodore F. Jones, The New York University Collection (New York: New York University, 1938).
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Some materials in the collection are in poor condition due to their age. Where possible, copies of the materials have been created to enable researchers to access the information within them. Certain scrapbooks have been transferred to the Barbara Goldsmith Conservation and Preservation Department for treatment and are not accessible to researchers until they have been treated.
About this Guide
Repository
Series I: Correspondence
Language of Materials
Theodore F. Jones' correspondence with Class of 1863-Class of 1879 alumni, 1930-1938, inclusive
Language of Materials
Theodore F. Jones' correspondence with Class of 1880-Class of 1888 alumni, 1930-1938, inclusive
Language of Materials
Theodore F. Jones' correspondence with Class of 1889-Class of 1892 alumni, 1930-1938, inclusive
Language of Materials
Correspondence of and about the Class of 1843, 1909-1914, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1863 correspondence, 1866, 1870, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1890 correspondence, 1925-1936, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1894 correspondence, 1906-1954, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1914 correspondence, 1951-1963, inclusive
Language of Materials
Series II: Events
Language of Materials
Class of 1843 Annual Reunion dinner menus, 1862-1914, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1844: Reminiscences of C.M. Tompkins (speech given at Alumni Association meeting), 1894, inclusive
Language of Materials
Creator
Biography of C.M. Tompkins
Charles Marshall (C.M.) Tompkins was born in Somers, New York, on August 13, 1822. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the City of New York in 1843, where he was Vice President of the Eucleian Society. From 1850 to 1854, he served as a lawyer, judge, and postmaster in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. He then became principal examiner at the Pension Office in Washington, D.C. Source: General Alumni Society of New York University, New York University Alumni Catalogue, 1833-1907 (Boston: Colonial Press, 1906), 22.
Class of 1845 third triennial meeting and dinner announcement, 1854, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1851 Reunion dinner menu, 1871, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1875: 1915 reunion program and 1875 Graduating Address of Isaac Franklin Russell, 1915, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1883 Annual Dinner menus, 1882-1908, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1890 Class Day and Commencement materials, 1890, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1890 35th Reunion materials, 1925, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1890 42nd Reunion materials, 1932, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1897 Annual Banquet materials, 1894-1937, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1904 Third Annual Dinner menu and program, 1903, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1907 Annual Dinner menus, 1906-1908, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1908 Annual Dinner menus and programs, 1908-1912, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1909 event programs, clippings, 1908-1912, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1912 School of Law banquet menu, 1912, inclusive
Language of Materials
School of Commerce Tenth Annual Dinner menu and program, Classes of 1912-1914, 1912, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1914 School of Law banquet menu and program, 1914, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1914 event programs, 1910-1915, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1915 Annual Dinner menu, 1916, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1915 School of Law Senior Banquet menu and program, 1915, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1917 Freshman dinner menu, 1915, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1917 School of Law annual banquet menu, undated
Language of Materials
Class of 1918 School of Law Annual Banquet menu, 1916, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1922 Annual Reunion menus and programs, 1952-1977, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1924 Sophomore Smoker and Banquet menu and program, 1922, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1929 50th Reunion invitation, 1979, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1937 50th anniversary of graduation program, 1987, inclusive
Language of Materials
School of Medicine 125th Anniversary dinner materials, 1966, inclusive
Language of Materials
Series III: Minutes
Language of Materials
Class of 1843 Minute Book, 1843-1914, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1862 Minute Book, ca. 1858, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1879 Constitution and Minute Book, 1876-1879, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1894 Minute Book, 1893-1919, inclusive
Language of Materials
Class of 1894 Minute Book, 1920-1959, inclusive
Language of Materials
Access Restrictions
The paper in this scrapbook is in poor condition. Researchers should consult photocopies of the original located in Box 4, Folder 1.