This series consists of official minutes, programs, and financial statements related to the life of the Circle as an institution. Official bulletins and correspondence - that is, printed material addressing and concerning the membership in general - are included here, but correspondence addressing individuals is filed under "correspondence." Because most of the records in this collection were generated by Marie-Louise d'Esternaux or (the vast majority) by Lederer, the majority of the correspondence is addressed to Gabrielle Lederer. Some of this correspondence does contain poems, the majority of which are included as membership materials or contest submissions. A very few letters are of a more social or personal nature.

This series contains handwritten notes and typescripts produced by d'Esternaux and Lederer, primarily Lederer. As Lederer served as Secretary, her notes are closely related to the records of the Institution, and those interested in the institutional records should also look at this series. In addition to the notes she took at meetings, however, there are many personal notes and sketches interspersed throughout the notebooks.

The majority of these poems are from the 1940s, based on the names of the (known) poets and the fact that many of them show Gertrude Ryder Bennett's markings and marginalia. Poems whose authors are known are arranged alphabetically by author, while other poems are arranged alphabetically by title. There are some poems written by later members of the Circle included here, as well as in Lederer's scrapbooks. Any user seeking permission to use any poem in a publication must consult with library staff, as the rights status of these poems has not been evaluated.

This relatively small series consists of all printed magazines and booklets in the collection. The Brooklyn Poetry Circle produced several commemorative anthologies which are included in this series. As not all the magazines can be dated, they are arranged alphabetically by publication title. Of greatest general interest is perhaps a rare copy of The Raven Poetry Circle Anthology from 1944 (1).

This series contains a variety of material. Commercially printed material such as tickets, flyers, stationery, and promotional material for books and publications, forms the bulk of it. A small collection of news clippings, most of it pertaining to the lives and achievements of club members, is included here. All material seemingly unrelated to the structure, social life, or literary life of the institution - including greeting cards, postcards, and sheet music - is also included here.

The material Lederer collected and presented in these scrapbooks is similar in form and content to the material arranged and described in the previous five series. This series could be seen as the logical and chronological continuation of the previous five, although there is some overlap in the chronology. The scrapbooks are generally arranged in very precise chronological order, and the final binder includes some personal remembrances and histories written by several long-time members of the Circle.

These books presumably represent some portion of the Poetry Circle's library. The first box (Box 3) contains books written by members of the Circle and their associates. The second (Box 4) contains all other books originally included in this accession, all of which were printed by large-scale mainstream publishing houses.

Photographs in the collection include color photographs of Othelia Lilly's autograph party, June 1976; color and black-and-white photographs of Poetry Circle Christmas parties and annual dinners, some of which are labeled as dating from 1966 and 1968; miscellaneous black-and-white undated photographs of Poetry Circle members at unknown locales; and a black-and-white photograph of several Poetry Circle members (dressed up in costumes of old poets) at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Some of these photographs depict distinguished Poetry Circle members or poets, such as Gertrude Ryder Bennett, Gabriel Lederer, and Edwin Markham. There are also four framed black and white photographs, one being a signed group portait of Poetry Circle founders Marie-Louise d'Esternaux, Maude Clark Hough, and Laura Spofford Wiltsie Lake; two being group shots of Poetry Circle members at the 1938 annual dinner; and the fourth being a signed photograph of Edwin Markham, dated 1938.