Series I: Administrative Records, 1901-1956, inclusive

The administrative records of the Rand School consist of 20 subject files, divided into two subseries: 1. Rand School Boards/Minutes (frames XIII:A:1-9), and 2. American Socialist Society (frames XIII:A:10-20). Included are several miscellaneous files, the papers of the Rand School Board of Directors, and the papers of the American Socialist Society which was the governing body of the Rand School.

The contents of each subject file have been arranged in chronological order, with undated items located at the end of the file. The miscellaneous files (XIII:A:1 XIII:A:4) include minutes, reports, and legal papers of the Rand School Society, Rand School Educational Council, Rand School Financial Committee, and the Rand Educational Institute. The Board of Directors' files (XIII:A:5 XIII:A:9) consist of correspondence, reports, memoranda, minutes, and resolutions. Of special interest in this section are the minutes of the Board of Directors' meetings (XIII:A:8). The minutes in this file contain important information pertaining to the decision making process of the Rand School administrative staff and the various policies implemented by the Board.

The bulk of the materials in this series relate to the American Socialist Society (XIII:A:10 XIII:A:20). It should be emphasized that the records of the American Socialist Society correspond with the items in the Board of Directors' files. The American Socialist Society records contain background papers, legal papers, correspondence, reports, minutes, annual meetings' papers, membership lists, and dues records.

The most interesting material in the American Socialist Society files are the papers relating to the three court cases and investigations involving the Society after World War I (XIII:A:11). Prominent among these cases is the Lusk Committee's investigation of the American Socialist Society in 1919 (XIII:A:lla). Some of the items included in this file are the resolution authorizing the investigation, a. "Statement of Facts" written by the Society, legal documents pertaining to the issuance of a search warrant, and an inventory of items seized in the committee raid on the Rand School. The court case files also include materials on the United States of America vs. American Socialist Society and Scott Nearing(XIII:A:llb) and The People of the State of New York against American Socialist Society(XIII:A:llc).

The American Socialist Society correspondence files (XIII:A:12 - XIII:A:14) contain incoming and outgoing letters, letters relating to the Society's efforts to obtain tax exempt status, and mimeographed correspondence. Most of the correspondence relates to the routine operations of the Society, although there are several interesting letters which convey information about various Rand School policies. Among the significant correspondents in these files are Charles Beard, Morris Hillquit, Harry W. Laidler, Algernon Lee, John Spargo, and W. J. Ghent.

The American Socialist Society files also include extensive minutes (XIII:A:16) and papers relating to annual meetings (XIII:A:17). The minutes file contains valuable information about policies and events affecting the operations of the Rand School. It is recommended that these minutes as well as the American Socialist Society reports (XIII:A:15) be used in conjunction withthe Rand School Board of Directors' minutes. The annual meetings file contains correspondence and related papers of relatively minor importance. It should be pointed out that the papers pertaining to the annual meetings also include a frame number designation for each year in the file. For example, the papers relating to the 1950 annual meeting will have the frame number, XIII:A:17:1950.