The American Committee for Cultural Freedom (ACCF) was dissolved in 1957, and at that time the organziation's papers were stored with Norman Thomas, educational director for the Tamiment Institute. The papers were transferred to NYU in 1963 along with the rest of the Tamiment Institute Library's manuscript collections. Beginning in 1968 the permission of either Daniel Bell or Sidney Hook was required for researchers seeking access to the collection. Following the 1975 publication of John P. Diggins' Up From Communism: Conservative Odysseys in American Intellectual History, which quoted from the collection, Daniel Bell and Arnold Beichman requested that the collection be closed to researchers. The reason given was that the collection contained not only organizational records, but also papers of a purely personal nature which needed to be examined by the donors to prevent embarrassment to living individuals. The closure of the collection was met with displeasure by a number of historians. After extensive correspondence with Daniel Bell, Ronald Radosh initiated a petition to the Committee on the Professions of the American Historical Association requesting an investigation into the closure of the collection. Following the petition, Tamiment processed the collection and Daniel Bell selected a small number of folders which were restricted until the early 2000s. The remainder of the collection was opened to researchers in 1980.

The accession number 1968.001 is associated with this collection.