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The formation and behavior of snow and ice crystals were a lifelong interest of Schaefer's, and in his time at General Electric he was able to focus on the subject during the World War II years as ice related to the safety of U.S. Air Force planes. Schaefer and Irving Langmuir's interest in that topic grew as a result of their World War II-era contract work with the military, and the experiments they conducted after the war's end led directly to their Project Cirrus contract in 1947—an undertaking so extensive that their work in that area merited its own series in this collection. Much of their foundational work in snow and ice composition and behavior was grounded in observations and experiments conducted on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Schaefer discovered during this time that ice crystals and snowflakes could be captured and observed using Formvar plastic. Using this method, he documented very specific data about ice and snow before creating some of the first replicas of specific snowflake shapes. The work of Schaefer and his colleagues regarding ice research includes handwritten notes, drawings, charts, photographs, reports, and correspondence specific to ice, snow, and Mount Washington.

The inspiration for Schaefer's work with cloud seeding began during his experiments with Irving Langmuir during World War II. At that time they were under contract with the military for other weather-related reasons, but their research led them to wonder about the possibilities of controlling weather beyond military needs. Schaefer accomplished some of his most important foundational work with cloud seeding in 1946, before General Electric joined in another contract with the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army Signal Corps. These records document some of Schaefer's initial work with cloud seeding, before the official birth of Project Cirrus. Researchers will also find about a dozen files on Project Blowdown, a cloud seeding operation conducted in Honduras to aid the United Fruit Company.

This subseries is comprised of various research data retained by Schaefer that were not filed specifically with cloud seeding or ice and snow research. These are the notes, graphs, drawings, and photographs of experiments that supported later discoveries in his larger projects. Notes and photos in this subseries include subjects such as surface tension, monomolecular layers, smoke generation, fog, uses of calgon, and electron microscopy. Also of note are his observations on precipitation and precipitation static, which he worked on with Irving Langmuir during World War II. While the bulk of the notes are Schaefer's own, there are also papers that belonged to Langmuir and various other scientists who shared observations with Schaefer.

The State Charities Aid Association subseries includes documents related to the activities of the SCAA in the field of mental health. It includes legal documents, reports, minutes, memos, letters, and pamphlets generated by various committees of the SCAA, reprints of articles by people belonging to or associated with the SCAA, and some state government documents and other external documents related to the work of the SCAA. Also included are reports of the Committee on Legislation, which was a special committee on legislation for the insane (1891-1895) and a letter to the mayor of New York City advocating bringing New York County into the state mental health system. The Subcommittee on After Care worked to improve the care offered to mental patients after discharge from mental institutions. Included are the subcommittee's by-laws, minutes, and one annual report. The Committee on Mental Hygiene was the principal committee of SCAA dealing with mental health issues. The records include reports of the assistant secretary, mission statement (labeled as "objects") minutes, proposal for the study of the prevalence of mental disease in New York State, training programs, memos, reports, and an excerpt from a history of mental health policies in New York. The Visiting Committees were members of the SCAA who were empowered by New York State to inspect mental institutions on behalf of the state government and report to the state's Department of Mental Hygiene on the conditions in the institutions and the quality and effectiveness of the care being offered to the mentally ill.

The Recording Secretary's minutes of meetings have some gaps. The earliest recorded minutes in this collection are from 1902. The minutes are generally limited to one or one and a half pages. The minutes record Club activities at their meetings. The number of members present is listed, sometimes along with an attendance list. Next the secretary records the introduction of a topic, the title of the paper, and the presenter. The secretary also records briefly the actions of the business meeting following the presentations. Included also in the Sub-series are the minutes of the Executive Committees meetings for 1910-1923. Attendance records appear as part of Secretary's Minutes, except for a folder of separate attendance entries for 1903-1916 and 1941-1957.

This collection holds the minutes of the monthly meetings of the Executive Committee to the State Normal School. The entires in these two volumes detail some aspects of the school's budget, listed graduates of each sememster and includes a commencement program from that semester. The minutes also include basic school administration like the hiring and firing of professors, or proposed maintenence and expansion of the school's buildings. For the second volume there is a seperate book acting as an index to major people and events at the Normal School from 1880 to 1909.

This series contains a file of pamphlet material collected by the State Association of Towns. It includes both pamphlets published by the Association and pamphlets received from other sources. The pamphlets deal with subjects related to town law and New York State finances. They date primarily from the 1930s but include some older material, such as an 1881 pamphlet on town officer salaries (Box 2, Folder 28.) The series is organized according to the Association's organizational system, which assigned a number to each pamphlet. Note that this series is incomplete.

The bulk of this sub-series contains the phone and address lists for the members of the NYRSC and its executive committee, yet there are also a few lists of delegates and alternates to the Republican National Convention. These lists were handed out during meetings so that the members of these groups could remain in contact.

The Republican Organization of the State of New York gives lists of delegates and alternates to the State and National Committees. The Republican Organization of the State of New York is a quick reference guide that indicates the names of county chairs, the vote tallies for state and federal elections by county and the major resolutions passed by the State and National Committees each year. These would be excellent guides for anyone needing to find the name of an officer or the margin of votes by which an officer was elected. One could find similar uses for these sources of information as with the rolls of the State and National Committees.

The Roll Books of the Delegates and Alternates to the National Republican Conventions act as quick reference guides for finding out who attended each convention. These booklets list the delegates and alternates along with their districts and addresses. They also give a list of the number of delegates sent by each state, a list of the Republican National Convention delegates since the founding of the Republican Party in 1856, a list of the contemporary Republican National Committee, a tally of the electoral vote by state, a list of locations for the National Convention and the candidate elected during that convention. They lend themselves to demographic studies focusing on the ratio of women delegates to male delegates that have served at the National Convention. An especially interesting study would be to compare the information found within the State rolls to the roles of the Republican National Convention.

The Administration subseries documents Norman Studer's day-to-day activities as the Director of the Downtown Community School. Included are Board of Trustee meeting minutes, a copy of the Downtown Community School by-laws, core curriculum notes, teacher's guides, admissions policy reports, correspondence to parents and staff members, and material related to interracial and intercultural education. In 1963, Studer invited a group of African American parents boycotting a segregated school in Engelwood, NJ to bring their 31 children to a Freedom School at the Downtown Community School so the children could continue their education durign the struggle.

The Activities subseries contains material produced by or involving the students of the Downtown Community School, as well as Norman Studer, beyond his administrative responsibilities. Materials include notes from field trips, graduation dramas, student writings, and Downtown Community School publications, the Downtowner and Scribbler. The Downtowner was an internally published periodical containing a calendar of events, an editorial from Studer, announcements, and student writings. The Scribbler differed in that it was solely composed of student writings from each grade level. This subseries is particularly strong in its representation of field trips sponsored by Studer, many of which were taken to the Catskill Mountains. The folders often include itineraries, curricular guides, local history and maps, as well as student reflections and drawings. Many of the Downtown Community School graduation dramas were predicated on the field trip experiences. Also of interest are a number of folders containing general student writings and drawings and a file on the successful 1965 efforts by the children to help save the historic Old Merchant's House in New York City from demolition.

The Administration subseries documents the functions of the director, Board of Trustees, and staff of Camp Woodland as they relate to the operation of the Camp. Materials include annual reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, litigation, counselor in training handbooks, as well as documents related to the Larkin Committee and an investigation of Norman Studer and Camp Woodland for possible subversive activities and ties to the Communist Party. The annual reports provide fiscal summary data related to the operation of the Camp, including, but not limited to, tuition costs, expenditures, operating costs, tax liability, fixed assets and accumulated depreciation, and accumulated funds. These reports were prepared by certified public accountants and record the fiscal state of Camp Woodland in great detail. The folder entitled "Board of Director's Dispute" documents an effort by three of Camp Woodland's founders and Board members - Mrs. Ferber, Mrs. Sydney, and Mrs. Abramson - to separate themselves, legally and financially, from the Camp. It is unclear what precipitated the dispute, but ultimately, it appears there were philosophical differences as well as divergent financial interests.

This series consists of both manuscripts and typescripts in German and in English. The largest portion of this section consists of texts of novels, including the handwritten manuscript of Lestoque's published novel, Menschen in Aktendeckeln, as well as versions of several unpublished novels. The poetry and short prose works are primarily written in German and date from 1909 to the 1930s, although a few examples in English date from his post-emigration time period.

This series has been divided into two sections. The first section contains early published writings of Albert Lestoque, written in German and primarily on the subjects of prison conditions and penal reform, as well as clippings, case files and other research materials used by him to research these topics. The second section of this series contains texts of both lectures and essayistic publications, primarily written by Lestoque in English after immigrating to the United States.