This series contains records pertaining to various international, national, regional, state, and local activist organizations, non-profit groups, political parties, and religious organizations concerned with the death penalty and other activism related activities and events. The groups represented are primarily, but not exclusively, concerned with the abolition of the death penalty and prisoner rights. Included in this series are newsletters, correspondence, pamphlets, flyers, mass mailings, as well as a small amount of administrative material for organizations in which Bill Pelke himself was involved, such as the Indiana Coalition Against the Death Penalty (ICADP), the Northwest Indiana Coalition to the Abolish Control Unit Prisons, and the Northern Indiana Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Researchers should be aware that the bulk of this material consists of public outreach materials collected by Bill Pelke.
This series contains some documents from Herz's early years in Düsseldorf, includes notebooks from his university courses in Freiburg im Breisgau, Berlin and Heidelberg, as well as documents from his years in Geneva, Switzerland (1935-1938). A large portion of this series is devoted to Herz's autobiographical writings, including travelogues, interviews of Herz by others, and several versions of his autobiography, published in German in 1984 as Vom Überleben. Wie mein Weltbild entstand, and the unpublished English version, On Human Survival.
The general correspondence series contains correspondence with Herz's colleagues in the academic community, as well as personal correspondence, and includes lengthy exchanges with: Enno Bartels, Honoré Catudal Jr., Ernst Otto Czempiel, Ossip and Lili Flechtheim, Christian Hacke, Uwe Prell, Kenneth Thompson and Erich Wenderoth.
This series contains documents, several selections of diary entries, photographs and curriculum vita of Bates. The documents pertaining to Roy C. Bates (Kurt Bauchwitz) date from 1890 to 1974 with later documents pertaining to Barbara Bates (third wife), which date through 1995. Included in the collection are many early documents such as birth certificates, early school documents, marriage certificates from Bates/Bauchwitz' first two marriages in Germany, as well as university and military service documents. Also in the collection are a number of documents which record Bates/Bauchwitz' legal career as well as his subsequent dismissal from his post by the Hitler regime in 1938. His period of flight from Nazi Germany is also well-documented, as well as his early years in the U.S., including his naturalization as a U.S. citizen in 1946. Also included in this section are documents pertaining to his university studies in the U.S. at Columbia, St. John's and New York Universities. Completing the biographical section of this series are a number of curriculum vita, several biographical statements prepared for planned editions of Bates' poetry, as well as a number of photographs.
The correspondence files contain photographs, offprints and clippings in addition to the correspondence (ca. 5,000 letters), which dates primarily from Bates' U.S. years (1941-1974), although a few earlier letters are present in the collection. Several correspondences were continued after Bates' death in 1974 by his widow, Barbara, until as late as 1987. Letters are in German, English and French and have been divided into five sub-series: personal, legal, literary, mental health and drug research, and miscellaneous.
This series is comprised of maps, blueprints, and drawings that are related to the train stations affiliated with the Delaware and Hudson Line. Most of the maps within this series are reproductions.
This series includes copies of police investigation reports, court papers, testimony, and photocopies of newspaper articles. The legal documents stem from the demonstration organized by various groups against the rugby game scheduled for September 22, 1981 between the South African national rugby team and the American all-star rugby team. The bulk of the documents relates to the arrests of Vera Michelson, Aaron Estes, John Spearman and Michael Young on September 21, 1981. The police surveillance records and the court documents were obtained by CD-CAAR through the Freedom of Information Act. The police surveillance documents come from the Albany Police Department, Albany's Police Court and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The records include proposed plans for security at the anti-apartheid demonstration, police reports, photocopies of articles regarding groups expected to participate in the demonstration, arrest reports, court arraignment papers and investigation reports. The court records are from Albany's Police Court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York and the State of New York Supreme Court Appellate Division. The records include some correspondence, papers for the case of the People versus Vera Michelson, Aaron Estes, and Michael Young, testimony in the government's unsuccessful case against Michael Young and John Spearman, and a motion to suppress evidence involving Michelson and Estes. The court records also include papers involving the successful case launched by Michelson and CD-CAAR in 1982 against named and unnamed officials in the FBI, New York State Police, Albany County District Attorney and Assistant District Attorneys, Albany County, Albany Police Officers and the City of Albany. The court records also include documents relating to a 1988 appeal to the Federal Court of Appeals pertaining to the civil case started by Vera Michelson and CD-CAAR in 1982.
This series contains correspondence, minutes and reports relating to the activities and interests of CD-CAAR and consists mostly of copies of letters sent by CD-CAAR to others. Topics of correspondence include fund-raising, the cultural boycott of entertainers who had performed in South Africa and had not vowed to stay out until apartheid ended, the campaign beginning in 1983 to divest New York State pension funds from businesses operating in South Africa, letters to pastors requesting support, requests for participants in demonstrations, announcements of meetings, arrangements for conferences, requests to institutions not to sponsor pro-South African speakers, letters to legislators supporting or opposing proposed legislation especially relating to divestiture, and letters regarding testimony given by Vera Michelson in front of the United Nations. Although Michelson testified twice before the United Nations, the collection contains only a copy of her November 5, 1984 appearance in which she spoke about the frustrations and concerns of CD-CAAR and other anti-apartheid groups and expressed gratitude to the United Nations for assisting the groups in their work. Includes letters sent to political figures both in the United States and abroad such as Albany Mayor Thomas Whalen III regarding Albany's place in the fight against apartheid, Schenectady Mayor Karen Johnson, NYS Assemblywoman Cynthia Jenkins (with reply) regarding divestiture, President P.W. Botha, Lindwe Mabuza, African National Congress chief representative to the United States, Namibian Minister Helmut Angula, and Ambassador Hipolito Patricio from Mozambique supporting the ANC and the frontline states. Also included are letters to pastors such as Reverend Robert W. Dixon; academics such as President Hines of Siena College, President John S. Morris of Union College, Professor Warren Roberts of the University at Albany, and Martin circa Barell, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents protesting pro-South African speakers, writing letters of recommendation for professors, and thanking those who aided the anti-apartheid movement; and with people at other organizations with similar goals such as Solly Simelane of the African National Congress, E.J. Josey, President of the Albany NAACP, and Richard Dillard of the Public Employees Federation Black Caucus. Includes a typescript diary written by Eileen Kawola detailing a July 1992 visit to Mozambique. Arranged chronologically.
This series contains files pertaining to planning decisions for areas/projects that span county boundaries within New York State's Capital District -- i.e., Albany County, Rensselaer County, Saratoga County, and Schenectady County. A great many of the files involve regional transportation planning and travel data; this includes corridor plans and studies, as well as non-state federal-aid streets and highways conditions reports. There are documents pertaining to the Port of Albany spanning several decades. Other documents of note include an analysis of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy housing market, air quality data for the region, and a soil map of Albany and Schenectady counties from the 1930s.
Watt Espy kept a series of index cards, grouped mainly by state, that records information about executions on American soil (colonies, states, territories) since the 1600s. Some cards contain lots of information, including name, place of execution, method, and details of the crime. Other cards have very little information aside from the fact that someone was executed. Sometimes there is not even a name—just "two slaves" or "pirate". There are additional categories for federal, military, and indigenous executions. There are two different card sizes; for the 3x5 inch cards, each state, territory, or other main division is identified with a manila tab. Subdivisions are marked with blue, unlined cards and are intended to mirror the arrangement of materials in Series #2 as closely as possible.