Collections : [Business, Literary, and Local History Manuscripts]

This series contains records concerning events that the Delmar Progress Club organized and participated in, such as stage productions, Club annual or spring banquets, Club fall banquets, Club anniversary celebrations, Bethlehem Public Library anniversary celebrations, and charitable fundraisers. This series does not contain events organized by the General Federation of Women's Clubs or the New York State Federation of Women's Club; any materials relating to such events can be found in the subject files series. The materials in this series include event flyers, event booklets and programs, event calendars, song lyrics, newspaper clippings, dues statements, photographs, scripts for stage performances, request forms for event spaces, cast lists, correspondence concerning donations, sheet music, e-mails, Bethlehem Public Library newsletters, presentation scripts, history of the Delmar Progress Club, letters from the Club president, submissions to Progress in Print (the Club's newsletter) about upcoming Club events, photo albums for the Club's Festival of the Arts (they are stored in ordinary folders and oversized boxes), and DVDs and VHS tapes (they are stored in a smaller box). In addition, this series includes folders containing both photographs and other materials and those only containing photographs. This series also contains records concerning the foundation, history, and upkeep of the Bethlehem Public Library, including history of the Bethlehem Public Library, meeting minutes from the Bethlehem Public Library Centennial Committee, the constitution of the Delmar Free Library Association, an annual report for the Delmar Free Library from 1914, and indentures from the will of George C. Adams to support the Delmar Free Library Association, and a resolution by the board of directors of the Delmar Progress Club to fund equipment and/or materials for the Bethlehem Library. Finally, the series contains the records of the Club's garden study group and the performing arts study group.

This series only includes publications of the Delmar Progress Club and contains an incomplete run of the Delmar Progress Club's newsletter and a complete set of the Club yearbook, i.e. 1904 to 2019. Although the newsletter did not initially have a title, by August 1988, it was named Progress in Print. Starting in 2006, receipts for the printing of Progress in Print are included with the newsletters. An issue of the Club yearbook typically contains a message from the Club president, announcements, lists of Club and General Federation of Women's Clubs officers, lists of committees and committee members, a Club calendar, a general Club program, a list of past Club presidents, member phone directory, and standing rules of the Club. Copies of the yearbook may also contain loose documents, i.e. Club by-laws, by-laws revisions, correspondence to the members, dues statements, event invitations, and membership lists.