This series contains documents related to events in the Albany, New York region. It contains correspondence, photographs, negatives, promotional materials, press clippings, fliers and posters, poems, newsletters, and handwritten notes. Notable groups, institutions and individuals mentioned in this series include: Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, the Bread and Puppet Circus, the New York State Writers Institute, the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the 10-year annual event Readings Against the End of the World (RAEW). Nattell was involved in the creation, promotion and coordination of most of these events. Oversized materials in this series include scrapbooks which hold assorted art and poems that were mailed in and displayed ca. 1980-1995. Also included are scrapbooks containing photographs of readers at the Readings Against the End of the World.
This series consists chiefly of minutes of the meetings of the ESFWC executive board (1939-1944, 1946-1964, 1968, 1970-1971, 1973-1976, 1979, 1982-1983, 1985-1986, 1988-1989) and annual convention (1939-1944, 1946-1964, 1970-1971, 1973-1976, 1980, 1982, 1983-1990). Between 1939-1944 and 1946-1964, the minutes were recorded in bound ledgers. From 1968 onward, they consist of loose manuscript or typescript materials. Information concerning the financial affairs of the organization is scattered throughout. From 1968 onward, routine correspondence that was discussed at meetings is also included; these materials, which were generated by the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and other organizations, were inserted into the minutes by ESFWC officers and have thus been kept in place. The minutes detail the ESFWC's position on a broad array of social issues, including lynching (1943, 1947), discrimination in the armed forces, defense industries, and federal housing programs (1942-43, 1946), and the punitive attitude of some local officials who disbursed Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits (1961). The minutes also document the EFSWC's support for the civil rights struggle that took place in the South during the 1950's and 1960's and its apparent dislike of the black-power movement (1973). In addition, the minutes chronicle the organization's interest in the Equal Rights Amendment (1944; 1970's), the work of Planned Parenthood (1947, 1950), the issue of abortion (1970; see also ESFWC Annual Convention Materials, 1975), and its decision to allow white women to become members (1963). Other topics discussed include education (1964, 1973; see also ESFWC Annual Convention Materials, 1975), peace (1930's, 1962), and the work of the United Nations (1950's).
The Executive Board Files contain the meeting minutes of the Board of Directors (1968, 1979-1985) and the Executive Committee (1984-1986) include correspondence with the NUL, personnel matters, and correspondence with Albany, New York Mayor Thomas Whalen III and NUL President John E. Jacob. They were maintained as a record of the activities of the Albany Urban League in its affiliation with the National Urban League and as a community based organization in the Capitol District. The Executive Director's Reports served as monthly overviews of the day-to-day operations of the Albany Urban League. The smallest of the series' the Executive Board Files are incomplete. The Urban League of Northeastern New York began in 1966 but gaps in the series leave the 1960s and 1970s largely undocumented. Executive Board Files produced after 1987 are in the possession of the Urban League of Northeastern New Yorke.