Records, mainly 1888-1945, of the first neighborhood settlement house for the immigrant poor on New York City's Lower East Side, together with notes of former headworker A.J. Kennedy for an unpublished history of the Society. The records were donated to honor former headworker Jacob S. Eisinger. Included are minutes, reports, headworkers' correspondence and subject files, publications, and other administrative records; and correspondence and biographical information about staff, volunteers, and residents. Additional files include correspondence, notes, lists, and minutes concerning the various clubs, camps, and cultural activities sponsored by the Society. There is also a separate file for Charles B. Stover, a Society leader, head of the Outdoor Recreation League, and New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner, which includes personal papers as well as material relating to his settlement house work. Additional records received via Society historian Max Meyer in 2010 were probably reviewed by Kennedy for his history but rejected for inclusion. None of these papers are available on microfilm. Although the content is similar to that of the microfilmed papers, the new material contains information on the personal political and social reform activities of headworkers Robbins Gilman, James H. Hamilton, Robert Hunter, and James B. Reynolds. These activities include involvement with the Citizens Union of the City of New York, Legal Aid Society, New York Tenement House Commission, and the School Committee of the New York City Club. Among their prominent correspondents are Nicholas Murray Butler, Seth Low, George B. McClellan, Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, Carl Schurz, James Speyer, Lawrence Veiller, and William English Walling. There are also additional papers of Charles B. Stover. The photographs include settlement house and camp activities, turn-of-the-century New York City street views, and recreational activities at city parks.
