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The materials that comprise the Vertical File have been collected and added to from a variety of sources by former Avery Librarians. The vertical file contains clippings, pamphlets, reprints, and other miscellaneous materials relating to persons, places, organizations, and topical subjects relating to architecture, housing, and city planning. The purpose of the vertical file was to arrange and store small items, memorabilia, and ephemeral material on a variety of topics to facilitate access by researchers. For the most part, the vertical file contains printed items only. Manuscript material and other unique items were, generally, not placed in the vertical file. In some cases, manuscript material has been removed from the Vertical File and placed in its corresponding collection.

This collection contains materials related to Chermayeff's personal, professional, and academic lives, the bulk originating during his residency in the United States, beginning in the late 1930s. Project records document the full range of his work, including many records from his British period. The collection also contains extensive correspondence with personal friends, clients, and professional and academic colleagues.

This collection includes architectural drawings, holograph and typescript papers, business and financial records, black and white photographs, lantern slides, diaries, scrapbooks, and printed papers relating to the professional work and interests of Francis Henry Lenygon and Jeannette Becker Lenygon.

The William Muschenheim collection spans from 1929 to 1957, with bulk dates from 1931-1950. The collection documents approximately 130 separate jobs and is made up of architectural drawings, correspondence, accounts, estimates, specifications, invoices, contracts, samples, invoices, and other material related to Muschenheim's professional projects. The projects mainly represent Muschenheim's work in New York City, but also include work in Albany (NY), Amenia (NY), Bridgehampton (NY), Chappaqua (NY), Hampton Bays (NY), Malverne (NY), Massapequa (NY), Nassau Point (Long Island), Washington (CT), Washington DC, Westhampton Beach (NY), and Woodstock (NY), among other locations.

Correspondence, speeches, speech materials, news clippings, subject files, audio and videotapes relating to the professional activity of Arthur Levitt, Jr. The papers and audiovisual material deal primarily with his tenure as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1993-2001), but also contain earlier records, including some materials relating to Levitt's school years at the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School and at Williams College, and his work at Hayden Stone, the American Stock Exchange, and the New York Economic Development Corporation, and his advocacy of the National Endowment of the Arts during the 1991-1992 funding controversy. These papers also contain materials relating to his father, Arthur Levitt, Sr., who served for 24 years as New York State Comptroller.

The Corporation awards grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions for projects that are broadly educational in nature and that show promise of having national or international impact. Certain appropriations are made for activities, such as Corporation-led initiatives that are administered by the foundation's officers. The trustees set the overall policies of the foundation and have final authority to approve all grants above $50,000 recommended by the program staff. Grants of $25,000 or less, called discretionary grants, are made upon the approval of the president and are reported to the board; larger discretionary grants, those between $25,000 and $50,000, are also reviewed by a Corporation-wide group, which makes recommendations to the president. (from Program Guidelines 2003-2004 (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/program/areas.html))

This collection contains architectural records, student work, correspondence and professional writings related to the academic and architectural practice of Walter Sobotka. The largest portion of the collection, Series 1, relates to his architectural practice and contains drawings, files, and a scrapbook of photographs and articles pertaining to his work in Europe and America. The majority of his projects consisted of residential buildings and interiors in Austria along with furniture designs. However, there is also a selection of theater interiors that Sobotka designed for RKO across the United States. Series 2 contains a limited selection of Sobotka's lectures and writings, as well as correspondence. This series also contains material relating to two of his unpublished writings, The Prefabricated House and Principles of Design, including copies of the manuscripts, correspondence with publishers, and research materials. A bound version of Principles of Design is catalogued separately and contains an appendix in which Sobotka translated into English excerpts of his correspondence with the Viennese architect Josef Frank. Series 3 contains some artwork and student drawings, as well as a few personal letters.