Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The papers document the career of Larry Kramer as a playwright and author, an advocate for gay rights, and an activist in the fight against AIDS. The collection consists of writings, including manuscripts and drafts of plays, books, screenplays, and articles; AIDS-related material; diaries; correspondence; photographs; printed material; audiovisual material; and other papers. There is also substantial material relating to the founding of Gay Men's Health Crisis and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in particular, and to the AIDS movement in general.

Collection materials used in class session: 

• August 2007 Acquisition, Box 47, folder 1: Gay Men's Health Crisis, 1985-1993.
• October 2008 Acquisition, Box 130, folder 20: ACT UP, 1990-1991.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: These archives document the work of a nondenominational Christian social ministry agency during three decades of rapid urban change and upheaval in New Haven. The Wider City Parish was an inner-city Christian social ministry organization in New Haven, Connecticut, which existed from the early 1950s to the mid 1980s. Its executive director was Robert Forsberg, a graduate of the Yale Divinity School.

Collection materials used in class session:

• Series V, Box 10, Folder 174: Wider City Parish News Letter, 1978-1984.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The papers document the administrative and institutional history of CARP, and offer a detailed view of the workings of a non-profit civil rights legal agency founded as an offshoot of the New Haven Chapter of the NAACP in 1973. CARP's work in the New Haven area with dozens of minority economic interests and neighborhood organizations is reflected in extensive correspondence, legal memoranda, proposals, and collected material. Much of the CARP material also addresses the general topic of African-Americans in the professions, particularly in law and business. There is substantive documentation on housing (discrimination, fair housing, neighborhood advocacy) and educational issues (especially concerning community and technical colleges). Wilkinson served on the CARP board of directors from 1978 to 1983.

Collection materials used in class session: 

• Series II, Box 10, folder 238: Affirmative action, Board of Education, 1979-1981.
• Series II, Box 13, folder 299: Community Action Groups and Community Matters, town-gown relations, 1981.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The papers include correspondence, memoranda, reports, designs, photographs, audiovisual materials, clippings, printed material, and miscellanea documenting the personal life and professional career of Edward J. Logue, lawyer, politician, and urban planner and administrator. Urban planning materials detail his urban redevelopment work in New Haven (1954-1960), with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (1960-1967), with New York state's Urban Development Corporation (1968-1975), and as president of the South Bronx Development Organization (1979-1985). 

Collection materials used in class session:

• Accn. 1985-M-009, Box 51, Folder 34: Sheperds Restoration Corporation, 1978-1979.
• Accn. 1985-M-009, Box 61, Folder 17: South Bronx Development Office, Areas of Strength/Areas of Opportunity, 120-day interim report draft, Volume I: Program Proposals, August 1, 1979.
• Accn. 1985-M-009, Box 125, Folder 8: South Bronx Development Office, Employment program reports, 1978-1979.
• Accn. 1985-M-009, Box 139, Folder 23: West Farms housing, 1974-1983.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview:  Records document a grassroots organization that advocates for lower and middle income residents of New Haven, Connecticut. Materials include correspondence, financial and fundraising records, files on topics and events that the Coalition worked on, and posters and protest signs. Materials date from 1981 to 2014. Much of the collection concerns different issues the Coalition focused on, including the removal of bus stops from the City of New Haven, medical care for the low-income and uninsured in the local hospitals, conditions of public housing, and programs like the West Rock Youth Leadership Program and Tenants Against Drugs Dammit!

Collection materials used in class session:

• Series IV, Box 19, folder 10: West Rock Youth Leadership Program, proposal, 1994.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The collection consists of photographs and papers that document the work of David Plowden as photographer and author from 1943 through 2011. His photographs record scenes from main streets and churches in small towns to the barns and grain elevators of American farmlands to the industrial landscapes of cities like Chicago and New York. 

Collection materials used in class session: 

• Box 8, photograph, "Chicago, Illinois, 1978 October"
• Box 136, photographs, "Buffalo, New York, 1985 October" and "Chicago, Illinois, 1981 August"

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: Project files, minutes, correspondence, and property records, documenting the work of the New Haven Redevelopment Agency, primarily from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Collection materials used during class session: 

• Series IX, Box 140, Folder 5: Education, 1980-1981.
• Series IX, Box 142, Folder 4: Housing task force (folder 1 of 2), 1981.
• Series XV, Box 268, Folder 34: Dixwell neighborhood, drugs, clippings, 1974-1976.
• Series XXVI, Box 717, 2 binders: New Haven Redevelopment Agency, meeting minutes, 1987-1988.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The records document the administrative history of a local social welfare agency from 1881 to 2000. The early organization began as a philanthropic society but became a professional social service agency. The records of the FCGNH provide a regional example of the success of the Children's Bureau to promote local state agencies committed to child and family welfare during the Progressive Era and post war years. At the local level, the records document the hardships of social change, poverty, and family breakdown caused by industrialization, immigration, economics, and war. These records further reveal the difficulties the organization faced in maintaining welfare-based services with limited resources.

Collection materials used in class session:

• Series I, Box 7, folder 81: Board of Directors meeting minutes, June-December 1981.

Link to the finding aid for this collection in Archives at Yale

Overview: The materials consist of audio recordings and transcripts of oral histories conducted by New Haven Oral History Project staff with New Haven, Connecticut, citizens. The New Haven Oral History Project (NHOHP) was founded in September, 2003 by Andrew Horowitz and Glenda Gilmore as a special project of the Yale University History Department.

Please note: These materials were not used during the special collections visit on January 22nd, but the original audio interview recordings are available online through the finding aid to the collection. Transcripts for the interviews can be requested by writing to beinecke.library@yale.edu.