Endowments; Working class--Education; Immigrants--Education; New York (N.Y.); People's Institute (New York, N.Y.); Smith, Charles Sprague, 1853-1910; Adler, Felix, 1851-1933; Cutting, Robert Fulton, 1852-1934; Dodge, Grace H. (Grace Hoadley), 1856-1914
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Date
[between 1886 and 1919?]
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 80
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
The People's Institute was founded in 1897 by Charles Sprague Smith to teach the theory and practice of government and social philosophy to workers and recent immigrants in New York City. It sponsored lectures, classes, concerts, and other community a ctivities at Cooper Union and throughout New York City, though principally on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Institute ceased operations in 1934. The People's Institute is recognized most often for its contribution as a community educational center for working class adults and immigrants. It sponsored lectures, craft guilds, art and music leagues, a training school for community workers, and adult education classes in history, social science, literature, as well as nutrition and health. Specific programs implemented by the Institute included the People's Forums, community centers in Public School 63 and Public School 89, the Wage Earner's Theatre League, the People's Institute Harlem Branch at 125th Street, and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The latter organization eventually broke away and developed into its own formidable organization. (Its records are also held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division)... ...The founders of the People's Institute were Felix Adler, Robert Fulton Cutting, Grace H. Dodge, Elgin R.H. Gould, Abram S. Hewitt, George K. Lloyd, R. Heber Newton, William S. Rainsford, Charles Sprague Smith, Edward Thimme, and George Tombleson. The Advisory Council comprised over forty individuals including Lyman Abbott, R.R. Bowker, Nicholas Butler Murray, Andrew Carnegie, R.W. Gilder, Samuel Gompers, Jacob A. Riis, Jacob H. Schiff, Anson Phelps Stokes, J.G. Phelps Stokes, Oscar S. Straus, and Lillian D. Wald. Charles Sprague Smith was elected the Institute's first Managing Director..." [SOURCE: Wingfield, Valerie. "Finding Aid - People's Institute Records, 1883-1933." The New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Sep. 2001, http://archives.nypl.org/mss/2380. Accessed 9 Oct. 2018.]