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Archives at Cornell

Edward M. Bassett papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: 2708

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Correspondence, books, articles, reports, legal briefs transcripts, and scrapbooks dealing with Bassett's tenure as a U.S. Congressman, 1902-1905, and his membership on committees and boards including the Public Service Commission of New York, the Brooklyn Committee on City Plan, the Zoning Committee of the City of New York, and the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs Committee. Papers deal primarily with zoning and city planning in New York City. Also includes many articles, reports and books authored by Bassett, such as The Master Plan, Zoning, and the Autobiography of Edward M. Bassett. There are also extensive legal records concerning zoning laws, regulations, and questions throughout the United States. Among his numerous correspondents were Harland Bartholomew, Otto M. Eidlitz, Lawson Purdy, Nelson P. Lewis, George McAneny, John Purroy Mitchel, Lewis H. Pounds, Frederic B. Pratt, Lewis T. Reed, Charles W. Shelton, Walter Stabler, Alfred T. White, and Robert H. Whitten.

Dates

  • 1892-1948.

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Biographical / Historical

Attorney, city planner, author, public official and zoning expert. Bassett was a United States congressman, 1902-1905, and served on the Public Service Commission of New York, during which time he aided in the development of the dual subway plan in New York City. He was vice-chairman of the Brooklyn Committee on City Plan, whose report was published in 1914; chairman of the Heights of Buildings Commission in New York City, whose final report, 1916, presented the first Zoning Resolution of the City of New York, also the first comprehensive zoning ordinance in the United States. Most of his work, both private and on committees, concerns city planning, zoning and the legal issues surrounding these fields.

Extent

16.3 cubic feet. (16.3 cubic feet.)

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence, books, articles, reports, legal briefs transcripts, and scrapbooks dealing with Bassett's tenure as a U.S. Congressman, 1902-1905, and his membership on committees and boards including the Public Service Commission of New York, the Brooklyn Committee on City Plan, the Zoning Committee of the City of New York, and the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs Committee. Papers deal primarily with zoning and city planning in New York City. Also includes many articles, reports and books authored by Bassett, such as The Master Plan, Zoning, and the Autobiography of Edward M. Bassett.

SERIES LIST

Series I. Outgoing correspondence Previously in Boxes 1-5 and now available on Microfilm only.

Series II. Incoming correspondence Box 6 (Also available on Microfilm.)

Series III. Zoning files Boxes 7-14 (Boxes 7-10 are also available on Microfilm.)

Series IV. Scrapbooks Previously in Boxes 17-22 and now available on Microfilm only.

Series V. Published materials Boxes 15-16

Available Copies:

Microfilm available for correspondence files, subject files, and scrapbooks. Boxes 1-5 contained copies of outgoing correspondence on very brittle paper and were discarded after filming. Box 6, incoming correspondence, was filmed and kept. Boxes 7-10 were filmed and kept. Boxes 11-16 were not filmed. Brittle scrapbooks in Boxes 17-22 were filmed and discarded. Box 23 was not filmed.

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Copies available through Cornell Library

  1. Fifty Years of New York Steam Service (New York: New York Steam Corporation, 1932) CU call number: TH7641 .N53 1932
  2. Porter L. Moore, The Renaissance of City Hall( (New York: Department of Public Works, 1956), CU call number: F128.8.C48 N4
  3. Latham C. Squire, Zoning in New York (New York: Home Title Guaranty Co., 1948), CU call number: NAC768.N52 S411
  4. Frank Backus Williams, The Law of City Planning and Zoning (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1922), CU call number: K3534 .W72 1922 ; NA9030 .W72
  5. Land Book of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York Desk and Library Edition (New York, New York: G.W. Bromley and Co., 1930), CU call number: G1254.N52 B86 1930 ++

Physical Description

Correspondence, books, articles, reports, legal briefs transcripts, books, and scrapbooks.

General

Contact Information:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:
N. Brown, K. Lefferts, M. Tebor, T. Hickerson
Date completed:
1977
EAD encoding:
Martin Heggestad, Ann Hubert, April-July 2002
Date modified:
RMC staff, June 2016

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by N. Brown, K. Lefferts, M. Tebor, T. Hickerson
Date
April 2002
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
ENG

Revision Statements

  • 12/07/2018: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
  • 2007-05-29: converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002

Physical Storage Information

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

https://rare.library.cornell.edu/
Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)

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