Research: Topics: Environment: Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Preliminary Guide to Environmental Sources
Historical Records Repositories in New York State
State University of New York. University at Albany. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives. University Libraries.
Albany, NY
- Albany, NY County Civic Center. Collection, 1984-88.
.75 ft.
Reports and other records pertaining to the environmental impact of the construction of the Albany County Civic Center (the Knickerbocker Arena, now the Pepsi Arena), a multi-purpose sports, entertainment, and convention center that opened in downtown Albany, N.Y. in 1989.
- Associated Industries of New York State. Records, 1914-1981.
9.0 linear ft.
A statewide advocacy group founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1914 and dedicated "to improve the business climate in New York State and to promote the welfare of its members and their employees." With its headquarters in Buffalo since 1914 and Albany since 1962, Associated Industries monitored legislation (e.g. workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, environmental pollution, and cost and quality of education) in order to promote legislation favorable to business. Associated Industries of New York State is a direct predecessor of The Business Council of New York State, Inc., which was formed in 1980 by the merger of Associated Industries and the Empire State Chamber of Commerce.
Minutes of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 1914-79; speeches and subject files of Raymond T. Schuler, its president, 1975-79; the monthly magazine "Monitor" and other publications, 1914-79; and other records.
Access to these records is unrestricted.
Requests for permission to publish material from these records should be discussed with the Head of Special Collections and Archives. - Concerned Citizens Against Crossgates. Records, 1979-1984.
5.25 linear ft.
Concerned Citizens Against Crossgates (CCAC) was organized in 1979 as a citizens coalition opposed to the construction of the Crossgates Regional Shopping Mall in the Albany Pine Bush, Guilderland, New York by the Pyramid Company, of Syracuse, New York. CCAC grew to have over 3,000 members from Albany, Guilderland, and other communities, but disbanded after the mall was under construction.
Correspondence of CCAC leaders with local and state officials and politicians, briefs, counter-briefs, and exhibits submitted to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, 1979-80, prior to DEC granting approval for the construction of the Crossgates Regional Shopping Mall in the Albany Pine Bush, Guilderland, New York; submissions to DEC, 1980-83; legal papers relating to the suits of CCAC vs. Robert Flacke (Commissioner of DEC), 1980-82, vs. the Town of Guilderland Zoning Board of Appeals, 1980-83, and vs. the Town of Guilderland concerning the water merger vote, 1980-83; and impact studies on the economy and environment relating to air quality, wildlife, society and traffic. The records also include records of meetings, reports, press releases, newspaper clippings, and other records of a citizens' group founded to prevent the construction of the shopping mall.
Access to these records is unrestricted.
Requests for permission to publish material from these records should be discussed with the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Finding aids: Unpublished finding aid available at repository. - Crossgates Regional Shopping Mall. Collection, 1979-1982.
7.5 linear ft.
The Pyramid Company, Syracuse, New York, applied to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Transportation in 1979 for permission to build the Crossgates Regional Mall (opened 1984) in the Albany Pine Bush, Guilderland, New York.
Artificial collection of reports, legal briefs, stenographic transcriptions of hearings, environmental impact statements, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials collected by a member of Concerned Citizens Against Crossgates, a citizens coalition opposed to the construction of the Crossgates Regional Shopping Mall in the Albany Pine Bush, Guilderland, New York, by the Pyrimid Company, Syracuse, New York.
Access to these records is unrestricted. Requests for permission to publish material from these records should be discussed with the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Finding aids: Unpublished finding aid available at repository. - Society for the Preservation of Water Resources. Records, 1977-1987.
8.0 linear ft.
The Society for the Preservation of Water Resources began in 1977 as the Society for the Preservation of the Aquifer and was incorporated in 1981 as a not-for-profit corporation "to promote the protection of Schenectady County water resources" through citizens' action. The group's primary goal was attempting to prevent Wilmorite, Inc., from building Rotterdam Square Mall over the Great Flats Aquifer and Bonded Concrete, Inc., from mining gravel from this natural aquifer in Rotterdam, Schenectady, New York.
Includes files on the Wilmorite, Bonded Concrete, and Brodway Mall projects, 1977-85; newspaper clippings, 1978-86; maps, photographs, and drawings, 1978-81; general files, 1981-83; day files, 1981-85; meeting minutes and agenda, 1981-87.
Access to these records is unrestricted.
Requests for permission to publish material from these records should be discussed with the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Unpublished finding aid in repsository. - Vincent Schaefer. Vincent Schaefer papers, 1891-1979, 1922-1979
(bulk).
100.0 linear feet
Physicist. Papers relating to his career at State University of New York at Albany and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center including correspondence, notes, manuscripts, maps, reports on environmental projects, photographs, and clippings, 1922-79; also a personal diary, 1948-51. Correspondents include Rachel Carson, 1956-61; Arthur Parker, 1922-35; and P. Van Epps, 1923-25. Materials pertaining to General Electric include instructions to foremen, 1891, and Schaefer's correspondence, studies, and consultation reports to GE. Other items include correspondence and mss. of Irving Langmuir, 1940-50; and correspondence and files of Munitalp Foundation Inc., 1952-59.
Finding aids: Folder list.
State University of New York. University at Buffalo. University Archives. University Libraries.
Buffalo, NY
- Adeline Levine. Love Canal collection, 1953-1981
4 Mss. boxes; 2.0 linear ft.
Reports, documents, photocopies of correspondence and other material used by Dr. Adeline Levine, Department of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, as background for her book Love Canal: Science, Politics and People published by Lexington Books in 1982. The bulk of the documents date from 1978 to 1981, but a few items concern the original transfer of the Love Canal site to the Niagara Falls Board of Education in 1953. The reports, memoranda, letters and other documents are arranged alphabetically by author, following the order used in the bibliography of Dr. Levine's book.
- David B. Straus. David B. Straus papers, 1970-1971.
0.5 cubic ft.
Professor of biochemistry.
Papers regarding proposals by Straus and Dr. Edward J. Massaro to establish federally funded National Environmental Laboratory at SUNY at Buffalo and to establish a program in Environmental Science and Health; includes copies of proposals, correspondence, reports, minutes, and other materials.
Gift of David B. Straus, 1973.
Finding aids: Container list. - Ecumenical Task Force of the Niagara Frontier. Records, 1979-1991
145.5 linear ft.
The records of the Ecumenical Task Force, 1979-1991 (97 Cartons; 145.5 linear feet) contain extensive documentation of the toxic waste controversies associated with the Love Canal and related toxic waste sites in Niagara County, New York. The ETF assembled a resource file of government and other reports concerning the Love Canal and related environmental issues. The reports in the resource file and elsewhere in the records include draft documents, photocopied statements prepared by Love Canal residents, scientists and ETF members for hearings on the Love Canal, speeches, consultant reports, articles, as well as printed reports. A number of these reports and documents were never formally published. The ETF also kept extensive files of newspaper clippings documenting the controversy. The work of the ETF itself is documented by its publications, minutes, correspondence and subject files, documenting the work of a grass roots organization. Also included in the files are court documents in cases concerning Love Canal and the clean-up of the site involving Hooker Chemical, Occidental Chemical, the Love Canal Area Revitalization Agency and government agencies. Minutes and documents of the Technical Review Committee and the Love Canal Revitalization Agency are also included
- Lauren B. Hitchcock, 1900-1972. Lauren B. Hitchcock, 1900-1972
papers, 1923-1966.
1.5 cubic ft.
Professor of engineering. Hitchcock was a pioneer in the fight against air pollution. He was director of Ecology and Environment, Inc., a Buffalo-based national environmental consulting firm. Copies of publications, 1923-62, concerning chemical technology, especially concerning water and air pollution, and the behavior of gases; notes from teaching career at the University of Virginia, 1928-32; and several albums of photographs and clippings presented to Hitchcock by the companies and organizations with which he worked.
Gift of John Hitchcock and Cynthia Doolittle, 1972.
State University of New York. Ulster County Community College. MacDonald Dewitt Library. Special Collections.
Stone Ridge, NY
- State Water Supply Commission scrapbook, 1905.
1 v.
Scrapbook of clippings reporting on hearings before the State Water Supply Commission at Kingston in 1905 relating to the first application for a new water supply to be constructed in the Catskills for New York City.
- Ulster County Community College (Stone Ridge, N.Y.). MacDonald
Dewitt Library. Special Collections. Ulster County-Hudson Valley vertical
file, 1829-1987.
10 cubic ft.
Arrangement: By subject.
Reproduction note: Clippings are photocopies.
Clippings, newsletters, articles, reports, proceedings, souvenir and illustrated booklets, pamphlets, programs, research papers, speeches, tourist brochures, and other items pertaining to Ulster County, the Catskill Mountains, and the Hudson Valley. Subjects include the anti-rent troubles, archaeology, architecture, artists, Ashokan Reservoir, John Burroughs, canals, education, environmental policy, folklore, geology, historic buildings, the Hudson River, Indians, Lake Minnewaska, Mohonk Mountain House, music, natural history, and New York State. Items of note include a thank-you letter from John Burroughs, 1886; a typescript report on the at Woodstock and Glenford dikes, Ashokan Reservoir, 1918; and miscellaneous papers of Charles G. Hoerner, division engineer with the New York City Board of Water Supply, consisting of letters, reports, memoranda, graphs, and drawings pertaining to the Delaware Aqueduct, Shandaken Tunnel, and other aspects of New York City's water supply from the Catskills, 1940s-1950s.
Finding aids: Subject list.
