November 25, 2009

Frank C. Moore Papers

The Department of Special Collections announces the completion of the online finding aid for the Frank Moore Papers.

moore image.jpg New York State Governor Thomas E. Dewey signs the 1950 Thruway Authority Act creating the New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA), an independent public corporation, which would build and manage the turnpike. (Moore is second from the right).

Frank Moore, a New York State politician and civil servant, held a wide range of elected and appointed positions during his fifty-year career. The collection consists primarily of the records of Moore's service in various elected and appointed positions. Materials include correspondence, memoranda, draft and final reports, research material, periodicals, photographs, meeting minutes and news clippings. Many series contain extensive files of internal research and reports that document the statistical information which guided the decision-making of Moore and his colleagues during Moore’s long career as a public servant.

After his admission to the bar in 1924, Moore established a practice in Kenmore and became counsel to the town, village and school district of that name, beginning his lifelong engagement with the problems of municipal organization in New York State. From 1927 to 1932 he served as counsel to the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on the Revision of the Town Law and was one of the principal authors of the final revision enacted in 1932. In 1933, Moore helped establish the New York State Association of Towns and became its executive secretary. And in 1938 he served as a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.

In 1942, Moore was elected New York State Comptroller and in 1950 he ran for Lieutenant Governor as part of incumbent Governor Thomas Dewey's slate of Republican candidates. He was elected to the position and served until 1953. In 1953 he resigned from the position to take up the chairmanship of the Government Affairs Foundation, a foundation established by Nelson Rockefeller. He would hold this position for the next fifteen years until the dissolution of the Foundation in 1968. Concurrently with his service at the Foundation, Moore served as Chairman, SUNY Board of Trustees and chaired or served on a wide range of commissions, conferences and committees in New York State and in the United States. Moore holds the distinction of being one of two people to serve as a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Conventions of both 1938 and 1967. Moore gradually retired from public service in the late 1960s for reasons of health. Moore died in 1978 in Crystal River, Florida.

April 17, 2009

John H. E. Fried Papers

The Department of Special Collections announces the completion of the John H. E. Fried Papers online finding aid, part of the German and Jewish Intellectual Émigré Collections.

book cover.jpg

Fried, a lawyer, professor and human rights activist, came to the United States in 1938 from Vienna, Austria shortly after its annexation by Hitler. Upon his arrival in New York in the summer of 1938, Fried joined the Institute for Social Research of Columbia University and wrote three highly acclaimed books (The Guilt of the German Army, 1942; The Significance of Democracy: Constitutional Developments and Labor Relations in Austria, 1944; and The Exploitation of Foreign Labor by Germany, 1945).

In January of 1947, the U.S. War Department requested Fried's services for a three-month survey of certain aspects of the law of war, and to serve as Consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War, assigned to the U.S. War Crimes Tribunals in Nuremberg, Germany. In March 1947, Fried was asked to remain in Nuremberg as Special Legal Consultant to the U.S. Judges at the trials, to advise on questions relating to all aspects of the law of war and war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace, as well as many other questions of international law. The proceedings of the 12 trials were published in 14 volumes, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950-1953), with the introduction to each of the twelve cases stating: "John H. E. Fried, Special Legal Consultant to the Tribunals, reviewed and approved the selection and arrangement of the material as the designated representative of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals."

Over the next three decades, Fried held academic positions at the City College of New York, Columbia University, Pittsburgh University, the New School for Social Research (NY), and from 1968 until his retirement as Professor of Political Science at the Lehman College, Graduate Faculty of the City University of New York. He continued to serve the international community, working for the United Nations in various capacities, as Legal Officer and Program Officer of the Technical Assistance Administration of the U.N., as Legal Advisor (on international law) to the Government of Nepal, and lastly as U.N. Non-Governmental Organization Representative of the Foundation for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court.

April 10, 2009

Student Newspaper Available Online From 1916-1985

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives is pleased to announce the online availability of the University at Albany’s student newspaper from 1916-1985. You can browse each issue from the State College News, 1916-1963, State University News, 1963-1964, and the Albany Student Press (ASP), 1964-1985. The ASP , 1986 - 2009, and The Echo, 1892-1916, are available in hard copy at the Special Collections' Marcia Brown Reading Room. Issues are available at: http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/studentnewspapers.htm

Support for this digital project came from the Friends of the Libraries and would not have been possible without their assistance. In collaboration with the Library Systems Department, we are developing a full text database of the newspaper that will allow searching across multiple issues, years, or decades. In addition, the Department of Special Collections will develop a plan to digitize the ASP,1986 -2009, and The Echo, 1892-1916, a student news and literary magazine.