The collection contains family letters, legal documents (personal, professional, and business), primarily written by residents of New York State and miscellany; photographs of nineteenth-century portraits from the album of Elizabeth Van Rensselaer; black and white photographs taken in the mid-1950s and 1960s of Van Rensselaer family member portraits and homes; newspapers with articles relating to the Van Rensselaer family.

Jacques Judah Lyons, hazzan, rabbi and community leader, was born in Surinam and emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Minister of the New York Congregation Shearith Israel for 38 years, he gathered extensive materials on early Jewish history in the United States, Canada and the West Indies. His papers include manuscripts, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, notebooks, photographs and a Sansom ship's log book. Contains material relating to Jews in North and South America generally and more specifically to Congregation Shearith Israel and the Jews in New York, the Touro Synagogue and cemetery and the Jews in Newport, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and the West Indies. Also contains material relating to Jews in the wars of the United States, correspondence of the Jews with George Washington and items relating to Haym Salomon. Collection consists of manuscript material and five notebooks and three scrapbooks of Lyons. Contains also material not listed in calendar consisting of sermons by Lyons, a manuscript prayer book used in Surinam and a guide for religious ceremonies at Congregation Shearith Israel, as well as letters written during the Civil War period and correspondence relating to the personal life and career of Lyons.

The collection consists of John Everett's work from his positions at Hollins College, City University of New York, Encyclopedia Britannica, and The New School for Social Research. Contents include correspondence, clippings, manuscripts, reports and statements. Of special interest may be materials related to the New School's 1970 student occupation, and Everett's writings opposing desegregation and the 1968 student protests.

The Hoffman papers consists of agendas, minutes, reports, correspondence, flyers, and ephemera from Hoffman's undergraduate years at R.P.I. The bulk of the material, 1969-1973 emphasizes an intense period of campus activity and change at Rensselaer regarding political issues on campus and nationally.

Michael Kalil (1943-1991) was an interior architect, philosopher, educator and artist, known for his innovative work with new materials and for humanizing digital technologies. From 1981 to 1991, he was the principal of Kalil Designs/Kalil Studio, a firm that specialized in high-profile commercial, prototype and theoretical, and residential design commissions. Kalil also served as an adjunct faculty member at the Parsons School of Design. The collection includes Kalil's personal and professional papers, including original artwork, sketchbooks, journals, photographs, project records, architectural drawings, photoprints and sketches, design prototypes, and posthumous materials.

The Schools of Public Engagement was formed in 2011 with the reorganization of the New School for General Studies. As of 2016, the division consisted of: the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students (BPATS); the School of Languages; the School of Media Studies; the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy; and the Creative Writing Program. The collection also holds the 1991-2008 records of the World Policy Institute. Dating largely from the 1990s until 2014, these records contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, budget and financial material, and faculty and personnel files relating to the administration and governance of the Schools of Public Engagement and their predecessor programs, departments, and schools. Some files are restricted. Please email archivist@newschool.edu for details.