The Harkness Family Papers are the private records of Edward S. and Mary S. Harkness. These documents are concerned with their donations to universities, schools, institutions and individuals. There is a great quantity of information on donations to schools and universities like Phillips Exeter Academy, Columbia, Harvard, Yale and others. There is a book on the residential halls of Yale University in the Harkness Family Volumes. The Harkness Family provided funds for organizations like the Pilgrim Trust in which further information can be found in the Harkness Family Volumes. There are other institutions which the Harkness family contributed to like Presbyterian Hospital, New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gifts and donations for servants, friends and family are documented. Members of the family include the Russels, the Stillmans and the Taylors. There are records of the Harkness family. These are mostly concerned with Edward S. Harkness' Estate and Trust after his death. The Harkness Family Volumes contains condolences offered at his death. The Harkness Family papers were examined by Malcolm P. Aldrich, Trustee of the Edward S. Harkness Estate. These documents consist mostly of correspondence, financial data, legal documents and reports.

Types of records include: meeting minutes, correspondence, speeches, and reports.

Prior to 1925 the Commonwealth Fund granted only limited monies for the building or enlargement of hospitals, i.e., to Yale University for improvements to the New Haven Hospital, to the Grenfell Association for small hospitals in Newfoundland, to the Presbyterian Board of Missions for a hospital at Point Barrow, Alaska, and to Memorial Hospital in New York City to aid in the construction of a new building. The Fund's experiences with the Child Health Demonstrations included more than just child health services and brought the realization of the need for improved medical and surgical facilities in rural America. In June 1925 Henry C. Wright, hospital consultant, studied the possibilities of improving rural hospital services. Wright's study led to the establishment of the Division of Rural Hospitals and the appointment, in March 1926, of a director, Henry J. Southmayd, who served in that capacity throughout the division's existence.

Types of records include: financial material and general files.

Types of records include: meeting minutes, financial statements, and reports.

Types of records include: grant files and applications.

The work of the Division on Community Clinics continued the efforts of Division II of the Program for the Prevention of Delinquency. Division II began its first demonstration child guidance clinic at St. Louis on May 10, 1922. With the expiration of the CF's five year program, the Cleveland Clinic's (December 31, 1926) and the Philadelphia Clinic's (June 30, 1927), demonstration nature ended, and they became permanent independent bodies. The entire Division II program was revised to stress increased use of the supervisory and consulting functions of the Division's field consultant staff, and promoted 1) continued contact with and supervision of the permanent clinics, and 2) additional field service to cities requesting assistance and advice regarding mental hygiene problems and programs.

Types of records include: blueprints, photographs, and maps. Images document the Harkness Family, Harkness House, Harkness Fellows. This series also contains a variety of material separated from the body of the early Commonwealth Fund grant records including grants in public health, rural hositals and disease research (FA290 Commonwealth Fund Grants, SG 1, Series 18.1) as well as the Division of Publications (FA285 SG 1, Series 13).

Series 4 contains annual reports from 1919-2002. A complete run of bound reports is available in the RAC Library. Individual soft cover reports are available in the archival collection. The Annual Report for 1986 is not available in the archival collection, but it is accessible in the RAC Library. Series 4 also contains a small selection of other reports and pamphlets spanning the mid-1980's through 1994.

The Commonwealth Fund announced its Child Health Program on June 29, 1922. The goals of the five year program were "safe-guarding the health of the mother-to-be, laying a good health foundation for children in the early sensitive and formative period of their growth and health supervision and the formation of the essential health habits in school children." The responsibility for the conduct of the demonstrations rested with the American Child Health Association, which had been recently formed through the merger of the American Child Hygiene Association and the Child Health Organization of America. The Child Health Demonstration Committee of the Commonwealth Fund oversaw the program, with Barry C. Smith chairman and Courtenay Dinwiddie executive director. Other notable participants in the program include Philip Van Ingen, Richard A. Bolt, L. Emmett Holt, Sally Lucas Jean, Livingston Farrand, Donald B. Armstrong, and Barbara S. Quin.