This series contains program files and planning records of the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Health Policy. The majority of the material is grant administration files documenting the planning and implementation of the Fellowship. These records often include: proposals, administration and budget files, grant products, evaluation reports, related correspondence and background material.

Types of records include: correspondence, clippings, programs, and publications.

Material in this Communications series includes: Press Clippings 2000-2002, Commonwealth Fund Publications 2001-2008, and a variety of historical files documenting the history of the Fund, its programs, and it's headquarters - the Harkness House. This series also contains a print archive of the Commonwealth Fund website 2003-2009, including monthly snapshots of the website. Available records also document the Fund's 75th Anniversary celebration and related publications.

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.

The Commonwealth Fund established the Division of Health Studies as a separate division on April 1, 1931. The purposes of the organization were 1) to make periodic studies of the health conditions in the various communities in which the Commonwealth Fund worked, 2) assist in the development of division programs through the planning of administrative records and the appraisal of results, 3) conduct special studies in the field of health as from time to time seemed important in the development of the work of the Fund or would be of broad application.

The Commonwealth Fund's Division of Publications series is concerned with the publishing of books, journals, articles, and pamphlets. This series consists of correspondence, reports, financial papers, and a few pamphlets and books. The documents are mostly concerned with the financing and publishing of books, and the relationship of the Division with the authors and publishing companies.

The Commonwealth Fund announced in late 1929 a new project that began operation on January 1, 1930, and promoted rural health and medical service in the United States. The new program, instead of emphasizing child care, comprised all health services in rural communities. Initially the project was limited to two states, Tennessee (1930-1945) and Massachusetts (1930-1945), and to two counties or districts in each state. Later the program was also active in Mississippi (1931-1947), Oklahoma (1938-1949), Alabama (1938-1942), Arkansas (1945-1947), California, Florida (1945-1947), Kentucky (1945-1947), Louisiana (1946), Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington. Dr. William J. French, the first director of the CF's child-health demonstration in Fargo, North Dakota, and former head of the CF's Austrian Program, was named director. French resigned his post on April 4, 1931, and on May 15, 1931, Clarence L. Scamman became the new director of the Division.

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.

Only two files from the Commonwealth Fund's Educational Research Program remain. The rest were destroyed on February 25, 1949, under Barry C. Smith's instructions. The first file, The Survey of Rural Education in New York State, was appeal #287 and received the Commonwealth code designation 1225-S. This survey, begun in 1920, represents one of the earliest projects funded by the CF. A "Committee of Twenty One" comprised of noted New York educators oversaw the survey project. Members from the Dairyman's League, The New York State Department of Education, the Farm Bureau Federation, the State Grange, the State College of Agriculture, the New York State Teachers Association, and the New York State Federation of Home Bureaus actively participated in the survey. Samuel C. Fairley, assistant director of the Commonwealth Fund, George M. Wiley of the University of the State of New York, and John H. Finley, New York State Commissioner of Education, directed the survey.

This series documents the Commonwealth Fund's activities in the area of elderly care including but not necessarily limited to medicare, medicaid, nursing home care, treatment, as well as chronic illness and end of life care. The records consist of staff program files, advisory committee meeting records, program reviews, and pertinent grants. The grant files often contain records pertaining to: budget and administration, proposals and development, articles and background information, correspondence, grant products and related program files.