The New School Archives And Special Collections

Interior design sketches and detail studies from Daniel Lashen's studies at Parsons School of Design in New York and in Italy. Lashen graduated from Parsons in 1950.

David Corcos Levy served as dean of Parsons School of Design from 1970 until 1989. The bulk of these records were generated between 1970 and 1984, after the merger of Parsons and the New School for Social Research, and consist of memos, correspondence, reports, and subject files related to Levy's administrative tenure. Correspondents include a range of New School and Parsons administrators, including New School president John R. Everett.

Categories and subjects represented herein include developing and implementing new degree programs; the process of merging academic institutions, including the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles; faculty relations and unionization; accreditation; program and department establishment and design; and fundraising activities. Also found here are materials created by the Parsons Board of Trustees and, after the merger, the New School Board of Overseers.

The collection contains administrative documents, letters of support, remarks, photographs, and ephemera gathered by David Hahn, business manager of the École Libre des Hautes Études.

David Nadien was an American classical violinist and Mannes College of Music teacher. The collection includes programs, contracts, reviews, biographies, obituaries, awards and honors, photographs, public relations materials, a small amount of correspondence, sheet music, and a 1952 "Seasons Greetings" ceramic plate from the television variety show, "Your Show of Shows."

David Saperton was an American pianist, composer, and teacher who notably performed and recorded much of the music of his father-in-law, renowned pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky. The papers include Saperton’s music manuscripts, correspondence, and several photographs he collected.

The Democracy Seminar, a network of seminars that ran from 1984 to 1994, and again from 2018 to the present (2021), were semi-clandestine meetings of scholars held simultaneously in Warsaw, Budapest and New York, before spreading to cities across Eastern and Central Europe. The seminar discussed topics in democratic politics and culture, and was the genesis of the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies at The New School for Social Research.

The Democracy Seminar oral history project consists of interviews conducted by Ph.D. sociology candidate Jack Wells with three sociology faculty members who were deeply involved with the Democracy Seminar: Jeffrey Goldfarb, Elzbieta Matynia and Andrew Arato.

Dero Darwin, Jr. (1929-2014) graduated from Parsons School of Design's Interior Design Department in 1964. This collection includes design work Darwin produced as a student, as well as lecture notes and course materials, and material from Darwin's professional design career.

The Designer files collection was assembled by Kellen Design Archives staff between approximately 1994 and 2008 from a variety of sources (on occasion new files continue to be added). Subjects are typically Parsons School of Design graduates, visiting critics, lecturers, or faculty. Folder contents may include press clippings, work samples, ephemera, slides, and such printed materials as business cards, postcards, and pamphlets.

For each letter of the alphabet, general folders contain information about multiple designers by last name or common business name.

The collection is comprised of a digital scan of a single photograph and a print created from the digital file depicting attendees at a dinner for the New School for Social Research's University in Exile held on January 15, 1936 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Donald Brooks (1928-2005) was a prominent American fashion designer who, in addition to creating ready-to-wear collections and custom apparel, designed costumes for film, television, and theater. He taught at Parsons School of Design for approximately forty years. The collection includes photographs, publicity materials, and original fashion and costume design sketches.