About the Foundation

The Century Association Archives Foundation (CAAF) was established in 1997 to preserve, organize, and administer the historical records of the Century Association, an important New York arts and letters club founded in 1847.

As 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization operating in public interest, CAAF seeks to make these records available to researchers including art scholars, biographers, historians, genealogists, collectors, journalists, descendants of Centurions, and more. Just as the Century is part of the history of New York City and the nation, so are its archives, which shed light on events of significance outside the club.

Its members have made great civic and cultural contributions to municipal, state, and national life, wrote CAAF co-founder Arthur Schlesinger, Jr: “The Century Archives are, in effect, the biography of the club, and the club’s papers provide a unique look at American literary and artistic developments and personalities over the last century and a half […]”

The value of the Archives beyond the Club’s walls, together with the need to conserve them for future generations of Centurions, New Yorkers, and Americans, make them a worthy cause for a 501(c)(3) designation.”  Over 25 years later, the CAAF continually expands, including the establishment of an oral history program with to make sure today’s stories are available to researchers of the future.

It is also executing initiatives to digitize its holdings and create digital tools for researchers to explore its records and the information therein.

The CAAF Archivist answers nearly 200 reference inquiries a year, in addition to organizing events and exhibitions.

Note: The Century Archives are almost exclusively concerned with the history of the Century Association and the activities of the club’s members within its walls. They do not generally document the achievements of the members in their public lives. The Foundation does not undertake research of materials outside of its own collection. 
About the Century Association

The Century Association, a private social, arts, and dining club, recently celebrated its 175th anniversary. It was founded in 1847 from precursor clubs including the Sketch Club, Bread and Cheese Club, and the Column. Its first permanent clubhouse was on East 15th Street, where it hosted regular exhibitions and played a major role in the development of the New York City art world in the back half of the 19th century.

In 1892 it moved into its current Midtown headquarters, designed by leading architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White (all Century members) at 7 West 43rd Street. Members have included many esteemed artists, writers, scholars, musicians, and architects as well as 8 Presidents of the United States, ten Supreme Court Justices, and 29 Nobel Prize laureates. As it was formed with a chief goal to bring artists and patrons together, and its dues remain on the lower end of the scale, including special rates for artists, the Century has oft been considered the more ‘bohemian’ of New York City’s private clubs.

The Century maintains a low public profile and air of mystery. Its main activity is conversation and it discourages conducting business on the premises. The Century counted a small number of minority members among its ranks in the 20th century, but did not, despite much activism, accept women as members until 1988 after state legislation forced the initiative.

Today it is comprised of over 2,000 members, weathering the pandemic and restoring its programs of performances, lectures, and art exhibitions of amateurs and professionals organized by member committees, and concentrating on initiatives to diversify its roster and recruit younger Centurions so that it can endure, and evolve, for another 175 years. The Century is unique among New York City private clubs in its maintenance of a full-time professional devoted to its archives, and among almost all private clubs in making records on its past members available to qualified researchers.

How CAAF Came to Be

1930s and 1940s

The Century began to focus on its archives in the 1930s as it looked towards its centennial celebration in 1947, led by first Archivist Rodman J. Gilder. An appointed member served as the club Archivist to varying degrees of diligence and organization over the decades.

Meeting minutes, ephemera, exhibition, building & committee records, and other materials had been saved since the beginning (and even going back to before the beginning, with records of precursor clubs The Sketch Club, The Bread and Cheese Club, and The Column all maintained).

1950s

By the 1950s much focus was put on maintaining member files so that upon a member’s death, the Centurion assigned to memorialize them – a great Century tradition – would have material on their life outside and inside the club, including select letters written by members to support their candidacy for joining the Century. Around the same time, in the further interest of posterity, the club began making audio recordings of events and lectures. 

1997 to Today

It was not until 1997, upon the club’s sesquicentennial, that the Century Association Archives Foundation was formed, spearheaded by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Ambassador William vanden Heuvel. There had long been a sentiment, with evidence of inquiry to support, that scholars would be interested in the records of the Century due to its pivotal role in the New York art world, its members’ contributions to cultural and civic life, and the important networks of friendship established through club life.  

The archives had been shuttled back and forth between the bottom and top floors of the clubhouse, and many materials showed the effects of neglect. The club also needed someone to manage the cataloguing and conservation of the Charles A. Platt Library donated to the club in 1942. A foundation was deemed the most effective and sustainable way to assure that the archives were properly maintained, that they remained with the club and not within the care of an outside research institution thereby untethering the club from its rich history, and that they would continue to be shared with qualified researchers. 

Some feared claiming substantial public interest in the club archives was incompatible with the diffident, unassuming nature of the Century, but the arbiters of history won out. A loan agreement was organized between the Century and CAAF charging the latter with the maintenance and care of its institutional records. In 2009 a specially designed archives room was built as part of the club’s fifth floor renovations, where the collections and Archivist’s office still reside today.  

Executive Director and Archivist:
Brynn White

CAAF Executive Director and Archivist Brynn White oversees all archival collection management and reference services, in addition to programming, curatorial, and administrative responsibilities on behalf of the Foundation.

She holds a Masters in Library in Information Science with certification in Archiving and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage Materials, and has previously worked with collections at New-York Historical Society, Louis Armstrong House Museum, New York Society Library, American Kennel Club, and New York Public Library.

You may direct any questions regarding CAAF or the Century Association Archives to her at archives@thecentury.org

Board of Trustees

Warren Wechsler

President

Janine St.Germain

Secretary

Jonathan Kagan

Treasurer

Ralph R. Baylor

Public Trustee

Sally Brazil

Public Trustee

Ellen Iseman

Member Trustee

Nancy Kopans

Public Trustee

Daniel Okrent

Member Trustee

Paul Provost

Member Trustee

Donald S. Rice

Member Trustee

James Allen Smith

Member Trustee

Edward L. Widmer

Member Trustee

Peter Wolf

Member Trustee

Our Founders

Events and encounters at the Century have shaped American culture and civic life. Its three founders regarded the Association’s archives as indispensable to understanding the nation’s art and history.

Ambassador vanden Heuvel organized and assembled support for the non-profit, public benefit foundation that administers, conserves and presents the club’s growing archival treasury.

The ambassador said Henry Cooper “showed us the way” by identifying, salvaging and securely housing invaluable reports, correspondence, photographs, film, audio recordings and other material, some of it dating back to the association’s mid-19th century origins.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., whom Ambassador vanden Heuvel called “the pre-eminent historian of our time,” fostered the foundation’s mission. At the Century’s rostrum, Arthur Schlesinger often emphasized that history is to the nation what memory is to the individual. He stressed that the Archives – the association’s institutional memory – were essential to understanding the  club’s values, its membership and its role in cultural and civic affairs.

Here are brief sketches of our founders, written by current CAAF president Warren Wechsler.

CAAF MEDAL

Since 2006, the CAAF has awarded medals to individuals who personify the Century’s heritage of cultural and civic leadership. Close friends and colleagues from within and outside the Association make special remarks on the honoree’s community contributions and friendship at a special luncheon and medal presentation ceremony.

  • Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

    2006

  • David Rockefeller

    2008

  • William J. vanden Heuvel

    2012

  • Joan K. Davidson

    2015

  • Barbara Goldsmith

    2016

  • Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

    2017

  • Theodore C. Rogers

    2017

  • Robert A. Caro

    2018

  • Betsy Gotbaum

    2022