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, the distinguished New York arts and letters club founded in 1847.

As a 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.

Centurions have made significant contributions to cultural and civic life. Historian and CAAF founder Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. wrote: “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 […]”

Schlesinger continued, “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, CAAF continues to uphold its core mission and grow its agenda, 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 essentially concerned with the Association’s history and Centurions’ activities at the club, not members’ professional lives, except as referred to in lectures, seminars and other events held at the Century. The Foundation does not conduct research involving materials from other collections and sources.
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, the Century moved to its current midtown home, which was 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. Its original purpose was to bring artists and potential patrons together, the Century has oft been considered the more ‘bohemian’ of New York City’s private clubs. It has always aspired to keep dues as reasonable as possible, including special rates for artists.

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 the Century has over 2,000 members. It has weathered the pandemic and resumed its wide range of programs organized by members that offer lectures, concerts, dramatic productions and art exhibitions featuring the work of both amateurs and professionals. The club strives to replenish its ranks with younger members to ensure its future. 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 became mindful of its archives in the 1930s in anticipation of its centennial celebration in 1947. An appointed Centurion initially served as the club’s archivist. Rodman Gilder was the first member to hold the post.

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

Much focus and effort was put into 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. 

1960s to mid-1990s

Appointed member-archivists managed the collection to varying degrees of diligence over the ensuing decades. The Century Archives were shuttled back and forth between the bottom and top floors of the clubhouse, and many materials showed the effects of neglect. The Charles A. Platt Library donated to the club in 1942 also required cataloging and conservation attention. 

After much debate, 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. 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. 

1997 to Today

Upon the club’s sesquicentennial in 1997, the Century Association Archives Foundation was formed, spearheaded by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Ambassador William vanden Heuvel in collaboration with the club archivist Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr. 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 and the Platt library.

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 to welcome researchers. 

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 M. 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