Records of the three clubs which served as major tributaries to the Century Association. 10 members of The Bread and Cheese, a lunch club founded c.1824 by James Fenimore Cooper and active until his 1826 departure for Europe joined 15 others in 1829 to comprise The Sketch Club, an informal discussion group for art, politics and books. 25 Sketch Club members were among the Century’s 42 incorporators, including: Gulian C. Verplanck (first President, 1857-1864), William Cullen Bryant (third President, 1868-1878), and Asher B. Durand. 10 Century founders were also members of The Column, a literary society formed in 1824 at Columbia College, which merged with the Century in 1901. 

Includes Board of Management, Committee, and Officers’ files, and Minutes of the Monthly Business Meeting, where candidates are elected to membership, and the Board of Management, which begin in 1847 with the founding of the Century Association. The governance of the club is represented by files for the House Committee, and its President, Secretary, and Treasurer, including annual audited Financial Reports.  

Records of committee activities, including minutes, reports, correspondence, event programs, further compliment the event files.  Materials from the Committees on Literature, Music, Drama, Film, Wine, Publications, Distinguished Visitors, Bequests, Memorials, and others, in addition to the Committee on Committees supplement knowledge of events and member participation in club activity and programming. 

The House Art and Exhibition Committee records are among the most heavily researched in the collection, as the Century was perhaps the most important showplace for new art following the Civil War. Documentation exists for almost all works exhibited at the club between 1847 and 1924, often in the form of exhibition lists, catalogs, correspondence, and diagrams. The collection includes additional records for most shows exhibited between 1942 and the present. 

The Member Files are the backbone of the research collection. Beginning in the 1920s, the Admissions Committee began selectively saving letters of support – chiefly written by proposers and seconders – on behalf of successful candidates. Proving useful to Centurions penning memorials on recently deceased members, the files were soon supplemented by photographs, curricula vitae, and correspondence pertaining to club activities. In some cases, the Archivist, the member themselves, or their fellow Centurions contributed external materials such as pamphlets, catalogues, obituaries, and other material.  In particular, the letters of support are one of the most unique and valuable records held in the Archives, and available to researchers five years after the death of the subject. 

For more intensive research, guest registers (1912-present) and member registers (1968-1970; 1980-present), are accessible with restrictions. These underseen treasures provide a snapshot of who was moving through the club at specific times, and a project is underway to record notable attendees from eras of interest.  Ledgers which members signed in support of candidates for admission (1892-1947 and 1958-1986) are also available. 

The club has a long-held tradition of soliciting member portraits for the Archives, to build on original founder albums and the collection of Frederick Hill Meserve, the first scholarly collector in the U.S. of photographs of prominent Centurions.  

In addition to the memorials published in the annual yearbook, individually bound memorials from a variety of sources are available to researchers, as well as collections commemorating the service of members in World War I and II.  

Anniversary celebrations, festivals, special dinners, and other major events at the club are documented in guest lists, correspondence, and more. Also included are group portraits, candids, and professional photographs from Century events, such as anniversary celebrations and, most notably, the elaborately costumed Twelfth Night parties the club has hosted on and off since 1857. Scrapbooks, albums, and photos taken surreptitiously by members have also made their way into the collection. 

The Archives holds over 1,000 recordings (and counting) of events held at the club dating back to 1954. All original reel-to-reel and cassette tapes have been digitized for preservation purposes. It is a veritable treasure trove of Century history, containing almost all monthly meeting and new member addresses since recording technology was first deployed at the club, as well as other significant events and lectures.  

Archivist-assembled files of internal and external research on various topics related to the club: from adjacent organizations to the debates over gambling and card-playing in the clubhouse to the cats that used to call the Century home.

From their first publication in 1890 to the present, the Century’s yearbooks are often the starting point for research in the collection. In addition to the club’s Constitution, House Rules, listings of officers and committees, and reports from committee chairs, they also include member’s residential addresses (often critical to biographers), and memorial tributes written for members still active upon their passing. 

The Bulletin debuted in December 1928, and has since become the definitive guide to the club’s decades of diverse activities. Issues often contain brief articles on aspects of the club’s history or current events, authored by such member wordsmiths as editors Brendan Gill, Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr. and John Russell. 

Architectural blueprints, correspondence, invoices, and more, document the design, construction, furbishing, and renovations of the Century’s present landmark home at 7 West 43rd Street, completed by the firm of McKim, Mead, & White in 1891. A recent acquisition of almost 2,000 diagrams and blueprints is awaiting processing. 

Invitations, posters, scrapbooks, and assorted memorabilia round out the Archives. The collection of bookplates of members – some dated as early as the mid-19th century – initiated by original Archivist Rodman Gilder in 1940 and revived in 2002, was the subject of the exhibition Ex Libris Centurio (2003). Theodore Steinway’s stamp collection which formed the theme and most of the materials of the 2009 exhibition Centurions on Stamps, is maintained in the Archives.