Ittleson Foundation, Inc. Records, 1938-1987

Summary

Creator:
Ittleson Foundation
Abstract:
This collection contains records from the Ittleson Foundation. The collection has 4 series: Ittleson Foundation Information, Organizations Supported, Organizations Declined, and Blanche Ittleson.
Extent:
95 boxes 39.62 linear feet
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The Ittleson Foundation collection has been arranged into four series. The collection bulk dates are from the 1950's through the mid-1980's. The records from the second and third series are arranged alphabetically by name of organization. Within each folder the records are in reverse chronological order as they were received, and the papers were not placed in chronological order.

Ittleson Foundation Information: contains a book written about the Foundation by the founders' grandchildren, an annual report, and a statement of policy.

Organizations Supported: The vast majority of the collection consists of the records of the organizations which the Ittleson Foundation supported. Files include proposals, letters indicating support of projects, other correspondence, progress reports and other reports of the organization, financial statements, reports of the National Information Bureau, and published material prepared by the organizations. Meeting reports refer to reports prepared principally by the Foundation's secretary, Nina Ridenour, and presented to the trustees as a follow-up on grants already made. General correspondence refers to correspondence primarily with organizations seeking funds and includes invitations to conferences or special events. The following provides examples of the broad range of organizations which have received grants from the Ittleson Foundation: American Jewish Committee, American Public Health Association, Bank Street College of Education, Child Study Association of America, Child Welfare Information Services Inc., Hospital Audiences, Inc., Ittleson Center for Child Research, Jewish Board of Guardians, Jewish Theological Seminary, Maimonides Hospital of Brooklyn: Project on ESP and Dreams Menninger Foundation, National Association for Mental Health, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center: Center for Occupational Mental Health, New York University Medical Center, Planned Parenthood-World Population, San Francisco State College: Institute for Psychedelic Research, Washington University: Blanche F. Ittleson Chair of Child Psychiatry, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, World Federation for Mental Health. Of special interest are two recipients of support that reflect Blanche Ittleson's long standing interest in the mental health of children: In 1953 the Foundation established the Bronx based Henry Ittleson Center for Child Research, a group whose purpose is the treatment and study of severely disturbed children and their families. And in 1956, the Foundation became the first such organization to endorse a professorship in child psychiatry, The Blanche F. Ittleson Chair in Child Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.

Organizations Declined: consist of correspon­dence and proposals of organizations whose requests were denied. Some of the organizations had been funded for other projects, and some organizations were applying for the first time. Most of these records date from the mid­ l960's to mid-1970's.

Blanche Ittleson: consists primarily of biographical information in various forms of the wife of the founder of the Ittleson Foundation. The biographical information is composed chiefly of material from the 1960's, such as press releases, press photographs, news clippings, material regarding Blanche lttleson awards on behalf of the Social Work Recruiting Center, in addition to information pertaining to awards and honoring degrees presented to Mrs. Ittleson. There are also texts of some of her talks and a copy of her circular letters and log she maintained while on a two month world tour in 1957 emphasizing mental health. The dinner held in her honor contains correspondence, press releases, news clippings, biographical sketches of guests and of Mrs. Ittleson, a transcription of official remarks made at a dinner given in honor of Mrs. Ittleson's contributions to mental health. One dinner was sponsored in 1960 by the Social Work Recruiting Committee of Greater New York, and the second was in honor of her 90th birthday in 1965. The 90th birthday contributions contains correspondence awards unsolicited grants to a variety of organizations in honor of Mrs. Ittleson's 90th birthday. Most of these grants were made between 1965 and 1968. The last subseries Correspondence and Photographs contains correspondence between Mrs. Ittleson and Nina Ridenour primarily about Foundation business. This subseries also consists of professional black and white glossy photographs of Mrs. Ittleson and others taken during special events.

Biographical / historical:

The Ittleson Family Foundation (known as the Ittleson Foundation from 1940 until 1975) was established by Henry Ittleson in 1932. Mr. Ittleson had founded the present CIT Financial Corporation in 1908 in St. Louis, Missouri. This was at one time the nation's largest consumer and industrial financing firm with headquarters in New York from 1915 until 1953. It is currently a diversified financing, insurance, and manufacturing firm. Mr. Ittleson, as presiding trustee of the Foundation, and his wife, Blanche F. Ittleson, and their son, Henry Ittleson, Jr., as trustees continued in their respective roles until 1948. In that year Mr. Ittleson died and Henry Ittleson, Jr. became the presiding trustee. His children, Henry Anthony Ittleson and Pamela Lee Ittleson, also played a major role in the Foundation.

The initial and broad statement of purpose of the Ittleson Foundation from the 1932 trust indenture states as follows: "...the promotion of the well-being of mankind throughout the world, including as means to that end, research, publication, the establishment and maintenance of charitable, religious, and educational activities, agencies and institutions, and the aid of any such activities, agencies, and institutions already established..." Since 1948 the major interests of the Ittleson Foundation have been focused on the fields of health, welfare, public education for mental health, and intercultural relations. These fields were of particular interest to Blanche Ittleson and Henry Ittleson, Jr. Within these major interests, special emphasis was placed on two interlocking areas: first, mental health and second, the mental, physical, and social well-being of children. Psychiatric and behavioral research was an essential part of these emphases as was the effective organization and delivery of services.

According to the 1987 annual report, the Ittleson Foundation was interested in providing seed money for the start-up of innovative programs that would improve the social welfare of citizens of the United States. Preference was given to pilot projects, test and demonstration projects, and applied research that ideally should inform public policy, if successful. The Foundation also supported dissemination projects. Areas of particular interest were: 1) Mental Health: The Foundation was especially interested in innovative projects that addressed underserved populations, such as elderly, poor, and minority communities. It encouraged projects that linked formal professional competence to informal networks of support in order to make services available. The Foundation was also interested in projects that addressed the consequences of AIDS on the mental health of people. 2) Environment: This was a new area for the Foundation and projects were being sought to educate and involve citizens more deeply in environmental issues. 3) Elderly: The Foundation wanted to help engage elderly people in both paid and volunteer roles in projects that served public interests or solved significant social problems. 4) Crime and Justice: There were two priorities: to help prevent and control crime and to help youthful offenders outgrow criminality.

The Foundation did not generally support capital building projects, endowments, grants to individuals, scholarships or internships (except as part of a program), or continuing support to existing programs. It did not support programs of direct service to individuals with only a local focus or constituency. The Foundation usually did not contribute to the humanities or cultural projects, to general education, to fellowships, travel grants, or international grants. Much of the story of the Ittleson Foundation is the story of Blanche Ittleson, wife of the founder, who died in 1975 shortly before her 100th birthday. She worked her entire adult lifetime to establish programs that would develop the mental, psychological, and emotional health of children and adults. The Foundation has been fortunate through the years in the high quality of its executive staff leadership in the persons of Nina Ridenour, Ph.D. (1952-1967) and William T. Beaty, II (1967-1988) and David M. Nee.

Acquisition information:
The records of the Ittleson Foundation, Inc. were donated in 1976, 1982, and 1988.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Oskar Diethelm Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Location of this collection:
DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy and the Arts
Weill Cornell Medical College
525 East 68th Street, Box 140
New York, NY 10065, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
212-746-3728