0.9 Chapter seven: retrenchment and the struggle for survival, 19  (Page 18/20)

Following the Mellon Foundation grant, officers of the Society and NYU began work on a formal contract establishing terms and arrangements for an af­filiation. After nine drafts of the contract, NYU and the Society still were unable to reach an agreement, and on February 15, 1994, Rochell wrote to the Mellon Foundation, formally asking for a one-month extension. The Foundation granted the request.

Even with the extension, Rochell and Ross still struggled to come to an agree­ment. The major points of contention centered around NYU's desire to estab­lish clear lines of authority through the establishment of a library advisory board; NYU's redefinition of the library collections to include the prints, photographs, and architectural drawings; and the inclusion of non-New York colonial materi­als in NYU's representation of the Society's mission statement. Ross contended that these points would prove unacceptable to government officials, who had agreed to fund "an integrated Society," not a fragmented one. Ross and Winokur planned to present the contract for action at the Society's board meeting set for March 15, 1994, the very day the Mellon Foundation's grant was scheduled to lapse.

On March 14, 1994, Ross and Winokur received a letter from a group of pub­lic officials.

On the morning of March 15, an article appeared in the New York Times de­scribing the basic terms of the proposed contract. "The board of the financially starved New-York Historical Society," the article began, "is to vote this morning on an arrangement that would hand over to New York University effective con­trol over nearly all of the Society's holdings other than its art collection. Much of the art collection is expected to be sold later this year to help raise money for the Society."