The Harry Scherman Library served as the main library facility for the Mannes College of Music from 1965 to 2016, originating at Mannes’s 157 East 74th Street location, and later existing at 150 West 85th Street from 1984 to 2016. The Scherman Library, over the course of its history, stored various music-related items of ephemera which constitute this collection.

The New School Archives staff created the Mannes College of Music administrative records collection by integrating several collections documenting the Mannes College of Music (now, Mannes School of Music). The collection includes correspondence, event flyers, photographs, legal records, meeting minutes, illustrations, administrative records and reports.

This collection consists of news clipping files and scrapbooks that document Mannes from its founding through the early 1990s. The scrapbooks, which cover the school's early history through the 1960s, contain concert programs, advertisements, and news articles. Other scrapbooks, some from before the establishment of Mannes, document the activities of the school's founders, David and Clara Mannes, in their work as musicians and educators.