News
Exhibition | CONTEXT: Art, Books, and Freedom
In “CONTEXT: Art, Books, and Freedom,” an ongoing exhibition in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, artist and curator Meg Hitchcock brings together 15 artists whose work uses books as "means to question its own authority within the context of a revered liberal arts library."
On View | Streets Taken: Photography by Edward Schwartz and Francisco Javier Ramírez
Currently on view in Butler Library, "Streets Taken" places the photographs and archival materials of Edward Schwartz from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in conversation with new works from MFA candidate Francisco Javier Ramírez.
Archiving the Red Scare in New York’s Schools and Colleges
Guest writer Ava Rosenstein, a senior at Bard High School Early College Queens, visits the Rare Book & Manuscript Library to research the Rapp-Coudert Committee that investigated "subversive activity in the New York school system" during the Red Scare.
A to Z of Oral History | I is for Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality Oral History Collection
An A-to-Z guide to the Libraries' Oral History Archives: 'I' is for the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality Oral History Project, comprised of interviews with 36 individuals involved in the founding and development of the institute.
On View | Windows into the Past: Columbia College Class Albums, 1856-1890
Columbia College students in the late 19th century harnessed the emerging art of photography to collect classmates' images in keepsake volumes, a selection of which are currently on view in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Echoes of the Epicenter: The New York City COVID-19 Narrative and Memory Oral History Collection Now Accessible
The New York City COVID-19 Narrative and Memory oral history collection, which captures "the voices and stories of those who lived through the crisis in the pandemic’s initial global epicenter," is now accessible to researchers.
Research from the RBML | Tessa Roynon Writes about Toni Morrison’s Editorial List
Tessa Roynon, librarian at the Swan School, discusses the significance of the Toni Morrison editorial papers, which track her work with a host of renowned and canonical authors, including Toni Cade Bambara and Lucille Clifton.
Columbia University Libraries Acquires the Archival Collection of MINUTIAE Mobile App
Columbia University Libraries announces the acquisition of the archival collection of a mobile application, MINUTIAE, among the first of the archives of a mobile application, which documents the content, development, and experience of the "anti-social media app."
Now Available | Columbia School of Library Service Records
University archivists recently processed the alumni files in the Columbia School of Library Service records, which include materials related to the coursework of groundbreaking librarian, curator, and cataloger Dorothy (Burnett) Porter Wesley, B.S. 1931, M.S. 1932.
Show Me Your Cards: Communicating in the Days of Yore
Before texts, tweets, and swipes, there were calling cards, cartes de visite, and dance cards: the original social media of centuries past. These small pieces of ephemera, currently on display in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, tell how we connected, flirted, and formed relationships before the digital age.
Meet Flora Harpham
University archivists introduce Florence Ellen (F. E.) Harpham, the first woman to become a member of the Columbia faculty in 1896 as a "computer" in the Department of Astronomy; her work included analysis of the some of the earliest celestial photographs taken in the United States.
An A-to-Z of Oral History at Columbia: 5000 Pages with Richard D. Heffner
An A-to-Z guide to the Libraries' Oral History Archives: 'H' is for a 1997 oral history interview of more than 5,000 pages with Richard D. Heffner, academic, broadcast journalist, and former chairperson of the voluntary film rating system in the motion picture industry.
Historias: Latino Arts and Activisms Collections at RBML
The latest installment in the Curatorial Shorts event series will highlight the Latino Arts and Activisms collection, which stewards the archives of Latinos and Latino organizations in New York and other regions, including Dominican-American writer Josefina Báez.
A Revolutionary Friendship: Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama
A panel discussion at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, hosted in collaboration with the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, commemorated the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X and celebrated his friendship with activist Yuri Kochiyama.








