News

May 3, 2023

News

Records related to the University's bicentennial anniversary celebrations in 1954, including nearly 300 interviews with local business owners, depict the myriad of events held to honor the history of Columbia in Morningside Heights and beyond.

Apr 26, 2023

News

Actor Cory Michael Smith visits the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in preparation to play journalist Varian Fry, an agent of the Emergency Rescue Committee, which helped artists, intellectuals, and others escape from Nazi-occupied Europe.

Apr 18, 2023

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Spice up your weekly meal plan with recipes from "What's Cooking at Columbia," featuring 20th-century favorites from Columbia faculty, including Jamaican Pepper Pot Soup by Nicholas Murray Butler and Vegetable Soup from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Apr 11, 2023

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In his semi-autobiographical novel, "Vanity of Duluoz," writer Jack Kerouac recalled his time as a student and football player at Columbia in 1940 - including a quintessentially collegiate experience in Livingston (now Wallach) Hall.

Apr 4, 2023

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The manuscripts of Tlingit artist, ethnographer, and linguist George Hunt, part of the papers gifted to the University by famed anthropologist Franz Boas, were recently digitized by archivists in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Mar 28, 2023

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Three women students in the School of Engineering claimed "firsts" in the 1970s and led the way toward coeducation at Columbia, including Wendy Ho, SEAS 1980, the first female athlete to receive a varsity "C."

Mar 28, 2023

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The oral history transcripts selected for the “Lost in Transcription” case in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library exhibition, "Original Copies," reflect various iterations of transcripts in the Oral History Archives at Columbia.

Mar 27, 2023

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The Rare Book & Manuscript Library announces the opening of an exhibition that explores the technologies that make facsimiles possible, the motivations that drive their production, and the questions they raise about authenticity.

Mar 16, 2023

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The Rare Book & Manuscript Library announces upcoming events in the Curatorial Shorts series, which offers an informal look at new findings from the library's collections.

Mar 14, 2023

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In April of 1887, the University celebrated the centennial of its 1787 charter at a grand Convocation, where trustees awarded 60 honorary degrees, including three to female scholars - or "fair doctors," as newspapers of the day dubbed the trio.

Mar 13, 2023

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Archivists in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library highlight materials, namely oversized artwork, from the Indusco Inc. records, a collection that documents the work of aid organizations in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Mar 9, 2023

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Scholar Lawrence Stern explores nearly 200 linear feet and 500 boxes of materials that document the decades-long career of sociologist Robert K. Merton, spent almost exclusively at Columbia University.

Mar 1, 2023

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The Latino Arts and Activisms (LAAS) Collection in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquires the papers of writer, performer, and theorist Josefina Báez, founder of the Latinarte/Ay Ombe Theatre in New York, among numerous other accomplishments.

Feb 28, 2023

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University archivists tell how an incident in the original College Hall at Columbia (then King's College) earned statesman John Jay a suspension from the school - and almost cost the future Supreme Court Justice his diploma.

Feb 28, 2023

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Senior Lecturer at Flinders University Leïla Morsy visited the Rare Book & Manuscript Library to examine how powerful philanthropies in the early 20th century restructured medical education, creating long-lasting legacies that persist today.

Feb 21, 2023

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Historian Scott Spillman details the numerous collections in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library that he consulted for a forthcoming book, including the papers of Columbia professor and writer Eric L. McKitrick (1919-2002).

Feb 14, 2023

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Everyday is Valentine's Day at Kent Hall: Glance above the second-story windows of Kent Hall on the Morningside Heights campus and you'll find engraved 'putti,' or chubby cherubs with garlands and flowers.

Feb 6, 2023

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Author and poet Kurt Boone, a "collector and documentarian of urban culture" who appears in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's ongoing Curatorial Shorts series, speaks on the impact of mass incarceration.

Feb 1, 2023

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An iconic Harlem restaurant visits the dining room in John Jay Hall: In 1997, landmark establishment, Sylvia's teamed with Columbia Dining Services to prepare signature dishes like fried chicken, collard greens, and peach cobbler on campus.

Jan 25, 2023

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The Rare Book & Manuscript Library welcomes the archive of Tania León, winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music, a 2022 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and a renowned musician whose compositions are performed across the globe.

Jan 23, 2023

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Dean of the School of Journalism Jelani Cobb announced the 20th president of Columbia University, Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, in the World Room of the Journalism School, in front of a stained glass window that bears the Statue of Liberty. University archivists share its history.

Jan 18, 2023

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The University shares several commonalities with an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, "She Who Wrote: Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia," including former Professor of Art History Edith Porada, also the first Curator of Ancient Seals at the Morgan.

Jan 10, 2023

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Scholar Pedro Doreste investigates the lasting impact of educational cinema in Puerto Rico through the papers of documentary filmmaker David Flaherty, which are held by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Dec 21, 2022

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The University Archives inherits a set of vibrant red wax impressions of ancient seals, which were commissioned by former Professor of Archeology Augustus Chapman Merriam and Professor of Physics Ogden Nicholas Rood in 1891.

News

Now Available | Columbia Bicentennial Anniversary Records

Transatlantic’s Varian Fry

What’s Cooking at Columbia: A Recipe Book

Jack Kerouac: #DormLife in 1940

Description and Digitization of the George Hunt Kwak’wala Ethnographic Manuscripts

Engineering Women: “Firsts”

Exhibition | Lost in Transcription

Original Copies: Facsimiles and Their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership

Spring Curatorial Shorts | Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Columbia’s “Fair Doctors”

Processing the Gung-ho Oversized Artworks

Research at the RBML | Lawrence Stern on Robert K. Merton

Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library Welcomes the Josefina Báez Papers, the Tenth in the Latino Arts and Activisms Collection

John Jay: #DormLife in 1764

Researcher Profile | Leïla Morsy on the Closure of Black Medical Schools

Research at the RBML | Scott Spillman on Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick

Every Day Is Valentine’s Day at Kent Hall

Mass Incarceration from One Family’s Perspective: A Curatorial Short with Kurt Boone

Sylvia’s in Morningside Heights?!

Welcoming the Tania León Archive

A World Room Welcome

Enheduanna and Columbia

Research at the RBML | Pedro Doreste

When Physics and Classical Archaeology Converged

News

Subscribe to the Libraries' Monthly Newsletter.

Now Available | Columbia Bicentennial Anniversary Records

Transatlantic’s Varian Fry

What’s Cooking at Columbia: A Recipe Book

Jack Kerouac: #DormLife in 1940

Description and Digitization of the George Hunt Kwak’wala Ethnographic Manuscripts

Engineering Women: “Firsts”

Exhibition | Lost in Transcription

Original Copies: Facsimiles and Their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership

Spring Curatorial Shorts | Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Columbia’s “Fair Doctors”

Processing the Gung-ho Oversized Artworks

Research at the RBML | Lawrence Stern on Robert K. Merton

Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library Welcomes the Josefina Báez Papers, the Tenth in the Latino Arts and Activisms Collection

John Jay: #DormLife in 1764

Researcher Profile | Leïla Morsy on the Closure of Black Medical Schools

Research at the RBML | Scott Spillman on Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick

Every Day Is Valentine’s Day at Kent Hall

Mass Incarceration from One Family’s Perspective: A Curatorial Short with Kurt Boone

Sylvia’s in Morningside Heights?!

Welcoming the Tania León Archive

A World Room Welcome

Enheduanna and Columbia

Research at the RBML | Pedro Doreste

When Physics and Classical Archaeology Converged