News
Confronting McCarthyism: Facebook Reels Playlist
WATCH: Michael Meeropol, son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and MaryLouise Patterson, daughter of civil rights leaders Louise and William L. Patterson, speak to the lasting impact of the Red Scare on their childhoods as well as its parallels to American politics and society today.
Obama Took On Recession, Health Care and Iraq. What He Didn’t See Coming Was Trump.
Accessible through the Libraries' Oral History Archives, "a new set of oral history interviews documents how Barack Obama and his advisers missed the shifting mood of the country that would ultimately replace him with a successor they considered a 'con man,' 'clown' and 'laughingstock,'" reports the New York Times.
Complete Obama Presidency Oral History Archive Is Now Available
Columbia News announces that the "complete Obama presidency oral history archive is now available: Columbia University’s Incite Institute offers more than 450 perspectives from the Obama White House and beyond," which will be accessible to researchers through the Oral History Archives.
Presidents' Days: From Obama to Trump
"Presidents' days: From Obama to Trump": The New Yorker writes that the official oral history of the Obama White House, accessible through the Libraries' Oral History Archives, "is a stark and extensive reminder of the values and the principles that are being trampled."
Oral Histories Behind Every Tile: Nicole Wong & The Mahjong Project
Oral histories behind every tile: Hear from the Mahjong Project’s history keeper, Nicole Wong, about her efforts to preserve mahjong's rules, etiquette, and personal anecdotes for generations in conversation with Curator of Oral History Kimberly Springer.
A Window into the Business of Mid-Century Paperback Publishing: Sidney B. Kramer Papers and Library
Processing Archivist Cathy Ricciardi unveils "a window into the business of mid-century paperback publishing" through the library and personal papers of Sidney B. Kramer, a founder of Bantam Books.
On View | CU Amateur Radio Club QSL Cards
Currently on view in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Colorfully-illustrated postcards known as QSL cards, which were exchanged between amateur radio operators, or "hams." The postcards are part of the Columbia Amateur Radio Club records and originate from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Processing the Myrna Casas Papers
Michelle Lopez, a Fall 2025 archival intern in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, helps to process the papers of Puerto Rican playwright and director Myrna Casas (pictured above), whose archive will aid research in theater and performance history in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean among many other fields.
Explore the World of Pioneering Sound Artist Max Neuhaus
In collaboration with the Max Neuhaus Estate, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library announces that all audio-visual materials in the papers of sound artist Max Neuhaus are digitized and accessible online through the Libraries’ Digital Library Collections.
Confronting McCarthyism: Generational Lessons from Families who Resisted the Red Scare
Join the Lehman Center for American History, in partnership with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, for a historic conversation with children and grandchildren of some of the most significant targets of McCarthyism and the Red Scare.
Exhibitions in the RBML | Selections from the Lydia Davis Papers
On display in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library are selections from one of its most significant recent literary acquisitions, the papers of writer Lydia Davis, a short-story writer, novelist, essayist, translator, and Barnard College alum.
A Radical History: Thai Jones, the Archives, and the New Left
"A radical history: Thai Jones, the archives, and the New Left": The Eye features Lehman Curator for American History Thai Jones, whose early experiences with radical politics inspired a commitment to "history, higher education, and the archives."
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."
Visual Arts Student Francisco Javier Ramírez Exhibits 'Streets Taken' at Butler Library
The latest exhibition on view in Butler Library, "Streets Taken," features photographs by prominent New York photojournalist Edward Schwartz from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library alongside new works by MFA Visual Arts student Francisco Javier Ramírez.
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.







