News

Mar 28, 2023

News

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

News

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

News

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 17, 2023

In the media

A conversation hosted by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library on March 27 focuses on materials that were recently uncovered in the archive of Jewish bibliographer and historian Zosa Szajkowski (1911-1978).

Mar 16, 2023

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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 3, 2023

In the media

For Tablet magazine, writer Chaya Sara Oppenheim studies the Megillat Saragossa, a 17th century scroll held by the Rare Book & Manuscript that tells of "a diasporic Jewish community on the verge of destruction."

Mar 1, 2023

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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 20, 2023

In the media

The archive of Josefina Báez, an innovative Afro-Latina artist known first for her groundbreaking work, "Dominicanish," was recently acquired by the Latino Arts & Activisms Collection in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Feb 14, 2023

News

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 10, 2023

In the media

An outcome of the Columbia University and Slavery seminar, co-taught by the Libraries' Curator for American History Thai Jones, the Historical Markers project is an "educational, public-oriented display" based on student research from the course.

Feb 6, 2023

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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.

News Archive

Libraries News for years earlier than 2016 is available here:

News

Engineering Women: “Firsts”

Exhibition | Lost in Transcription

Original Copies: Facsimiles and Their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership

An RBML Program on Jewish Life in France Before World War II

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

A Second Purim Story

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

Josefina Báez: Dominican-York Icon Whose Archive is Now Housed at Columbia University

Every Day Is Valentine’s Day at Kent Hall

Columbia University and Slavery Project Launches Historical Campus Markers

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

News Archive

News

Subscribe to the Libraries' Monthly Newsletter.

Engineering Women: “Firsts”

Exhibition | Lost in Transcription

Original Copies: Facsimiles and Their Mediations of Authenticity and Ownership

An RBML Program on Jewish Life in France Before World War II

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

A Second Purim Story

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

Josefina Báez: Dominican-York Icon Whose Archive is Now Housed at Columbia University

Every Day Is Valentine’s Day at Kent Hall

Columbia University and Slavery Project Launches Historical Campus Markers

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

News Archive