News

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.

Belle da Costa Greene and Columbia
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Morgan Library and Museum as a public institution, University archivists remember its first director, Belle da Costa Greene, as "a key partner and contributor" to library exhibitions at Columbia throughout the early 20th century.

Jews at Columbia: The Early Butler Years and the Trustee Question (1901-1920)
Librarian for Jewish Studies Michelle Margolis continues a series of blog posts about the history of Jews at Columbia with an installment on the first years of the Nicholas Murray Butler presidency during the early 20th century.

Researcher Profile | British Black Panther Movement
Dr. Robin Bunce of Homerton College, Cambridge University, describes how the papers of activist Darcus Howe, held by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and other recently-digitized materials contribute to his research on the history of Black Power in Britain.

Processing the Jack and Irene Delano Papers
Cristina Stubbe, an archivist with the Winthrop Group, processed the papers of Jack and Irene Delano, held by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library and including drawings, photographs, and other materials that document the history and culture of Puerto Rico.

Research at the RBML | Laura Kaiser Finds Elizabeth Dejeans in the Paul Reynolds Papers
Author and independent researcher Laura Fisher Kaiser consulted the archival records of the Paul R. Reynolds literary agency in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library for an upcoming biography of novelist Frances Elizabeth Budgett (pen name Elizabeth Dejeans).

NYPL Library School Records: A Student Project
Students in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Itzel Franco ('26CC) and Sarah Noon ('24GS), helped University archivists to improve the condition and description of a brittle but valuable collection of records from the New York Public Library (NYPL) Library School.