The Libraries’ collections support research at all levels on various areas in the worldwide history of science and technology, including cosmology, the foundations of mathematics, the Scientific Revolution, chemistry and alchemy, origins and species before and after Darwin, the molecular revolution in biology, science during the Enlightenment, Arabic and Asian histories of science and medicine, and the history of computing and information technology. 

Columbia has been collecting in the history of science and technology since its founding in the 18th century. An 1818 purchase of new books for the burgeoning library included Herman Boerhaave’s Elementa Chemiae (first published in 1732), Anna Seward’s Memoirs of Dr. Darwin (first published in 1804), and works by the English zoologist Thomas Martyn. A major early purchase in the sciences was Columbia’s subscription to the “elephant folio” edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, published from 1827 to 1838, Columbia being one of only three American educational institutions to subscribe for the work.