Columbia University Archives: Buildings & Grounds

For the Park Place campus building:

For the 49th Street campus:

• Columbiana Manuscripts, 1572-1986
  See Item 55 of this collection, "Forty-Ninth Street Campus Plans of the Buildings of Columbia College by H.F.J. Porter, Superintendent, 1888." This is a collection of drawn floor plans for the buildings on campus. 

To learn about the Morningside campus:

• Bergdoll, Barry. Mastering McKim's plan: Columbia's first century on Morningside Heights. New York: Columbia University, Miriam and Ira Wallach Art Gallery, 1997.
  Issued in conjunction with two exhibitions held at Columbia University: Mastering McKim's Plan, at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, and Constructing Low Memorial Library, in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library, Columbia University, October 1997 to January 1998.

• Dolkart, Andrew. Morningside Heights: a history of its architecture & development. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
  The announcement during the final years of the nineteenth century that the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Columbia College, St. Luke's Hospital, Teachers College, and Barnard College would construct new complexes on Morningside Heights heralded the transformation of this geographically isolated area into "the Acropolis of New York."

• Robson, John Williams. A guide to Columbia University, with some account of its history and traditions. New York: Columbia University Press, 1937.
  The 1937 update to the 1912 An official guide to Columbia University. Prepared as a guide to visitors and prospective students, this booklet includes a history of the University, facts and figures, and a walking tour guide to the campus on Morningside Heights.

The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Librarians have put together a Columbia University buildings bibliography. These selections include information about the maps, the Morningside campus, Barnard College, the Manhattanville campus, the Medical Center, and the Baker Field Athletics Complex.

In addition to the holdings at the Columbia University Archives, you can find Morningside Heights campus architectural drawings at the Avery Drawings & Archives Collection at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library.

• Columbia University architectural drawings, circa 1888-1957
  Architectural drawings, surveys, maps, and site proposals, for Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, designed primarily by McKim, Mead & White. Drawings for buildings no longer in existence or never constructed and drawings for later alterations, are included. Architectural drawings of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, and surveys of the asylum site prepared for Columbia, 1888-1894. Also included are site plans and proposals, surveys, and maps, circa 1890s-1910s, showing the surrounding area, including such institutions as the Jewish Theological Seminary, St. Luke's Home, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grant's Tomb, and others. This collection is available for use by qualified readers by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. For further information and to make an appointment, please contact avery-drawings@libraries.columbia.edu.

• Columbia University, Department of Facilities Management, architectural drawings, 1895-ongoing
  Architectural drawings (no longer in current use by Facilities Management), transferred to the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library from the Department of Facilities Management pertaining to proposals, construction, alteration and addition of properties formerly used or owned, and buildings demolished or still extant. The dates of the materials span 1895 to today. The drawings include plans showing the heating and ventilation systems, electrical and plumbing details, and some original construction materials.

• McKim Mead & White architectural records and drawings, 1879-1958
  Architectural drawings and photographs of buildings designed by the firm dating approximately from its founding to the 1950s. Among those represented are buildings at the World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893; Pennsylvania Railroad Station, New York, 1906-1910; restoration, 1903, of the White House, Washington, D.C.; and the buildings at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, New York. The archives of the architectural firm of McKim Mead & White are held at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.

For more information on how to access materials at Avery Drawings and Archives, see their FAQ for visits.

Online Sources

The following is a list of sources, all available online, to help you start your research in to Low Memorial Library.

• #WeMissLow blog posts

During the COVID-19 quarantine, the University Archives shared some of our favorite facts, stories and photos about this iconic building to help bring Columbians a little closer to campus. The #WeMissLow series covers a wide range of topics illustrated by photographs and enhanced with links to other resources.

• Guidebooks and brochures

When the Low Library opened, a number of brochures and viewbooks were published to showcase the new Morningside campus. These publications are available online:

• Columbia University. Dedication of the New Site. Morningside Heights. Saturday, the second of May, 1896.
• Columbia University 1897.
• Columbia University: Kings College founded in the province of New York by royal charter in the reign of George II perpetuated as Columbia College, 1901.
• An official guide to Columbia University. New York: Columbia University Press, Lemcke and Buechner, Agents, 1912.
• Columbia University photo-gravures. Columbia University Press Book Store. Brooklyn: The Albertype Co., 1920.
• Columbia University in the City of New York: Photographic Studies. Columbia University, 1920.
• A guide to Columbia University, with some account of its history and traditions, edited by John William Robson. New York, Columbia University Press, 1937.

• Move to Butler Library (video)

Memorial Library to their new home in South Hall (now Butler Library) through a series of hoists, ramps and pulley carts. It took twelve professional movers and 60 students (paid 50 cents an hour) 35 working days between August 20 and September 19 to complete this monumental task. This 11-minute video captures the transfer of the books: the crates, the ramps, the library staff, but also the campus: see the sundial whole, the tennis courts on South Field, and Alma supervising the entire project.
 

• Online Publications

  • Martineau, Kim. Six Secrets of Low Library. Columbia News, July 7, 2022. Behind Low’s Beaux Arts columns lie unusual treasures and odd bits of geological and historical lore you won’t find in any guidebook.

  • Happy 125th Birthday, Low! Columbia College Today, Summer 2022.

  • Spectator - The Columbia student newspaper is easily searchable and covers the life of Low Library from construction to the present day.

  • The Record - This publication from Office of Communications and Public Affairs is available online from 1973 to 2016.

  • Library Columns - This journal was published by the Libraries' special collections staff members from 1951 to 1996. It includes a number of articles on the history of Low Library, the libraries at Columbia and its collections.

    • Bergdoll, Barry. "Laying the Cornerstone of the New Columbia University (Library), December 7, 1895."  (44:2  Autumn 1995)

    • Haswell, Hollee. "Low Memorial Library: The Building of a Great University," (44:2  Autumn 1995)

  • Columbia University Quarterly - This journal was published by the Alumni Federation of Columbia University from 1898 to 1941. In addition to the articles, each volume includes an update from the University Librarian.

  • Annual Reports - The Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer to the Trustees offer a yearly "state of the University" from 1891 to 1946. In addition to the President's remarks and the Treasurer's financial reports, the Librarian submits his account of the work in the libraries. 

  • Landmark Preservation Documentation - The Low Memorial Library building received New York City landmark status in 1966 and the interior of building, in 1981. The library joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

In-Person Sources

These collections are only available in person at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room. For more information on how to access our collections, check out our Research & Access website.

• Buildings & Grounds Collection 

Compiled over the years by University Archives staff, the Building and Grounds Collection contains materials relating to Columbia University’s buildings and grounds on the three sites that have served as the University's main campus as well as other real estate used by the University. This collection includes materials about spaces inside Low (Faculty Room, the Trustees Room, and the Twombly-Burden Room) and space outside, Low Plaza.

• Central Files / Office of the President Records

This is the core administrative collection of records, from the 1890s to the present. Central Files chiefly contains correspondence (sent and received) between Columbia University administrators and other University officers, faculty, trustees, and individuals and organizations from outside the University. For information about Low Library, look for correspondence with George Baker (University Librarian when Columbia moved uptown), McKim, Meade and White (the architectural firm that designed Low Library), and with the Superintendents to find out about the everyday issues with the construction and management of the building (Edward A. Darling, Frederick Goetze, Henry Lee Norris, David Updike, etc.). 

• Columbiana Manuscripts

This collection comprised of correspondence, diaries, lecture notes, essays, and administrative documents related to Columbia University includes the Trustees’ Committee on Library minutes from 1900-1915, the early days of Low Library (see item 184). You can also consult the full Minutes of the Trustees. 

• Photographs

Historical Photograph Collection, Series VII: Buildings and Grounds
Among the largest series in this extensive photograph collection, images include interior and exterior images of Low Library over the years, but also the McKim, Meade and White construction photographs, postcards, and the official University Photographer prints starting from the 1930s.

For additional photographs, see the following collections:

• The Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection is another very large image collection, which contains prints, a very large number of photographic negatives covering the 20th century, color slides, and very recent image files from the early 21st century in print, negative, and digital formats. 
• Walter L. Bogert Photograph album, 1932-1943 - Views of Columbia University in the City of New York and the surrounding neighborhood of Morningside Heights taken by Walter Lawrence Bogert (CC AB 1888, AM 1889, LLB 1934).
• Margaret Bourke-White Photographs, 1931 - In 1931, Bourke-White was a widely recognized photojournalist when she photographed the Morningside Campus for the Columbia University Press.
• Will Csaplar Postcard Collection, 1900-1950s - This collection consists of postcards from the early twentieth century depicting Columbia University buildings, sites, and related imagery. These postcards were collected over the years by Columbia alum Will Csaplar (AB 1957, AM 1958).
• Holcomb E.M. Jones Photograph Album, 1936-1943 - For a student's perspective, this album documents Jones's days as a student at Columbia College from 1936 to 1940, and includes photographs of Low Library during King George VI's visit to campus in 1939.

• John Mladinov Photograph Collection, 1939-1942 - Another collection of photographs depicting campus activities, individuals, and student life taken by Mladinov, an undergraduate student enrolled at Columbia University between 1939 and 1942.

Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library 

• The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Librarians have put together a Columbia University buildings bibliography. These selections include information about the maps, the Morningside campus, Barnard College, the Manhattanville campus, the Medical Center, and the Baker Field Athletics Complex. 
• At Avery Classics, you can request Lindsey A. Schweinberg's 2007 Master's thesis Low Memorial Library : an argument for the restitution of lived experience.
• While there are some architectural drawings at the Avery Drawings & Archives Collection, the archives of the architectural firm of McKim Mead & White are held at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library.

Approved in 2007, the Manhattanville campus expansion has created a new campus which spans from Broadway on the west to 12th Avenue on the East, from 125th Street at the south to 134th Street at the north end. The campus encompasses more than 17 acres with publicly accessible open space, tree-lined sidewalks and innovative buildings.

As of 2022, the campus houses the Graduate School of Business, the Lenfest Center for the Arts, the Jerome L. Green Science Center, The Forum, and The Plaza. Beginning in 2021 construction began on 600 West 125^th Street – a new 34-story building to house graduate students and faculty members on the southwest corner of 125th Street and Broadway. Anticipated completion is scheduled for 2024.

Information about the development of the Manhattanville campus can be found in the following resources:

• Archival Resources

Buildings and Grounds Collection
Compiled over the years by University Archives staff, the Building and Grounds Collection contains materials relating to Columbia University’s buildings and grounds on the three sites that have served as the University's main campus as well as other real estate used by the University.  You can find a folder of collected Manhattanville material (articles, printed matter) in Box 21, folder 8.

Historical Subject Files
The Historical Subject Files consists of clippings, press releases, programs, and other printed matter compiled over the years by curators of the Columbiana Collection and staff of the University Archives. You can find a folder of collected Manhattanville material in Box 121, folder 10.

• Online Resources

Columbia University Record Digital Archive
Beginning as the University Record (September 1973-May 1975) and continuing to this day as the Columbia University Record (July 1975-present), this important university-wide publication, now scanned and fully searchable, is an incredibly rich resource of past Columbia activities, events, scientific research, trustee and faculty appointments, awards and honors, libraries news, departmental achievements, budget and financial reporting, faculty and staff updates, as well as containing informative profiles of campus personalities from 1973 to June 2016. Search on the term “Manhattanville” or similar phrases to find relevant articles related to this new campus and its development.

Spectator Digital Archive
This online resource is the result of a partnership between the Spectator and Columbia University Libraries, and funded jointly by the Libraries and through generous gifts from Spectator alumni and friends, especially members of the class of 1958. You can now search issues published from 1877 to 2015. Whenever possible pages were scanned from original paper copies and digitized using state of the art technology that provides full-page, searchable reproductions of articles, photographs, and advertisements. For articles published more recently, please search the main Spectator website. Search on the term “Manhattanville” or similar phrases to find relevant articles related to this new campus and its development.

Columbia Magazine

• "Columbia Dedicates New Manhattanville Campus," Winter-Spring 2017.
• "Manhattanville: Reflections on a 21st Century Campus," Spring 2017, 18-27.
• Lee, Sally. "On Campus: Bold Ideas, Real Impact," Columbia Magazine, Summer 2017, 38-42.
   

• Columbia University Websites and Archived Captures

Columbia domain websites, that is, sites with a columbia.edu address, have been crawled and preserved since 1996 and are available in our web archive collection via the Archive-It service.  The following links will bring you to captures of relevant Manhattanville websites:

• Manhattanville Campus
  • https://manhattanville.columbia.edu/
  • Archived captures since December 12, 2014, including  64 Videos Captured
• Manhattanville in West Harlem
  • http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/
  • Archived captures  between May 27, 2010 and June 17, 2021
• Neighbors, Manhattanville campus
  • https://neighbors.columbia.edu/
  • Archived captures  since November 18, 2007
  • Videos: 71 Videos Captured