Columbia University Archives
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Butler Library, 6th Floor
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027
Phone: (212) 854-3786
Fax: (212) 854-1365
E-mail: uarchives@columbia.edu
Map | Hours | Directions
Barnard College
The Barnard Archives and Special Collections serves as the final repository for the historical records of Barnard College, from its founding in 1889 to the present day. For more information, please contact archives@barnard.edu.
Health Sciences Library
The Archives and Special Collections at the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library of Columbia University can help you find information about the schools of the Medical Center: College of Physicians & Surgeons, School of Nursing, College of Dental Medicine (formerly the School of Dental & Oral Surgery), Mailman School of Public Health, and the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. For more information, please contact hslarchives@columbia.edu.
Columbia student records such as matriculation ledgers and grade books used to routinely record a student’s name, hometown and state. Some may include the student’s secondary school or a parent’s (mostly father’s) name. But early Columbia student records did not record race or ethnicity. When asked about early Black Columbia students and graduates, we are often at a loss. Because our information is incomplete, you may often see Black alumni referred to as the “first known” since we don’t always know who may have come earlier. Below are some of the sources you can consult to discover Columbia’s Black former students.
In addition to yearbooks, the University Archives also holds incomplete runs of Columbia College, School of International and Public Affairs and the School of Journalism facebooks or freshman directories. There are also Columbia College Senior class books, class histories and reunion publications which often contain more detailed information about graduates than what is noted in the corresponding yearbook. You can find these student and alumni publications in the Yearbook, Facebooks and Class Books finding aid and request volumes for use in the reading room.
Archival collections are non-circulating and can only be viewed in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's reading room (RBML). In order to use the collections at the RBML, you will be required to register your own Special Collections Research Account before your visit and to validate the account in person with government-issued photo identification or Columbia ID card. Once you have created your Special Collections Research Account, you will be able to request materials directly from the finding aid: click the check box located on the right for the box(es) you need, and then scroll back to the top of the container list document and click “Submit Request” in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your Special Collections Research Account to complete the request form.
For additional resources or other topics you would like to be addressed here, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.
Below is a list of resources to find information about the various Black student groups, organizations and publications.
Columbia's Alpha Phi Alpha chapter started back in 1909. The original chapter closed with World War II; the fraternity was reactivated in 1967, and with some lapses, continues to this day. The original chapter and, in fact, all Black fraternities were “unofficial” or outside the university administration, meaning they were not part of Pamphratria, the inter-fraternity council. Chapter photos were not included in the early yearbooks. However, fraternity chapter letters appear as part of an individual student’s profile.
You can also look for more information in the yearbooks. For example, in the 1968 Columbian, you can find the article “Bringing it all back home” by Philip Fox and Roy Feldman, which addresses the reactivation of Alpha Phi Alpha at Columbia. (It was given “colony” status in 1967 as part of its return.) Two years later, in 1970, “Am I my brothers’ keeper?” by Larry Jane and Jonh C. Losk gives you an update on the black fraternities on campus and the state of fraternities in general.
The Crisis magazine, "a record of the darker races," was started as the official publication of NAACP. It was created in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois. In its earliest issues, the magazine regularly featured sections on college graduates and information about Black fraternity chapters. The issues have been digitized and are available online. For example, you can find the announcement of the new chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi at Columbia and in 1925-1926, an update on the chapter and a photo of the members posing in front of Alma Mater.
Archival collections are non-circulating and can only be viewed in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's reading room (RBML). In order to use the collections at the RBML, you will be required to register your own Special Collections Research Account before your visit and to validate the account in person with government-issued photo identification or Columbia ID card. Once you have created your Special Collections Research Account, you will be able to request materials directly from the finding aid: click the check box located on the right for the box(es) you need, and then scroll back to the top of the container list document and click “Submit Request” in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your Special Collections Research Account to complete the request form.
For additional resources or other topics you would like to be addressed here, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.
The University Archives main administrative collections include information about admissions, enrollment and retention, as well as curricular changes, requirements, faculty hiring, etc. These records can be good sources to learn about the University’s evolving understanding of the needs of a diverse student body, their academic interests, and the varied efforts at inclusion.
Changes to the curriculum such as new courses, departments, centers, institutes and areas of research, can be found in the following collections:
For information about the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS):
Archival collections are non-circulating and can only be viewed in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's reading room (RBML). In order to use the collections at the RBML, you will be required to register your own Special Collections Research Account before your visit and to validate the account in person with government-issued photo identification or Columbia ID card. Once you have created your Special Collections Research Account, you will be able to request materials directly from the finding aid: click the check box located on the right for the box(es) you need, and then scroll back to the top of the container list document and click “Submit Request” in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your Special Collections Research Account to complete the request form.
For additional resources or other topics you would like to be addressed here, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.
Columbia University is located next to the predominantly Black neighborhood of Harlem and the relationship with its neighbors has often been a source of tension. Below are sources that highlight the University's relationship with the surrounding community over the years.
1968 Crisis research guide
In 1959, the University initiated plans to build a gymnasium for Columbia College students that would sit on two acres of public land just inside Morningside Park. The New York Legislature approved Columbia’s gymnasium plans, which included limited community access, in 1960. By the mid-1960s, the University’s allocation of public land for the project provoked increasingly negative feelings. Those opposed to the gym were particularly critical of its design: the separate and unequal access to the facilities prompted cries of segregation and racism. Almost immediately after Columbia began construction on the gym in February 1968, demonstrating Columbia students and neighborhood residents descended on the site in protest. The protestors argued that Columbia effectively stole the land from the predominantly Black community that had traditionally used Morningside Park. To learn more about the 1968 student strike, its causes, timeline, and consequences, see the resources in the 1968 Crisis research guide.
Urban Center publications at the University Archives:
Archival collections are non-circulating and can only be viewed in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's reading room (RBML). In order to use the collections at the RBML, you will be required to register your own Special Collections Research Account before your visit and to validate the account in person with government-issued photo identification or Columbia ID card. Once you have created your Special Collections Research Account, you will be able to request materials directly from the finding aid: click the check box located on the right for the box(es) you need, and then scroll back to the top of the container list document and click “Submit Request” in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your Special Collections Research Account to complete the request form.
For additional resources or other topics you would like to be addressed here, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.
The list below captures information about some “firsts” and other notable Black Columbians. In addition to the links provided in the text, to learn more about these individuals, you can often find additional information in the Historical Biographical Files.
Images from Black and Latin at Columbia (call number CP12 St94), a Black and Latino high school student recruitment brochure published by the Office of Admissions in collaboration with Students Afro-American Society (SAS) and the Latin American Students Organization circa 1969.