Columbia University Archives: Events

To start your research, please consult the Military and Veterans Affairs History website. In addition to the information about the history of Columbia and its participation in the U.S. armed forces, there is an excellent photo gallery with materials from the University Archives collections.

The collections listed below are only available in person at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room.Visitors are required to register their own Special Collections Research Account before their 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 schedule an appointment and request the materials directly from the finding aids.

For World War I images:

• Historical Photograph Collection, 1855-2012 [Bulk Dates: 1860-1980] Series: XIII: World War I
  Photographs depicting campus activities during the World War I period (1914-1919).

• Columbia University in World War I Collection, 1914-1970
  This collection contains records documenting Columbia University's activities slightly prior to, during and immediately following World War I. The collection consists of mostly correspondence, but also includes newspaper clippings, pamphlets, various publications, reports, photographs, service record cards, and numerous lists of Columbia men and women who served during the war.

• Harry Bernard Koopman Papers, 1917-1967
  This collection of memorabilia maintained by Harry Bernard Koopman consists primarily of small format photographs and some postcards of fellow servicemen, scenery of the French countryside, battlefield conditions and local populations. Some of the identified locations in France include Meriel, Nice, Aix, and Vasseny. The collection also contains an intact photo album with fading notations, a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, letters, photographs and other memorabilia, a Red Cross flag, and a 1967 history of ambulance service during World War I.
   

For World War II images:

• Historical Photograph Collection, 1855-2012 [Bulk Dates: 1860-1980] Series: XIV: World War II
  Photographs depicting campus activities during the World War II period (1939-1945).
   
• Columbia University in World War II Collection, 1933-1956
  Records documenting Columbia University’s activities prior to, during and immediately following World War II represent the focus of the collection. The collection contains material generated by a variety of groups and offices on campus evidencing the varied activities undertaken by the Columbia community during this time of world crisis.
   
• John Mladinov photograph collection 1939-1942
  This collection consists of black and white photographs, mostly 8 by 10 inches in size, taken by John K. Mladinov (BA 1942, BS 1949) while a student at Columbia College (1939-1942). Mladinov's photographs, some of which were published in the yearbook and in the Columbia Alumni News magazine, include Army and Navy activities on campus during World War II.
   
• Side Boy or the Midshipmen's School's yearbook, 1942-1945
  The University Archives holds a full run of this yearbook for the Midshipmen's training program that took place on Columbia University's campus during World War II from 1942-1945. These yearbooks contain images of cadets (organized by division) and the officers, as well as documenting the activities of the school. The yearbook was published every couple of months each year as new classes of cadets graduated. Use the above link to the yearbooks finding aid to request specific volumes of Side Boy for use in our reading room.

If you have any questions about how to find materials or how to access materials, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.

These collections are only available in person at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room.Visitors are required to register their own Special Collections Research Account before their 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 schedule an appointment and request the materials directly from the finding aids.

For the Crisis of 1968 images:

• Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection, ca.1947-2006. Series IV: Protest and Activism Photographs
  These photographs consist of black-and-white photographic prints, negatives, and contact sheets depicting student protest activities at Columbia from April 21, 1967 to April 21, 1969, with the overwhelming majority of items dating from April and May, 1968 - the period of the most sustained and significant student protests at Columbia. The images depict protest activities around the campus, scenes of the occupation in a number of Columbia buildings, and the aftermath of these occupations, as well as many of the Columbia individuals who were prominently involved in the student protests.
   
• University Protest and Activism Collection, 1958-1999
  Although the main focus of this collection is on what transpired in 1968, materials also document events leading up to the April 1968 strike, the aftermath of those events, as well as subsequent student strikes in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972. The photographs in this collection depict protest, activism and campus life, and off campus protests, between the fall of 1967 and 1973, primarily from the perspective of student and university photographers.
   
• Joanne Grant research files, 1963-1968
  This collection is a repository of Joanne Grant's research materials for her 1969 book Confrontation on Campus: The Columbia Pattern for the New Protest. The collection contains both Grant's notes taken throughout the Columbia revolt, as well as collected research materials. In the last series, there are photographs used by Grant in her book on Columbia University student uprisings.

If you have any questions about how to find materials or how to access materials, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.