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.
This research guide focuses on two kinds of Columbians.
12 Groundbreaking Asian Columbians You Should Know - In May 2021, in honor of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, Columbia News highlighted these 12 groundbreaking Columbians, both past and present, who you should know, though there are many more.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, here are 13 Columbians You Should Know - In September 2021, Columbia News highlighted these 13 groundbreaking Hispanic Columbians.
MA 1915, PhD 1927, LLD 1952 (honorary)
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar served as Chairman of the drafting committee for the Indian constitution, under the Constituent Assembly of India. He is considered a champion of rights for India's "untouchables." Born an "untouchable," Ambedkar overcame prejudice to obtain an education, eventually earning advanced degrees from Columbia and the London School of Economics.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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.
Faculty 1896-1936
In 1896 Franz Boas moved to New York and was appointed Assistant Curator of Ethnology and Somatology at the American Museum of Natural History, and Lecturer at Columbia University. Three years later, he became the first Professor of Anthropology at Columbia, where he remained for the rest of his career. Boas profoundly influenced the development of anthropology as a field of study. Among his students were A. L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Edward Sapir, Margaret Mead, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others. After guiding the Columbia Anthropology Department for forty-one years, Boas became Professor Emeritus in 1937. The Franz Boas Papers are held at the American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia.
There are a number of collections held both by the University Archives and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML), which contain materials related to Franz Boas. Please keep in mind that for some of these collections, you will find these materials by searching on "Boas" in the container list.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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 materials directly from the finding aid.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a student at Columbia during the summer session 1929 and fall semester in 1929-1930. He enrolled in English classes and lived on campus (Furnald Hall room 617 and John Jay Hall room 1231). Below are the sources you can find about his days at Columbia.
Student directory. You can find García Lorca in the 1929-1930 student directory. He was a student in the University Extension (e), now known as the School of General Studies.
Residence Hall records. In this collection of dorm room ledgers, you can find García Lorca in the register for Furnald Hall, Summer 1929 (Box 6, folder 2) and for John Jay Hall, 1929-1930 (Box 6, folder 10). In addition to his room number and mailbox, you can find his “forwarding” addresses.
Historical Biographical Files (Box 108, folder 15). This folder in this artificial collection contains newspaper clippings, press releases, and other printed matter collected over the years about García Lorca and his time on campus.
Historical Photograph Collection, Series X: Portraits (Box 44). This image collection contains one folder with a newspaper clipping with a photo of García Lorca at Columbia. This photo is not in our archives; it was taken from a book and wrongly attributed to Columbia.
Course information. The Summer Session course bulletin for Summer 1929 and the University Extension course bulletin for 1929-1930 are available online. You can find, for example, the descriptions for the Courses for Non-English Speaking Students.
The University Archives does not have any of the letters by García Lorca from his student days but you can find them in collected volumes, such as the Epistolario Completo, edited by Andrew A. Anderson and Christopher Maurer, Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1997. Excerpts from these letters are featured in the “Federico García Lorca: #DormLife in 1929.”
Professor Federico de Onís encouraged the young García Lorca to attend Columbia. Professor de Onís was the head of the Department of Romance Languages and director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia. To understand the Spanish context at the University at the time, you could consult Central Files, the main collection of administrative records in the University Archives. The de Onís correspondence can be found in Box 346, Folders 16-20, covering years 1916 to 1954.
For additional context, the Hispanic Institute for Latin American & Iberian Cultures at Columbia University (initially established as the Instituto de las Españas) recently celebrated its 100 anniversary in 2020. The online exhibition, The Hispanic Institute Between the Wars: The Making of Cultural Networks, “looks back at the Institute’s contributions within Columbia, the broader seminal influence it has had in the founding of Hispanism and Lusophone studies in the American academy, and the pivotal role it has played in fostering cultural exchange and mediating engagement with academics, writers, and artists abroad and at home.” The exhibition also highlights García Lorca days at Columbia.
As part of Columbia’s Bicentennial in 1954, the University published a number of department and school histories. These volumes include a history of the Department of Romance Languages, with a section on Hispanic languages at Columbia written by Federico de Onís.
For more information about the Department of Romance Languages (see Spanish, Box 50, folder 2) as well as the Casa de las Españas (later known as Casa Hispanica, Box 10, folder 3), please consult the Historical Subject Files.
In 1990, New York City celebrated the 50th anniversary of the publication of García Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York. Mayor David N. Dinkins declared November 27, 1990 as "Federico Garcia Lorca Day.” As part of the celebration, Columbia unveiled a commemorative plaque in John Jay Hall and hosted an exhibition featuring original manuscripts, letters, photographs and editions of García Lorca’s works in Low Rotunda.
Finally, Federico’s brother, Francisco García Lorca came to the US in 1939. He received his PhD from Columbia in 1948. You can find his thesis, Ángel Ganivet, su idea del hombre, in our holdings. Francisco was also a member of the Columbia faculty, teaching at the University Extension (later called School of General Studies) from 1940 to 1952, and later as a Professor of Spanish from 1956 to 1969.
About the image: Federico García Lorca sitting by the Sundial, 1929. Scan 1829. Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection, University Archives.
Athlete, Columbia College 1921–1923
Before he played first base for the New York Yankees, Gehrig was known as Columbia Lou. He attended Columbia College from 1921 to 1923, playing both football and baseball. Gehrig's record-breaking home runs for the Lions bounced into the Journalism building and landed at Alma Mater's feet, more than 400 feet away from the home plate then situated at the southeast corner of South Field. He also pitched for the Lions, striking out a team record 17 in the spring of 1923. After his sophomore year, Gehrig signed with the Yankees for a 1,500 dollar bonus.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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 materials directly from the finding aid.
For Gehrig you can find “pink sheets” detailing his playing time/positions for both Columbia football in 1922 and Columbia baseball in 1923 (Box 11, folder 4). There are also files concerning the Lou Gehrig Lounge (Box 7, folder 35) and the Lou Gehrig Scholarship (Box 7, folder 36).
Series II: Negatives: Gehrig images can be found in Box 91 and Box 34.
Series V: Eileen Barroso Photographs: Images from November 3, 2003 Centennial celebration of his birth are in Box 27.
Law 1959, Faculty 1972-1980, LLD 1994 (honorary)
After attending Harvard Law School, Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School and graduated first in her class in 1959. In 1972, she became the first woman full professor at Columbia Law School. Ginsburg held that post until her appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals and in 1993, Ginsburg became the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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 materials directly from the finding aid.
The Law Library's Special Collections contains materials such as class lists, student newspapers, photographs, and yearbooks from select years. The Library also holds materials which document many aspects of the Law School's history including student notebooks, faculty directories, building plans, course catalogs, reunion materials, and Law School publications. For more information, please contact Special Collections Librarian Irina Kandarasheva.
Columbia College 1908, PhD 1912, LLD 1917 (honorary)
At Columbia, Koo earned his BA in liberal arts in 1908, distinguishing himself as a brilliant student who participated in a remarkable number of extracurricular activities. He served as editor-in-chief of the Columbia Spectator, was a member of the Philolexian Society, a number of debate teams, the track team and Delta Epsilon Rho. In 1912 he received his PhD in international law and diplomacy. A Nationalist Chinese diplomat with a long career in diplomatic service, he served as Prime Minister, was a signer of the United Nations Charter and also served as a member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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 and appointment and request the boxes directly from the finding aid or from the CLIO online library catalog record.
Columbia College Class of 1870; President 1890-1901
Just 20 years removed from being the valedictorian for the Class of 1870, Seth Low became the eleventh president of Columbia College in 1890. During this tenure, Columbia moved from midtown to its current home in Morningside Heights. He funded the first building on the new campus, chose the firm of McKim, Mead and White, and named it for his father, Low Memorial Library. Low also brought together the different faculties to create "Columbia University in the City of New York."
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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 and appointment and request the boxes directly from the finding aid or from the CLIO online library catalog record.
Seth Low papers, 1870-1930
This collection contains the correspondence and papers of Low. Both sides of the correspondence are almost intact from 1890 onwards, with copies of outgoing letters for the two previous decades. There are also four letterpress copybooks, numerous scrapbooks of clippings relating to Low's career and activities, a large number of photographs and other memorabilia and printed and manuscript copies of many of Low's speeches.
Seth Low speeches, 1878-1916
This collection contains the speeches and writings of Seth Low, New York City official and eleventh President of Columbia University. The material within the collection spans from 1878 to 1916 and largely deals with Low’s opinions on political (with an emphasis on municipal government), collegiate, and religious matters.
Master's Essays about Seth Low
There are a number of collections held at both the University Archives and at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML), which contain materials related to Seth Low.
Faculty 1944-1980, Emerita 1980-1987, ScD 1982 (honorary)
After emigrating from China in 1936 and receiving her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in 1940, Chien-Shiung Wu came to Columbia in 1944. She worked on the Manhattan Project, where she helped develop a process to produce bomb-grade uranium. She was named an associate professor in 1952, full professor in 1958, and the first Pupin Professor of Physics in 1973.
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 University Archives collections at the RBML, researchers 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.
Additional collections:
Left - Bhimrao Ambedkar sitting at a desk (Scan #0716) Historical Photograph Collection (Box 2). University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
Center - Ruth Bader Ginsburg leading a seminar discussion at the School of Law, ca. 1975 (Scan #4330) Historical Photograph Collection (Box 46). University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
Right - V.K. Wellington Koo and Mayor John Purroy Mitchel received honorary degrees at Commencement, 1917 (Scan #4049) Historical Photograph Collection (Box 69). University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.