Columbia University Archives: Student Life

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 request the materials directly from the finding aids: 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” button in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your Special Collections Research Account to complete the request form. For more information on how to access our collections, check out our Research & Access website.

To start your search:

• Series XI: Student Activities and Student Life in the Historical Photograph Collection (HPC) contains images of Columbia student clubs, fraternities, performing groups, publications and student traditions from the 1890s to the 1970s.

• For more recent dates (1998-2006), look at Series V: Eileen Barroso Photographs in the Office of Public Affairs Photograph Collection (OPA). As University Photographer, Barroso captures various university events, lectures, panels, orientation activities, campus and building images, sporting events, special occasions, events organized by various schools and departments (e.g., General Studies, Columbia College, Journalism, Business School) and many faculty and staff portraits.

For student life in the 1940s:

• 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 classrooms, lab experiments, students taking exams, commencement, athletic events, and Army and Navy activities on campus during World War II.

For student life in the 1960s:

• Frank Pokorny photographs, 1966-1967
  This collection contains student photographer Frank Pokorny's negatives from 1966 to 1967. The photographs, mostly taken for the Columbia College yearbook, the Columbian, document student life at the university in the mid-1960s.

For student life in the late 1960 and early 1970s:

• 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.

For student life in the 1980s and 1990s:

• Office of Alumni and Development Photograph Collection, 1978-2006
  This collection contains photographs and contact sheets of alumni, faculty and student life taken expressly for a 1980s admissions brochure, capital campaign brochures in the 1990s, and the Columbia alumni magazine in the 1980s through early 2000s. For photographs of Columbia campus life and the campus itself, check out Series II. Columbia Magazine Photo Files, subseries 2 Subjects.

For student life in the 2000s:

• Division of Student Affairs Photograph Collection, 2003-2008
  This collection of color photographs documents major campus events organized or supported by the Division of Student Affairs from 2003 to 2004. Events include Move-In Day for the freshmen class in August 2003, Columbia 250th "Birthday Bash" in October 2003, Homecoming and Family Weekend in 2003, and Columbia College and School of Engineering Class Day graduation ceremonies 2004.

For more information on how to access our collections, check out our Research & Access website. If you have any questions about how to find materials or how to access materials, please contact uarchives@columbia.edu.