The Rare Book and Manuscript Library is the principal repository for the special collections of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Located on the sixth floor of

Butler Library Butler Library is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University at 535 West 114th Street, in Manhattan, New York City. It is the university's largest single library with over 2 million volumes, as well as one of the largest bu ...

on the university's

Morningside Heights Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningsi ...

campus, its collections span more than 4,000 years, from early

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

to the present day, and span a variety of formats:

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets,

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

, and

ostraca An ostracon (Greek language, Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeology, archaeological or epigraphy, epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer ...

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

manuscripts, early printed books, works of art, posters, photographs, realia (such as mathematical instruments and theater models), sound and moving image recordings, and born-digital archives. Areas of collecting emphasis include

American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

, Russian and East European émigré history and culture, Columbia University history, comics and cartoons, philanthropy and social reform, the history of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

advocacy,

Hebraica Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

and Judaica, Latino arts and activism,

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts,

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

, and

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

history and the

book arts Book arts may refer to: * Artist's book, a work of art in the form of a book * Book design, the art of designing a book * Book illustration, illustration in a book * Bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex ...

. It also holds the Columbia University Archives.

History

The history of the rare book and manuscript collections dates from the founding of King's College, now Columbia University, in 1754. The library holds materials related to both the first and third presidents of the University, Samuel Johnson and his son

William Samuel Johnson William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. He attended all of the four founding American Congresses: the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, the Congress of the Confederation in 1785–1 ...

, donated by the family in 1914. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the University acquired significant materials though gifts from Stephen Whitney Phoenix, Richard J. H. Gottheil,

Brander Matthews James Brander Matthews (February 21, 1852 – March 31, 1929) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. He was the first full-time professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University in New York and played a significant role in est ...

, Robert H. Montgomery, David Eugene Smith, and George Plimpton. These gifts included medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, materials related to the history of accountancy, education, and mathematics, and the Dramatic Museum collections. The University's first major collection purchase was Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman’s library on the history of economics in 1929. This purchase, and the creation of the Friends of the Libraries Group in the late 1920s, was the impetus for growth in the 1930s. The University moved to make provisions for the care of these types of materials, and the Trustees allowed for the establishment of the Rare Book Department on July 1, 1930. By the end of the 1930s, the library was housed on the sixth floor of Butler Library. As the library increased its collecting of archives and manuscripts, the name of the division was changed from the Rare Book Department to the Department of Special Collections in 1946. Its current name was adopted in 1975. RBML Chang Octagon Room

Although many of these collections contained significant manuscripts, the collecting of manuscripts and archives in their own right took on greater importance after World War II. The library acquired several significant manuscript collections in the 1930s and 1940s, including those of editor Park Benjamin and author

Stephen Crane Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...

. This work continued into the 1950s, during which time the library acquired significant collections related to American history and diplomacy, including those of

John Jay John Jay (, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United ...

. Over the years, the library has acquired archival materials in several key collecting areas—economics and banking, graphic arts, history, human rights, literature, performing arts, printing history, and publishing. In addition, the library includes a number of separately curated archival units, such as the Carnegie Philanthropy Collections, the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European Culture (named for

Boris Bakhmeteff Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmeteff () (also spelled Bakhmetieff or Bakhmetev) (May 14, 1880 – July 21, 1951) was an engineer, businessman, professor of civil engineering at Columbia University and the only ambassador of the Russian Provisional Gove ...

), and the Herbert H. Lehman American History Collections (named for Herbert H. Lehman).

Holdings

The library's collections are particularly strong in English and American history and literature, children's literature, economics and banking, education, graphic arts, human rights, journalism history, librarianship, mathematics and astronomy, New York City politics, philanthropy, printing history, social welfare and social work, theater history, and the performing arts.

Units

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is organized into several units: *Administration *Archives Processing (oversees the arrangement and description of manuscripts and archives) *Collections Management (responsible for the intake and ongoing care of all collections regardless of format) *Curatorial (devoted to collection development, instruction, and outreach relating to core areas including Medieval & Renaissance collections, Russian & Eastern European émigrés (the Bakhmeteff Archive), American History, Literature, Rare Books, oral history (Oral History Archives at Columbia), the performing arts, and comics and cartoons. *Public Services (manages the reading room, online and in-person reference and duplication requests) *University Archives (charged with preserving and providing access to Columbia University's history)

Columbia University Archives

The Columbia University Archives are located within the Rare Book & Manuscript Library on the 6th floor of

; they collect, preserve, and make available for research the administrative records of Columbia University, as well as personal papers, publications, and memorabilia related to the University's history. Archival holdings date from the 18th through the early 21st centuries and document the evolution of University governance and administration; the history and development of individual schools, colleges, and academic departments; the professionalization of higher education and the development of academic disciplines; curriculum development, including the formation of the Core Curriculum; the careers of noteworthy faculty and officers; the design and construction of the Morningside campus; and the University's relationships with city, state, and federal governments. Administrative records available for research after 25 years. In addition the UA retains University publications from bulletins to yearbooks; a library of books and pamphlets on Columbia's history; scrapbooks and memorabilia; in excess of 60,000 images, as well as some 50,000 negatives (both glass plate and film); a collection of lantern slides; and biographical information on students, faculty, and alumni.

References

Jewels in Her Crown

Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Collections and Treasures
* Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library, ''A guide to the manuscript collections in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University'', Boston, Massachusetts : G.K. Hall & Co., 1992

Sources

*Ashton, Jean. “An Introduction by Jean Ashton, Director of RBML.” In Jewels in Her Crown: Treasures from the Special Collections of Columbia's Libraries. USA: Columbia University in the City of New York, 2004. *Jacob Bailey Moore, Henry Thayer Drowne, Memorial Sketches of Stephen Whitney Phoenix. Boston: Press of David Clapp & Son, 1883. *“Columbia Gets Printing Books Type Founders Exhibit Is Now on Deposit At the Library,” Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LX, Number 8, 5 October 1936 *Columbia University Archives website timelines. *“Columbia is given $1.4 million fund.” The New York Times. November 18, 1973. *Hyde, Mary C. “History of the Library friends and the Phoenix Story of Columbia.” In Library Columns. Volume XX. No. 3. 1971. *Lohf, Kenneth A. “Collections of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.” In The Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University: Collections and Treasures, 11–32. New York: Columbia University Libraries, 1985. *Douglas Martin, Obituary for Kenneth A. Lohf in The New York Times. May 18, 2002. *Bruce P. Montgomery, "Archiving human rights: A paradigm for collection development." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 22.2 (1996): 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0099-1333(96)90174-3 *Oral History Interview with Rare Book Librarian Jane Siegel. 2016. *Somerville, Robert. “Some Remarks on the Early History of Columbia University’s Collections of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts.” In Rare Book and Manuscript Occasional Publication 1: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Columbia University, edited by Beatrice Terrien-Somerville, page 1, 6. New York City: Columbia University Libraries, 1991.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rare Book and Manuscript Library Columbia University Libraries Libraries in Manhattan Literary archives in the United States Rare book libraries in the United States Art museums and galleries in Manhattan Special collections libraries in the United States