Most of the time, when people at Columbia talk about the DeWitt Clinton chair, they mean the professorial chair in American History currently held by Eric Foner. At the Rare Book Manuscript Library, however, we mean a literal chair on display in the Corliss Lamont reading room. As its tarnished silver plaque notes, this is the chair “in which GOV. DE WITT CLINTON was seated at the time of his death.”
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- The DeWitt Clinton chair not occupied by Eric Foner (sitting in this chair is not permitted).
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- Close up of the plaque on the chair, which reads: “This Chair, in which GOV. DE WITT CLINTON was seated at the time of his death, was presented to the College by his Son, MR. CHARLES A. CLINTON, July 1st, 1828.
