On September 6, 1950, Enos M. Johnson returned to the Columbia University Libraries a book last checked out in 1772 from the King’s College library, long before it was known as Columbia. Johnson found this historical item in the attic of his aunt Susan Ruggles’ home in Binghamton, NY. Johnson’s donation joined the few other […]
Category: Columbia University Archives
Meet me at the Sundial
“Meet me at the Sundial.” It’s heard all over campus, but have you ever wondered how that platform on College Walk is (or was) a sundial? Well, the Sundial is missing its “dial” or a 7-foot granite sunball that used to tell time. […]
Now Available | The JoAnn Winsten Papers
The JoAnn Winsten papers document her advocacy work on behalf of the University’s administrative staff. An administrative assistant and later director of administration of the Applied Physics Department until her retirement in 2017, Winsten served on the Commission on the Status of Women, the University Senate and the Columbia Administration Staff Association (CASA), among other […]
Research at the RBML | Barbara Weinstein on Frank Tannenbaum
Professor of History at NYU Barbara Weinstein recently visited the RBML to research Frank Tannenbaum, an organizer in the IWW in his youth who later taught criminology at Cornell and Latin American history at Columbia. Below Weinstein discusses some of her discoveries in the (vast) Tannenbaum papers as part of her project, Frank Tannenbaum—Anarchist, Criminologist, Historian: An […]
Tips for researchers’ first time in the archives: photos and scanning
Carrie Smith, Lecturer at Cardiff University, recently posted a thread on Twitter with basic advice for first-time archives researchers. The thread has tips that work well for our own RBML users — even for our more regular visitors. […]