If you stand by the Sundial and look towards Broadway, you will see an inscribed bronze tablet on the post of the College Walk railing. If you look towards Amsterdam, there is a matching tablet with a relief portrait on the other side’s post. This subtle, almost hiding-in-plain-sight, monument honors George Lockhart Rives – a […]
Research at the RBML | Tomoko Akami on the Institute of Pacific Relations papers
Professor Tomoko Akami, from the School of Culture, History and Language at ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, is examining the Institute of Pacific Relations papers at the RBML. Below Professor Akami discusses how the IPR helped shape Asian Studies in their project, “Towards a globalized history of international relations.” What brings you to Columbia’s Rare […]
Research at the RBML | Nadav Millman investigates the Chris Claremont papers
Nadav Millman recently visited the RBML to dive into the papers of comic book writers and novelist Chris Claremont, which include works in progress, discarded story ideas, and unpublished manuscripts. Nadav describes finding correspondence with editors discussing some of Claremont’s best-known plots. What brings you to Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library? When I heard that […]
An Overdue Book from the King’s College Library
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 […]
Two Operatic Controversies (and what they tell us about the relationship between the arts and the media in the United States)
This post is by Callum Blackmore, a GSAS student and intern in the RBML’s Graduate Student Internship in Primary Sources. In October 1975, a controversy erupted around the American opera singer, Beverly Sills. At the heart of this controversy was a feature article by the opera critic, Peter G. Davis (1948-2021), whose papers are now […]