“The Business of Building the United States Capitol” with Guy Gugliotta, the author of Freedom's Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War From its nine-million-pound cast-iron dome to the dazzling opulence of the President’s Room and the Senate corridors, the U.S. Capitol is a triumph of both engineering and […]
A Call Number by any other Name . . .
Pressmark? Or what about shelfmark? They sound old-fashioned, bringing mental images of cupboards ("presses") and shelves where books are stored. "Call number" isn't just a modern term; it has geographical implications, too: the OED cites it as "orig. U.S." and it still seems more common in the United States, while in Great Britain these magical […]
Report from CODEX
I went last month to the CODEX Book Fair and Symposium. CODEX is big, too big, perhaps, with nearly 180 tables. So many books, people, conversations, so much over-stimulation. The question between marathon sessions — at the Fair itself, on the bus, in the bar, at dinner, at coffee, was "What did you see?" […]
Tennessee Williams Additions
by Jennifer Lee The RBML has received a very significant addition to its already major holdings of Tennessee Williams material. This addition is particularly important because it relates to Williams’ later work, the strength of Columbia’s holdings. The new material includes heavily annotated typescripts of Williams’ later plays including Out Cry (1971), […]
Amos Vogel Papers and Tributes
by Jennifer Lee Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library has been the home to Amos Vogel’s papers since 2008. After’s Amos’s death last year, his family found more papers in the Vogel apartment near Washington Square. These have now come to Columbia, and will be added to the 149 boxes of material already open to […]