Archivist’s Pick: A Glance at the Chinese Republican Era and Beyond

At the RBML, we recently installed a small exhibition in the Archivist’s Pick Cubes on materials related to Chinese history and culture, pertaining to the people of the Chinese Republican era (1912-1949) and beyond. These materials were acquired through Columbia affiliates such as alumni, professors, and their family and friends. Many were Chinese intellectuals, diplomats, […]

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President Barnard’s Other Legacy

Columbia College’s tenth president, Frederick A.P. Barnard, is best known for paving the way for the College to become a University and for his unsuccessful campaign in support of coeducation. But he has another legacy which is not as well remembered: Barnard made  significant contributions in the education of deaf students and he was a […]

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When is the “right” moment for collecting oral histories?

  In the rush to document history, students, faculty, and staff clamored for there to be oral histories capturing this moment in Columbia’s history. How will student protest and University reactions be archived, preserved, memorialized, and used/misused for varied agendas and purposes? In consulting with oral history collection donors, interviewing narrators, designing oral history projects […]

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First Commencement

The current exhibition of King’s College Diplomas in RBML’s Chang Octagon features reproductions of diplomas awarded by what we now know as Columbia from 1763 to 1773.  King’s College’s first President Samuel Johnson did not award diplomas at Commencement. His ceremonies included a more intimate ritual between the President, the graduate, and Johnson’s own Hebrew […]

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An A-to-Z of Oral History at Columbia: “F” is for “fair use”

  An A-to-Z of Oral History at Columbia is a monthly posting featuring the people, events, and organizations in the Oral History Archive at Columbia’s collections, as well as behind-the-scenes info about oral history methodology.             In this second post related to ethics (see the first post here, which in […]

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