Lewis A. Rosenthal Memorial Room Plaque

Have you ever wondered who else lived in “your” dorm room? Some Columbia students have been visited by returning alumni (see Art Garfunkle); others could search student directories and other sources available at the University Archives. But for a select few, from around the 1930s to the 1970s, there was a plaque right in their […]

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A Dorm for Crew on “Cathedral Heights”

The first students to reside on the Columbia campus on Morningside Heights were members of the 1895 Varsity Crew Team. Just months after acquiring the land and two years before classes even started on the new site, the crew team was granted permission to use a house on the Bloomingdale Asylum grounds as training quarters. […]

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What’s it like to be a student at Columbia?

At the University Archives, we are frequently asked about former Columbia students. While we can help users identify which are the best resources to find alumni, we’ve been thinking lately about student life more broadly: not just who was a student but what resources do we have that help to explain what going to Columbia […]

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Going to Columbia While Living At Home

President Bollinger stated in his fall term update that while the surges of the pandemic continue, we “must drastically scale back the number of students we can accommodate in residence on campus.” Columbia has not always been a residential college and, in fact, one of Bollinger’s predecessors believed strongly in students staying at home. […]

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CU summer housing: Lorca slept here

Welcome to the start of Columbia’s 2018 summer session! We recently processed a collection of Columbia Men’s Residence Hall Registers and Ledger Books. The registers served as a directory of residents for each of the earliest dorms on the Morningside campus. Organized by last name and first initial, the books list the room number, mail […]

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