Researcher Profile | Andrew Holter delves into Murray Kempton’s 1970s journalism papers and finds a surprising thank you note from Jennifer Jason Leigh

Project titleA collection of journalism by Murray Kempton. What brings you to Columbia’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library? I wanted to spend a little more time with the Murray Kempton papers, especially the short pieces he read aloud for the CBS radio program called Spectrum in the 70s. I’ve been trying to understand what the […]

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Research at the RBML | Alex Cheng looks at Interzone, a mixed-up, early manuscript of Naked Lunch

Interested in the persistent cultural influence of the Beat Poets, Alex Cheng visited the library this summer to see what the archives could tell him about the writing process and social networks of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Burroughs. Getting a head start on most researchers, Alex took some time from his high school […]

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Event | Intoxicating the Archive – Preserving Narcotic Heritage and including Marginalized Voices in Collections and Libraries

  “Intoxicating the Archive” critically explores how the memories and struggles of people who use drugs and those of other marginalized and/or activist groups in history are represented in archives, museums, and collective memory at large. While often being invisible at first, drug cultures have left traces in many archives and collections. However, finding and […]

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The history of a possible future: The Green New Deal and Political Change

This is part of a series of blog posts highlighting objects and archival documents from Social Climates: Power and the Environment in the Archives, an exhibition currently on view in the Kempner Gallery at Columbia’s RBML. Drawing on a wide array of RBML collections and materials, Social Climates explores the interconnections between culture, history, politics, […]

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Comics and Cartoons: Visualizing Disaster

This is part of a series of blog posts highlighting objects and archival documents from Social Climates: Power and the Environment in the Archives, an exhibition currently on view in the Kempner Gallery at Columbia’s RBML. Drawing on a wide array of RBML collections and materials, Social Climates explores the interconnections between culture, history, politics, […]

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