Collections : [Columbia University Archives]

The first 318 cubic feet of correspondence and other records dating from 1890 to 1971 were filed under general alphabetical headings. Each letter of the alphabet is divided into chronological groups. For example, files labeled A-Az for 1930-1931 are followed by the A-Az files for 1931-1932 and so on. This sub-series contains the same types of materials relating to the same categories of subject as the rest of Central Files. It appears as though records were filed under general alphabetical headings when only a small amount of correspondence was received or when the subject of the correspondence was not considered to be important at the time. In spite of this, sub-series I.1 contains many substantial records as well as materials from significant persons and should not be overlooked by researchers.

Subseries consisting of records to, from, or about a person filed under the person's name. This is the only portion of Central Files that contains detailed descriptions of the contents of files. If a desired personal name does not appear in this sub-series, or if the name is found but the time period of interest falls outside the date range given for the folder, it may still be possible to find relevant materials in Series I.1 General Alphabetical, through the use of the Central Files card index, or by confining the search to a very specific date range.

Subseries consisting of records to, from, or about a corporation filed under the corporation's name. If a desired corporate name does not appear in this sub-series, or if the name is found but the time period of interest falls outside the date range given for the folder, it may still be possible to find relevant materials in Series I.1 General Alphabetical, through the use of the Central Files card index, or by confining the search to a very specific date range.

The general correspondence is arranged in alphabetical order and contains primarily correspondence sent and received by the university librarians, along with other library staff. Individually named and general alphabetical files are arranged in one alphabetical sequence by correspondent name or subject heading and chronologically within each letter of the alphabet by year. Notable subjects in this subseries include correspondence on budgets, library statistics, collections, and staff. Important subjects filed under sub-files are interspersed within the general alphabetical correspondence and are noted parenthetically.

This subseries contains letters relating to employee salaries and personnel files during the period from January 1900 to November 1916. Within this subseries, items are filed alphabetically under the individual's or organization's name. Includes sub-files on Barnard College, along with related personnel and administrative files for Miss M.O. Cox, Frederick W. Erb (Loan Department), Miss Harriet B. Prescott (Catalog Department), Dr. V.G. Simkhovitch (Bibliography), and Miss Margaret Van Zandt (Order Department). For salary letters outside this range, or additional information, such as salary reports and library statistics, consult Subseries I.1, General Correspondence.

This subseries includes correspondence between the head librarian and the university president. In addition to correspondence between James H. Canfield, William Dawson Johnston, Seth Low, and Nicholas Butler, this subseries includes annual library reports and reorganization plans and special folders on the October 1907 Inspection Trip and a special file of letters between the librarian and the president on Carnegie Retirement Pensions, with extracts from correspondence with department heads.

This subseries includes organizational and promotional materials that document the creation and early operation of the Brebner Memorial Fund. They include correspondence to and from Webb and other officers of the Memorial Fund, correspondence with various donors, including many former students and colleagues of Brebner, memorials to Brebner, and some of Brebner's personal ephemera.

Contained in this subseries are academic articles, newspaper and magazine clippings, and research notes and research materials relevant to Brebner's unfinished historical manuscript on early modern and industrializing Britain, which he was preparing when he died in 1857. These files also contain various drafts of four chapters on Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

"Pink sheets" is the term used to describe the pink "List of Contestants or Performers and Substitutes." These sheets were completed for all athletic contests in which contestants or performers were to be absent from lectures or laboratories. They include date, venue, sport, final score and lists of players, non-players and managers, who were excused from class. There are no pink sheets for 1941-1942.

"Sports Binders" is the term used for the collected information about each intercollegiate athletic team, originally kept in binders and organized by season. This may include the season's record, event porgrams, press releases, stats, newspaper clippings and scoresheets for each contest. There is no Fall 1959 binder. For football, there is often a second "binder" of football game programs, both home and away. For additinal programs, see Subseries II.3: Programs.

This subseries contains football scoresheets from the 1980s to the 2000s and compiled team rosters and record books.

This subseries provides early documentation of anti-Vietnam War sentiment on Columbia University's campus including the official documentation of the Independent Committee on Vietnam as well as student responses to Columbia's class ranking and draft policies. Finally there are five spiral bound notebooks of handwritten notes taken before and during the student strikes.

contains a compilation of fliers, SCC memoranda, meeting minutes, and statements, press releases, correspondence, and public statements documenting the student uprisings. A full chronology is followed by the materials of various student groups: the Strike Coordinating Committee, black students and students from Barnard College. Many of the student newsletters are addressed to Morris Grossner, a Columbia University student at the time and a leader in Columbia's chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). These materials are followed by letters of support and various other responses of those involved in the strike, as well as plans for the restructuring of the University. Also included are submissions, addressing racism, black students and the labor movement, by Columbia University students to the magazineChina Featuresin Peking.

This subseries consists of assorted correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, and so on, organized alphabetically by subject. These records, all contained in record carton 1, are far from comprehensive. Folders 1.1–1.3 contain documents related to research done under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission (circa 1948–1953). Folder 1.6 contains records of graduate student fellowships awarded (university-wide) in the mid 1950s. Folders 1.7–1.15 contain John R. Dunning's records of research operations at the Cyclotron Laboratory and within the Division of War Research (circa 1940–1949). Folders 1.22–1.24 contain drafts of papers and theses submitted to Professor Chien-Shiung Wu in the early 1950s.

Folders 2.1-10 contain classroom materials and records related to summer session classes offered mainly in the 1950s. Folders 2.11–3.9 contain sample deficiency exams, finals, master's exams, and Ph.D. qualifying exams, some dating as early as the 1920s. The most extensive portion of this sub-series, however, is the course materials within folders 3.10–7.3. Organized principally by academic year and course offered, these records provide a comprehensive view of the Physics Department's course offerings roughly from the late 1930s through the late 1950's. For each course there are syllabi, quizzes, lab assignments, exams, and so on; often there are grade distributions, and in some cases lecture notes. Included are some apparently complete lecture sets, as for example: folder 6.14: Jack Steinberger's lectures on "Meson Physics" (1957); or folder 6.1: Steven Weinberg's lectures on "Advanced Quantum Mechanics" (1958).

Folders 7.4–7.52 consists of a wide variety of publications, contractor bids, correspondence, news releases and various other general office records dating from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. For the most part, these documents relate only relatively mundane office minutiae, such as the procurement of a "Glass Annealing Oven" (folder 7.18). Of greater interest, perhaps, are folders 7.26–28, which cover the distribution of the lab's research results to a long list of U.S. Military officials under the "Joint Services Electronics Program" (JSEP).

These files contain correspondence and materials on related to financial issues on various subjects including accounting, affiliated institutions, budgets, business affairs, campus services, Columbia University Press, employee benefits, funds, gifts, real estate, schools, and tuition.

This subseries consists of copies of outgoing correspondence for January 1965 to September 1966.

This subseries contains Contemporary Civilization syllabi for nearly all years from 1937 to 1999, as well as from spring 2007. It also contains some proposed syllabi from the 1960s and 1970s, and pilot syllabi sections from 1993-1994. From 1937 to 1950, C.C. syllabi folders also contain rosters, exams, and staff files and memos, separated with tabs. N.b.: until the 1960s, C.C. was a four-semester sequence.

This subseries contains C.C. exams and assignments. Materials are arranged by exam type (mid-term, final, conflict final, etc.) and alphabetically by the surname of the professor. Instructors wrote their own exams, though the subseries also contains memos to staff on guidelines and suggested questions for some exams. N.b.: for reasons having to do with provenance, C.C. exams for 1937-1950 are included with syllabi and other materials in Subseries I.1.

This subseries contains teaching aids, bibliographies, and published papers. First in the arrangement are the general teaching aids addressing the entire course (Box 9 Folder 9). The next group's arrangement follows the course outline, beginning with bibliographies and teaching aids of the Greek period and continuing to the twentieth century (Box 9 Folder 10 to Box 10 Folders 5). The last record group is associated with women, politics of sexuality and family, and racism (Box 10 Folders 6-20). The women's issues documents begin with the research material and reports of the "Committee on the Women's Question" for Contemporary Civilization and is followed by materials arranged according to the course syllabi. The last folder in the subseries contains a 1990 document by Nancy Leys Stepan on integrating lessons and readings on race and racism into C.C.

Negatives of events, people and classes associated with the School of Social Work.

Negatives of events associated with Columbia's Bicentennial celebrations in 1953-1954.

Negatives of recipients and events associated with various fellowships and scholarships offered by Columbia University.