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This group of approximately 1,000 letters from the papers of Hamilton Fish, Sr. relates to the business, functioning, and activities of Columbia College in the 19th century. The letters include those addressed to Fish and those written by him. The earliest material bears on Fish's activities and interests at about the time he graduated from Columbia, but the majority of the letters fall into the latter part of his life, many being written by and to Fish as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College. The collection includes correspondence with presidents Charles King, F.A.P. Barnard, and Seth Low of Columbia College, also with Edmund Bailey, Charles Davies, Charles W. Harper, William M. Sloan, William C. Schermerhorn, and others. The majority of the letters are original manuscripts and typescripts, but many of the letters from Fish are photostatic and typed copies. Most of the letters are tipped onto manila sheets. Included are two diaries of Mr. Fish's European travels, 1856-1857. There is also a box of printed materials relating primarily to the settlement of the Alabama Claims.

Papers of the Jay family and of those families related to the Jay family, including Bruen, Butterworth, Chapman, Clarkson, Dawson, Du Bois, Field, Iselin, McVickar, Mortimer, O'Kill, Pellew, Pierrepont, Prime, Robinson, Schieffelin, Von Schweinitz, Sedgwick, and Wurts. In addition to family and personal matters, the correspondence deals with anti-slavery, New York State civil service, repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War, the Blair Bill, international affairs, and New York City and State politics and government. There are letters from numerous prominent persons including George Bancroft, F.A.P. Barnard, Bismarck, William Cullen Bryant, Aaron Burr, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hamilton Fish, Albert Gallatin, Horace Greeley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Washington Irving, Frances Anne Kemble, Jenny Lind, Henry W. Longfellow, Seth Low, James Russell Lowell, John Stuart Mill, Alice Duer Miller, Clement Clarke Moore, J.P. Morgan, Thomas Nast, Commodore Matthew Perry, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Carl Schurz, William H. Seward, William T. Sherman, Charles Sumner, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

A collection of letters, documents, manuscripts, and books collected by Dr. Michael Reynard and placed on deposit in The Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

This collection contains photocopies of the Columbia College, and later Columbia University, President's annual reports from 1865-1881 and 1887-1948. The reports include fact and figures (enrollment, degrees conferred, tuition, expenses, gifts, etc.) and topical discussions (co-education, new degree programs, higher education and liberal arts education, current events, etc.).