Hull-House Maps and Papers: On moving a book from general to special collections

  By many measures, Hull-House Maps and papers is not a rare book. In 1895, Jane Addams and her colleagues at Chicago’s Hull-House published Hull-House Maps and Papers: a presentation of nationalities and wages in a congested district of Chicago, together with comments and essays on problems growing out of the social conditions. Their goal […]

Read More…

Scrolls, Folders, and Megaphones

    In 2016, two important events occurred: 1) Letha Dawson Scanzoni donated her personal collection of her own writings, research, and activist materials for the Archive of Women in Theological Scholarship and 2) a library staff member ordered a megaphone.   Fast forward to the first day of my Graduate Internship in Primary Sources, […]

Read More…

Paris Bibles

  The Burke Library’s resources include some wonderful examples of the first personal study Bible filled with innovations still in use today.  These precious volumes are not from the 19th-century, the Reformation, nor even the first days of the printing press, but are manuscripts from the medieval world, products of the end of the period […]

Read More…

The Katie Geneva Cannon Digital Collection

  We are pleased to announce the latest update in the ongoing inter-institutional endeavor to create the Katie Geneva Cannon Digital Collection. This momentous project aims to make Dr. Cannon’s archives and papers, which span from her elementary school days through her later career, publicly available online. With this digital collection nearly complete, users can […]

Read More…

New, Team-Taught Course on Medieval Manuscripts

This past fall, two members of Columbia’s faculty and three librarians came together to co-teach a new interdisciplinary seminar on medieval manuscripts as part of Columbia’s vibrant Medieval & Renaissance Studies Program. The class, “Introduction to Medieval Manuscript Studies,” emerged after a series of conversations between Columbia’s medievalists about the need to provide students–from undergraduates […]

Read More…

An Internship Exploring the Missionary Research Library

  The Columbia University “Ask a Librarian” Internship had been presented to me three different times on three unrelated platforms before I decided to apply. The first time someone close to me reached out and thought I would be a good fit. The second time it appeared in my school email. The third time it […]

Read More…

Re-post: Exhibit on Islamic Science on Display at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library through March 2023

  This post is entirely devoted to the newest exhibit at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, featuring dozens of works from the Muslim World Manuscripts housed in the RBML and Burke Library collections. Head of Global Studies Kaoukab Chebaro wrote a terrific post for the Global Studies Blog which we are highlighting below. We […]

Read More…

Religious Communities in the Christian Tradition: a New Exhibit

  Three weeks ago, the staff of The Burke Library were delighted to welcome faculty, students, and staff from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University to an opening reception marking the start of a new academic year. As part of the festivities, we were also very pleased to open a new exhibit on the first […]

Read More…

Mapping the Stacks

  Have you ever gone looking for a book in the Burke circulating collections, only to be met with a shelf so tightly crammed that retrieving the text you need feels like tug of war? Books can crowd! There never seems to be enough room!  You’ve seen it in your homes, in your offices, in […]

Read More…

Interview with Johonna McCants-Turner

    This summer, Union Theological Seminary hosted the Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life (APRIL) in its annual Summer Colloquium presented in partnership with Auburn Seminary. Each year, the colloquium brings about a dozen participants to “work on vital contemporary questions about religious life and social justice” in a collaborative discussion environment. This […]

Read More…