Oral historian and urban planner Ambar Wortham leads a sliding scale 3-hour interactive workshop on: the importance of preserving your own story and ensuring your life experiences are remembered for generations to come. Together, we will learn how self-preservation is as vital as the care you offer others, techniques to reflect on and organize […]
[learning opportunity] 2025 Oral History Summer Institute
Colleagues in the Columbia Center for Oral History Research welcome applications for the biannual 2025 Oral History Summer Institute. This year’s theme is Speaking Up for Democracy: Oral History and Political Change. The Summer Institute convenes for five days (July 14–18) with an additional workshop on hands-on techniques and implementation on Saturday, July 19, 2025. […]
A Change in Furniture
At the RBML, there are a couple of historical chairs in our reading rooms. One chair used to be in Benjamin Franklin’s library and is featured during presidential inaugurations. The other belonged to Columbia College Class of 1786 alum DeWitt Clinton. In fact, as the plaque on the chair notes, this is the chair “in […]
Introducing the Fluxx Exporter
The historical records of the Carnegie Corporation of New York are held by the RBML. They are a heavily-used resource by all kinds of patrons, because the Corporation’s philanthropy over the last century-plus has extended to nearly every corner of American life. Until 2015, all the records were paper-based, but since then the grant records have been […]
Belle da Costa Greene and Columbia
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Morgan Library and Museum as a public institution. As part of the commemoration, the Morgan has put together an exhibition about the life and career of its first director, Belle da Costa Greene. Columbia librarians collaborated with Greene long before the Morgan was open to the public, […]