Here are updates from the RBML’s archives and collections management specialists.
Newly Linked AMI Material
Newly Available Oral History Content
United Nations Intellectual History project, 1999-2006: This collection documents the origins, development, and evolution of ideas surrounding concepts such as development, international economics, human security, sustainability, peace keeping, gender, and least developed countries that shaped United Nations global social and economic agenda.
Frederick P. Latimer, Jr. oral history collection on Atatürk, 1965-1966: The collection contains twenty-one interviews collected by Frederick P. Latimer on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. Collection previously called “Turkish project.”
Gay Officers Action League oral history collection, 1992: The Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) is a fraternal organization that represents and advocates for gay and lesbian police officers. It was founded in 1982 by Charles Henry “Charlie” Cochrane, Jr., a sergeant of the New York City Police Department. This collection documents the experiences of GOAL members.
History of Medicare oral history collection, circa 1965-1968: The History of Medicare collection is primarily comprised of audio recordings created over the course of Peter A. Corning’s work on “THE EVOLUTION OF MEDICARE . . . from idea to law”, which was written for the Social Security Administration’s Office of Research and Statistics.
Popular Arts project, 1958-1960: This frequently used collection documents the early years of Hollywood and motion pictures. Audio and digital transcripts added to the DLC represent materials completed during past digitization projects. Most audio in this batch is snippets that contributed to the radio series “Memoirs of the Movies.”
Portrait of a City oral history collection, 1980-1992: These interviews document the history of Paterson, New Jersey in the twentieth century. Some of the subjects addressed include labor relations, the textile industry, immigrant groups, geography of the city, prominent locally-owned businesses, and entertainment.
Newly Opened Materials
The House of Books Records had a series of business records (Series IX) that were closed until 8/1/2020, and are now open.
Newly Updated Finding Aids
“American novelist. Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and printed material.”
“Louis G. Cowan was Vice-president and President of CBS, Director of the Morse Communications Center of Brandeis University, President of the Broadcast Institute of North America, and Director of Special Programs of Columbia’s School of Journalism.”
“Collection of notes and manuscript drafts of studies made by Rood, concerned with the theory and practice of painting, art criticism, esthetics, and related subjects. Some of the results of these studies were published in 1941 under the title, COLOR AND LIGHT IN PAINTING.”
“Letters from 18th and 19th century botanists, mostly German. All of the letters relate to botanical studies.”
* Added Library of Congress subject links for over 20 of the botanists.
“Field notebooks detailing the customs and ceremonies of the Native American Hopi tribe, collected by Elsie Worthington Clews Parsons, PhD (1874-1941). Thirty of these volumes were the notebooks of Alexander M. Stephen (d. 1894), a U.S. Army officer who, in about 1882, started observing Hopi life. Although chiefly concerned with the Hopis, there are some notes on Hopi-Navajo relations and a few references to the Native American Tewa and Hokya tribes.”
Note: Attentive to the ethical issues around description of Native American materials, in particular naming, our archivists have made an effort to sensitively update this finding aid. We acknowledge there is much more work to do in our collections.
“Erich Hertzmann (1902-1963) was a German American musicologist. This collection contains manuscripts, notes, musical scores, photocopies, student papers, microfilms, glass plate images, and other related materials about diverse musical subjects.”
“William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932) was a civil engineer, who attended Columbia University (AB, 1879; CE, 1882). As chief engineer, Parsons designed and built the first units of the Rapid Transit System of New York (1899-1904). In 1898, he directed a survey of Chinese railroads (1898-1899) primarily on the line from Hankow to Canton. Parsons was appointed to the international Board of Consulting Engineers for the Panama Canal (1905). In 1905, he was also selected chief engineer of the Cape Cod Canal (1905-1914). Parsons served in both the Spanish-American and World War I. He is the author of An American Engineer in China (1900), (1920), and other works relating to engineering. This collection contains correspondence, including letters from U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), Canadian author Gilbert Parker (1862-1932), and printed monographs and magazine articles.”
Alfred Seidemann manuscripts, 1926-1943
“Notes and notebooks from lectures given by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), at Marburg, Germany (1926-1927). The notes are attributed to Alfred Seidemann (1895-1976) (University of Freiburg, PhD (1935)), who studied under Heidegger.”
“Notes and notebooks from lectures given by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), at Marburg, Germany (1926-1927). The notes are attributed to Alfred Seidemann (1895-1976) (University of Freiburg, PhD (1935)), who studied under Heidegger.”
“Correspondence files of the Declaration of Atlantic Unity.”
“A collection of autographs of Latin American patriots and Hispanic loyalists living in the Viceroyalty of Perú during the 19th century.”
“Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and printed materials of Lamont. Philosopher and author. Columbia University Ph.D., 1932.”
“Correspondence, manuscripts, documents and photographs of Count Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, Russian Fortification Engineer, General of Imperial Russian Army. “
“Printed ephemera, including some periodicals. Most items concern various radical groups, such as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP), the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (PSR), and to a lesser extent the Jewish socialist Bund, the Polish Socialist Party, and the Anarchist-Communists.”
New / updated biographical notes