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 […]
Category: Columbia University Archives
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, […]
Vickrey’s Scaled Roadway Pricing
Columbia Professor of Economics William Vickrey (1914-1996) is widely considered the Father of Congestion Pricing. And deservedly so. Vickrey studied traffic bottlenecks, gridlock and public transportation to find system efficiencies. With a version on congestion pricing about to go into effect in New York City starting January 5, 2025, we look back at a version […]
Columbia’s Pets
The New York Historical (formerly The New-York Historical Society) recently opened a new exhibition on Pets and the City, where visitors can learn about New Yorkers and their beloved animal companions. Columbia University in the City of New York has also had a few four-legged best friends over the years. Here are some of our […]
A Visit to the Churchyard
In honor of “spooky season”, we take a visit to the graves at Trinity churchyard. Columbians may know this churchyard as the final resting place of King’s College alumnus Alexander Hamilton (1804) and his wife Eliza Hamilton (1854). But there is a much earlier grave that dates back to the British colonial times and the […]