Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

The Milton Handler Papers span the years 1923 to 1997. The collection's earliest records are class notes taken by Handler while he was a student at Columbia University. The most recent records consist of travel correspondence. In essence, the collection documents 45 years of Milton Handler's activities and achievements as a Professor of Law at Columbia University, a career as a preeminent antitrust and trademark scholar, and a lawyer and senior partner of the firm Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays, and Handler. The records total approximately 96 linear feet of material including correspondence (both incoming letters and carbon copies of outgoing letters); handwritten and typed drafts with corrections; legal memoranda; dockets; reports; legal and legislative documents; clippings; research materials and notes; printed items such as pamphlets, reprints of articles, and speeches; photographs; audio tapes; and award and degree certificates. Professor Handler made the initial donation of material to Butler Library at Columbia University in 1978. Subsequent donations took place in 1982, 1983, and 1984. In 1986, when Special Collections at the Library of the School of Law had been established, Handler requested that the papers donated earlier to Butler Library be transferred to the Library of the School of Law. He made additional donations of papers in 1986 and 1987. A description of the Milton Handler Papers record groups follows.

Working files and tapes.

A major part of the collection is von Meck's autobiography (660 p.), covering up to the latter part of World War II, when she left Russia for the West. This autobiography primarily discusses her life in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s; her father was executed and she herself was imprisoned in Soviet concentration camps. There are five brief essays discussing railroads in Russia and the USSR, and a photograph of her grandmother, Anna Merkling. Also icluded is von Meck's translation of 681 letters written by P.I. Tchaikovsky to his family during the period March 1861 to September 1893.

Materials gathered by Maurice B. Cuba for a projected doctoral dissertation at Columbia University on the life of Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877), social reformer, author, and spiritualist. The collection is composed of Mr. Cuba's correspondence about Owen, outlines and drafts for his thesis, many notes and copies of letters from Owen, and photostats of manuscript and printed materials from several libraries in Indiana where Owen helped to establish the utopian community of New Harmony. There are also eleven holograph letters from Owen to various people.

The collection consists largely of letters to Gunst from other Russian emigre musicians, including Nikolaĭ Cherepnin, Aleksandr Glazunov, Aleksandr Grechaninov, Nikolaĭ Medtner, and Sergeĭ Rakhmaninov. Other items include a photograph of Aleksandr Skri︠a︡bin's funeral procession, performance programs, and printed material relating to the Russian conservatory in Paris.

The collection is composed almost exclusively of manuscripts submitted to Gering for publication in "Voennai︠a︡ Byl"́. These are mostly short memoirs of battles and campaigns, of life in military school, or of peacetime garrison life, by former tsarist officers. These naturally relate chiefly to the last few decades of the tsarist regime, and to the period of the Revolution and Civil War. Some contributions are more scholarly in tone; these include articles on the earlier history of the Russian army and of individual regiments, etc. Few of the manuscripts are more than 40 pages long; most are 1-20 pages. Not all of these manuscripts were published in "Voennai︠a︡ Byl"́; those that were not formed part of Gering's "archive" and have been arranged separately.

The collection is composed of notes on classical authors made by Professor Anthon. There are three bound volumes: 1) notes on Latin authors, ca. 250 leaves; 2) commentary on seven plays by Euripides, ca. 260 leaves; and 3) lecture notes, ca. 140 leaves. Each leaf is closely written in a minute but clear 19th century hand. In addition there are several short manuscripts and one letter to Joseph Green Cogswell. Also included are some printed books written by Anthon and various classical editions with his commentaries.

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.