Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Rare Book & Manuscript Library

6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027, USA
rbml@library.columbia.edu
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Columbia University’s principal repository for special collections. We collect, preserve, describe, promote, and provide access to the material evidence of diverse individuals and activities in alignment with the University’s research and teaching mission. We build and steward deep collections in select subject areas and connect them to a global audience through reference, teaching, exhibitions, publications, and public programs.
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Hector Berlioz papers, 1825-1994 27 linear feet (50 boxes 5 oversize folders 228 phonograph records 37 record jackets)

Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869

Correspondence, manuscripts, papers, essays, etc. relating to Berlioz, and 19th century arts and literature. The correspondence includes original Berlioz letters and over 200 copies of letters relating to Berlioz and the romantic era, written by musicians, critics, historians, and literateurs of the past century. There are many photostats of letters and manuscripts obtained from the principal libraries of the world which hold original Berlioz material. The collection includes much printed material in the form of music scores, published letters, essays, clippings, biographies, music and book catalogues, program notes, and playbills.

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New York City Opera records, 1924-2019, bulk 1965-1991 215 linear feet (Box 1-231 Processed: 148 record cartons, 61 manuscript boxes, 13 XL flat boxes, 5 small flat boxes, 2 LP boxes, 2 CD boxes, 1 oversize mapcase folder, 4 OS mounted standing posters, and 3 costumes) 189 linear feet (Unprocessed: 185 record cartons, 2 tube boxes, 14 hard drives with 35 TB of digitized material)

New York City Opera
New York City Opera (NYCO) was famously dubbed "The People's Opera" by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia at its founding in 1943. The Opera company's mission is to inspire audiences with innovative and theatrically compelling opera at an affordable price. This collection documents the artistic productions and the daily administrative functions and operations attest to the mission of the company. The materials in this collection consist of administrative and financial records, production files, stage guides, scores, correspondence, programs, photographs, posters, scenery plans, memorabilia, printed materials, and audio and video recordings, dating from 1924 to 2019, with its bulk dating from 1965 to 1991.
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Paul Oskar Kristeller papers, 1910-1989 115 linear feet (172 boxes: 82 document boxes, 72 record storage cartons, 18 notecard boxes, 275 microfilm reels)

Kristeller, Paul Oskar, 1905-1999
Professional and personal papers of the German émigré scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller. Kristeller was a professor of philosophy at Columbia University and a world renowned scholar of Renaissance humanism and Renaissance philosophy who published widely, notably his major catalog of uncataloged manuscripts from the Italian Renaissance, the Iter Italicum.
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Sylvia Ardyn Boone Papers, 1925-2011, bulk 1961-1993 40 linear feet (34 record cartons, 5 oversized flat boxes (box 60-64), 4 manuscript boxes, 1 tall manuscript box (box 37))

Boone, Sylvia Ardyn
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Sylvia Ardyn Boone, a scholar of Art History with a focus on African art, and the first African-American woman to receive tenure at Yale University. The collection includes manuscripts, correspondence, course materials and syllabi, research notes, printed materials, photographs, video and sound recordings, and other papers relating to professional projects. Also included are dissertation manuscripts for recipients of the Sylvia Ardyn Boone Memorial Prize at Yale.
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