Lillie Rovno was deployed by the United States military in Germany, Japan, Alaska, and Hawaii, and continued to travel the world in later years. A scholar of Russian culture interested in performance arts, Rovno collected materials on a broad array of art forms: Kabuki and Japanese visual arts, ballet, Jewish music, and Italian music. The collection includes numerous photos, some autographed, of prominent ballet performers from the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and the U.S., with many of the photos documenting visits of Soviet ballet companies to the U.S. in the 1980s and early 1990s. The collection also contains musical scores from Italy, the U.S., and Israel, including Israeli songbooks from the early 1950s.
Louis Henkin (1917-2010) was a prominent figure in international human rights law and taught at Columbia Law School for over sixty years. Henkin published more than twenty books on constitutionalism, foreign policy, human rights, and international law, and served as an expert member of the United Nations' Human Rights Committee. The collection consists of 22 linear feet of Henkin's professional record, primarily from the last twenty-five years of his career, and focuses on his teaching activity, writings, and work for the United Nations.