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Correspondence of Nikola Tesla and Robert Underwood Johnson include letters of Tesla to Johnson's wife and daughter, clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous materials. Letters to George Scherff, 1902-1930, and others, manuscripts, printed articles, patents, and brochures. The material is of a technical nature and the letters deal primarily with Tesla's work on transformers, turbines, steam and gas oscillators, compressors, pumps, induction motors, and wireless transmitters. Also, printed materials by and about Tesla, including DR. NIKOLA TESLA BIBLIOGRAPHY (1979) by John T. Ratzlaff and Leland I. Anderson; and published selections from diary entries, correspondence, patents, and patent wrappers by Tesla published by the Tesla Book Company. There is also a videotape cassette "Nikola Tesla the Genius Who Lit the World".

Correspondence of Howe, dealing with various departmental affairs such as supplies, laboratory equipment, building maintenance, personnel, students, and examination questions. The chief correspondents are two of Howe's colleagues in the Dept. of Metallurgy, Bradley Stoughton and Arthur Lucian Walker. The Stoughton correspondence runs from 1902 to May 1908, at which time he left Columbia and was replaced by Walker. Although Walker remained in the department until 1929, only his correspondence from May 1908 to 1909 is included. Throughout the correspondence there are frequent references to steel. Most of Howe's letters are originals, while Stoughton and Walker's replies are almost entirely carbon copies. Also, a group of letters of inquiry and letters of reference regarding Howe's effort to find a new assistant during July and August of 1916. The manuscripts and documents consist of twenty reports, with covering letters, by Howe as a metallurgical consultant to various mining and metal companies, 1890-1911; lecture notes, 1884-1896; two scrapbooks of metallurgical photographs; four volumes of blueprint graphs illustrating metallic content; a volume of Howe's experiments on refrigeration, ca. 1888-1889; and various other metallurgical notebooks.

The collection, which reflects these associations, includes correspondence, financial records, memoranda, papers, speeches, and newspaper clippings, relating to the history of life insurance, banking, industrial development, and politics in the early 20th Century.

Correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, contracts, legal briefs, patents, and other documents, music scores, cartoons, technical drawings, account books, blueprints, photographs, clippings, printed legal briefs & transcripts, proofs, scrapbooks, and other printed materials of William M. Speer.

The collection of about 6,000 volumes is particularly strong in English and American drama and in Molière. Records for the books are found in the card catalog; the books are classed with a Dewey call number preceded by a "D." The core of the collection comes from Dramatic Museum, with books divided between RBML, Burgess, & GL. These books are cataloged in Columbia's card catalogs, but have not been retrospectively converted. The collection also currently includes Classed Manuscripts. 40 titles in 46 volumes - a variety of manuscripts of plays and of works about the theater, from the late 19th and 20th century, cataloged as books with additional main entry card for each title is filed in the RBML Manuscripts/Documents card file.

Shelved with this collection is the Peter Gilsey Collection of Theatrical Tokens and Medalets

This collection consists of digital files only. The digital files are available on the Columbia University Digital Library Collections (DLC), as well as on the web.

Office files consisting of correspondence, reports, memoranda, and other documents relating to the operation of the Museum. Included are numerous biographical and topical folders on the theatrical subjects such as David Belasco, Costumes, French stage models, Helen Hayes, etc. Masks and Puppets account for 29 folders.