Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence, memoranda, reports, etc.

This collection includes nine letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as letters of Louis Agassiz, Amos Bronson Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Lothrop Motley, Charles Sumner, and John Greenleaf Whittier. In addition, there are two incomplete manuscripts by Emerson and one document from the Liverpool Custom-house signed by Nathaniel Hawthorne as Consul for the United States. The collection also includes the corrected typescript, index, and page and galley proofs for Thomas Franklin Currier, A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (New York, 1953) which was edited by Professor Tilton. Also, some early correspondence and photographs of the Tilton family and friends. There are letters from the actors Annie Louise Ames, Richard J. Dillon, and Hans L. Meery to Tilton's grandfather, Bernard Paul Verne, as well as photographs, tintypes, and daguerreotypes of the Verne family and friends.

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, course materials, and printed matter relevant to the teaching and research of Elliott V. K. Dobbie, Professor of English. Correspondence files contain materials on various publications including American Speech, Modern American Usage, Word as well as letters with students and colleagues. The manuscripts include Columbia University English Department files, course materials on the history of the English language, examinations, lectures given by others and notes thereon; texts of sagas, materials on Short History of English Grammar and West Frisian language. The notes are primarily on Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. Printed matter includes numerous offprints inscribed to Dobbie and materials used in his research.

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, notebooks, documents, photographs, course-related materials, and printed materials. The manuscripts include typescripts of Sykes' published and unpublished novels, monographs, plays, short stories, and articles. Among these are The Perennial Avant Garde, The Cool Millennium, and The Hidden Remnant. Sykes' notes and notebooks span the period from the early 1930s to 1980, and include preliminary ideas and sketches for his books, as well as autobiographical material. A small number of documents concern Sykes' wartime work in the U.S. Government Office of War Information. Course-related material including writings and correspondence of students taught by Sykes between 1962 and 1975 at the New School and as an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Printed materials consist of numerous reviews of Sykes' books, in addition to offprints and articles by Sykes. Included as well are printed materials about or connected with Sykes, offprints of articles inscribed to him, and many volumes from his library. The substantial correspondence series includes personal letters and correspondence with agents and publishers relating to his books. Correspondents include Harold Clurman, Aaron Copland, Lawrence Durrell, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Francis Steegmuller, as well as a number of Sykes' students. There is extensive correspondence between Sykes and the artist John Hartell from 1927 to 1983.

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and printed materials. This collection consists of his correspondence (1937-1957) in four boxes; manuscripts, notes, and printed copies of speeches and periodical articles and the manuscripts of "North Atlantic Triangle" and "Making of Modern Canada". Included also are the notes for a number of courses given by him at Columbia University as well as three boxes of student seminar papers. Most of the materials in the collection relate to some phase of Canadian life and history

The incomplete records of the New York State Library School, Albany, 1890-1911. Included are diploma lists, grade sheets, examination questions, examination questions with corresponding set of students' answers, pass cards, senior certificate lists, an admissions application, entrance examinations, curriculum materials, and some documents for the class of 1890. Also, records of the New York State Library School Association, Incorporated. In addition to letters from such prominent American librarians as Katharine L. Sharp, Joseph Wheeler, Ralph Munn, and James I. Wyer, there are minutes, reports, memoranda, and printed documents, including the Association's constitution. There is a scrapbook of blanks and forms used in the executive departments of U.S. libraries in 1893, mounted by the N.Y. State Library School for the American Library Association World's Columbian Exposition Comparative Library Exhibit (Chicago, 1893). Also, files of the school consisting of course materials, exams, publications of the School, student records, admission files, class lists and rankings, and some related correspondence.

The Robert O. Paxton Papers include: arranged correspondence featuring exchanges between Paxton and his occasional collaborator and one-time coauthor Michael Marrus; research materials and notes for Vichy France and the Jews (published 1981); and course materials (including lecture notes, syllabi, and exams) for two history courses Paxton taught at Columbia from 1968 to 1995. The lecture notes--which help to illuminate Paxton's teaching style, the depth of his lecture preparations, and the evolution of his topical emphases across the decades--may be of particular interest to history and pedagogy scholars alike.