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The General Manuscript Collection is an artificial collection of correspondence, diaries, lecture notes, class work, essays, administrative documents, minutes, and other documents collected by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Single items or very small collections are generally classified as part of the general manuscript collection rather than assigned an individual manuscript number. Additionally, small additions to existing RBML manuscript collections may be classified as part of the General Manuscript Collection.

Printed music from the 18th-20th centuries, primarily 19th century American. Almost half the items are popular editions of European composers' instrumental music. The collection contains a large quantity of patriotic music such as the 1798 "Adams and Liberty" and the first and third editions (both 1798) of "Hail Columbia" and a comprehensive collection of music from the Civil War. There are also early printings of "The Star Spangled Banner," first and later editions of Stephen Foster's music, and a large collection of Benjamin Carr materials. Collection of 16th-20th century rare music books was cataloged individually. Primarily collected by Arthur Billings Hunt, 1890-1971, baritone, musical director and broadcaster. Most of the items are of American origin, and reflect Hunt's wide-ranging interests in sacred and secular music.

The Seligman Library of 35,000 volumes, which include books, pamphlets and broadsides, covers the subjects of economics and political science from the earliest printed books to the 1920s. Renowned for its books on economics and banking, the collection includes the library of American finance formed by Albert Bolles between 1830 and 1880, all of the works written by Alexander Hamilton, and over one thousand broadsides. The books were purchased by Columbia University in 1929 and 1942 from the collection of Professor E. R. A. Seligman (1861-1939). The Seligman classification scheme arranged the materials in chronological order, subdivided by country of publication. There is some uncataloged material, including a collection of ca. 450 pamphlets related to Chartism collected by Francis Place (1771-1854), and the Oastler collection, ca. 109 pamphlets collected by Richard Oastler (1789-1861), an English advocate of factory reform.

Printed materials (newsletters, broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, handbills), ephemera, and letters documenting activities of the French Resistance and the Communist Party of France. Includes broadside newspapers from August 1944, when Paris was liberated from the German army.

The Bob Fass Recordings and Papers contains materials created by Bob Fass, host of the late-night program Radio Unnameable on New York City's WBAI radio station. The collection primarily consists of audio recordings of Radio Unnameable and other radio programs hosted by Bob Fass between 1963 and 2011. A small number of video recordings, photographs, correspondence, printed ephemera, and motion picture films are also included in the collection.

The Charles Frederick Chandler collection is composed of several parts. It contains a miscellaneous collection of approximately 167 drawings, notebooks, letters, pamphlets, clippings, etc. formed by Chandler on the subject of tenement housing and documents work on Chandler's house at 51 E. 54th Street in New York City. The Chandler collection also contains 13 photographs, collected by Chandler, related to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Additional materials include a collection of photo processes and two E.T. Potter broadsides dated 1887-1888.

Collection of artists' books created by artists participating in the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; donated by the founder of the coalition Beau Beausoleil between December 2019 and March 2020. Each participating book artist was asked to complete three books over the course of a year that reflected both the strength and fragility of books, but also showed the endurance of the ideas within them.