This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
The collection contains primarily architectural drawing reproductions documenting the site history of Columbia University's Geology Library from Schermerhorn Hall on Columbia Unversity's Morningside campus to, later, the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. The drawings are largely floor plans and some building elevations of both the early and later sites, but the collection also includes a survey map of the Palisades, N.Y. site, and site plans for the Thomas W. Lamont, Esq. Country Residence and Gardens. Also included are 9 student drawings of the Geology and Zoology Library in Schermerhorn Hall by School of Mines student Eugene B. Sieminski, Jr. dated 1958. Architects represented include McKim, Mead, and White, Paver & Wildfoerster, and Olmstead Brothers Landscaper Architects.
1928-1983
This collection is available for use by appointment in the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For further information, please email avery-drawings@library.columbia.edu.
Source of acquisition--Lamont Geo. Sciences Library. Method of acquisition--Transferred;; Date of acquisition--2015. Accession number--2015.005.
Columbia University Libraries, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
Columbia University's Geology Library is located in Schermerhorn Hall on the Morningside Heights campus. From approximately 1948 until 2016 an additional site was maintained on the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palasides, N.Y.
In 1929, Thomas W. Lamont (1870-1948), a Wall Street banker, constructed a weekend residence overlooking the Hudson River in Palisades, New York. He named the estate "Torrey Cliff" after John Torrey, a prominent botanist who had spent summers on the site from about 1854 to 1865. In 1948, Thomas W. Lamont died and his widow, Florence Corliss Lamont (1873-1952), an alumna of Columbia University, donated the estate to Columbia. In 1969, the Observatory was renamed "Lamont-Doherty" after a major contribution from the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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