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Series I. Residence Hall Registers, 1905-1934
Series II. Administrative Ledgers, 1908-1934

Residence Hall records, 1905-1938

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Series I. Residence Hall Registers, 1905-1934

This series contains the books that served as front desk registers for each hall. Organized by the resident's last name and first initial, the books include such information as the room number, mail box number, move-in date, move-out date, and a forwarding address. Furnald Hall served as a women's residence hall from 1917 to 1922. For women residents, the books include full first names. The books were maintained by the "office boys" (and after 1933, student clerks) and the inside covers sometimes include phone numbers for cab companies, other residence halls, area hospitals, Western Union messengers and the post office address. They may also include an occupancy summary and a list of "men who left with key, charged $1.00 for key deposit." The records begin from the opening of the first two residence halls on campus, Hartley and Livingston Halls (opened in 1905) and include the early years of Furnald Hall (1913) and John Jay Hall (1926). There is an instruction manual from the student clerk days 1933-1938 (box 6 folder 19) that explains the various duties of the desk staff.

Hartley Hall


Box 1 Folder 1 1912-1913

Box 1 Folder 2 Summer Session, 1915

Box 1 Folder 3 Summer Session, 1917

Box 1 Folder 4 1917-1918

Box 1 Folder 5 1919-1918 and Summer Session 1918, 1919-1918, 1918

Box 1 Folder 6 1918-1919

Box 1 Folder 7 Summer Session 1926 and Academic Year 1930-1931, 1926, 1930-1931

Box 1 Folder 8 1928-1929

Box 1 Folder 9 1929-1930

Box 1 Folder 10 Summer Session, 1930

Box 1 Folder 11 Summer Session 1930 (and Transient, 1930 November -1932 February), 1930, 1930

Box 1 Folder 12 1930-1931

Box 1 Folder 13 Summer Session, 1931

Box 1 Folder 14 1931-1932


Box 6 Folder 18 Summer Session, 1932

Box 6 Folder 17 1932-1933


Box 1 Folder 15 1933-1934

Livingston Hall

Box 1 Folder 16 1905-1906

Box 1 Folder 17 1906-1907

Box 1 Folder 18 1907-1908

Box 1 Folder 19 1908-1909

Box 1 Folder 20 1909-1910

Box 1 Folder 21 1909-1910

Box 1 Folder 22 1910-1911

Box 1 Folder 23 1910-1911


Box 2 Folder 1 Summer Session, 1911

Box 2 Folder 2 1911-1912

Box 2 Folder 3 Summer Session, 1912

Box 2 Folder 4 1912-1913

Box 2 Folder 5 1913-1914

Box 2 Folder 6 1913-1914

Box 2 Folder 7 1913-1914

Box 2 Folder 8 1913-1914

Box 2 Folder 9 Summer Session, 1914

Box 2 Folder 10 1914-1915

Box 2 Folder 11 1914-1915

Box 2 Folder 12 1914-1915 and 1916-1917, 1914-1915, 1916-1917

Box 2 Folder 13 Summer Session, 1915

Box 2 Folder 14 1915-1916

Box 2 Folder 15 1915-1916

Box 2 Folder 16 Summer, 1916

Box 2 Folder 17 1924-1925

Box 2 Folder 18 Summer Session, 1925

Box 2 Folder 19 1925-1926

Box 2 Folder 20 Summer Session, 1926

Box 2 Folder 21 1926-1927

Box 2 Folder 22 Summer Session, 1927

Box 2 Folder 23 1927-1928

Box 2 Folder 24 Summer Session, 1928


Box 3 Folder 1 1928-1929

Box 3 Folder 2 1928-1929

Box 3 Folder 3 Summer Session, 1929

Box 3 Folder 4 1929-1930

Box 3 Folder 5 Summer Session, 1930

Box 3 Folder 6 1930-1931

Box 3 Folder 7 Summer Session, 1931


Box 6 Folder 16 1931-1932


Box 3 Folder 8 Summer Session, 1932

Box 3 Folder 9 1932-1933

Box 3 Folder 10 Summer Session, 1933

Box 3 Folder 11 1933-1934

Box 3 Folder 12 Undated

Furnald Hall

Box 3 Folder 13 1916-1917

Box 3 Folder 14 1917-1918

Box 3 Folder 15 Summer Session, 1918

Box 3 Folder 16 1918-1919

Box 3 Folder 17 Summer Session, 1919

Box 3 Folder 18 1919-1920

Box 3 Folder 19 Summer Session, 1920

Box 3 Folder 20 1920-1921

Box 3 Folder 21 Summer 1921

Box 3 Folder 22 1921-1922

Box 3 Folder 23 1922-193 and, 1925-1926

Box 3 Folder 24 1923-1924 and Summer Session 1924, 1923-1924, 1924

Box 3 Folder 25 1925-1926 and Summer Session 1926, 1925-1926, 1926

Box 3 Folder 26 Summer Session 1926 , Academic Year 1926-1927, Summer Session 1927, 1926, 1926-1927, 1927


Box 6 Folder 1 1926-1927 , 1927-1928 and Summer Session 1928, 1926-1927, 1927-1928, 1928

Box 6 Folder 2 1928-1929, Summer Session 1929, 1929-1930 and Summer Session 1930, 1928-1929, 1929, 1929-1930, 1930

Box 6 Folder 3 Undated

John Jay Hall

Box 6 Folder 4 1926-1927

Box 6 Folder 5 Summer Session, 1927

Box 6 Folder 6 1927-1928

Box 6 Folder 7 Summer Session, 1928

Box 6 Folder 8 1928-1929

Box 6 Folder 9 Summer Session, 1929

Box 6 Folder 10 1929-1930

Box 6 Folder 11 Summer Session, 1930

Box 6 Folder 12 1930-1931, Summer Session 1931, and 1931-1932, 1930-1931, 1931, 1931-1932

Box 6 Folder 13 Summer Session, 1932

Box 6 Folder 14 1932-1933

Box 6 Folder 15 Summer Session, 1933


Box 4 Folder 1 1933-1934

Box 4 Folder 2 Undated

Series II. Administrative Ledgers, 1908-1934

The series contains the books documenting the management of the buildings. The application books note the applicant's name, date received, deposit paid, and room requests, from specific room numbers to which side the room faced (Amsterdam or campus side). There are books on the repair work done and the attending fees for holes in wall, ink stains on table or floor, posters on wall, dirty or soiled wall, chairs broken, cigarette burns in floor, etc. For John Jay Hall, there is an elevator service log. There is a goods received log for packages, boxes, flowers, medicine, books, and other goods from such stores as Wanamaker's, Brill Bros, Bloomingdale's, Brentano's, and Gimbels. There are also record books for when vacant rooms were rented not for the academic year or for the summer session but for short-term stays (in 1928, $1.50 per day, $9.00 per week) known as "transients."

Application Books

Box 4 Folder 3 1908-1910

Room Inquiries and Application Logs

Box 4 Folder 4 Summer Session 1910 and 1911-1912, 1910, 1911-1912

Box 4 Folder 5 Summer Sessions, 1911-1912

Box 4 Folder 6 Summer Sessions, 1912-1914

Box 4 Folder 7 Summer Sessions, 1914-1915

Box 4 Folder 8 Burglary Book, 1924-1931


Box 7 Folder 2 Charge Sheets, 1929-1930

This ledger volume includes the charge sheets for the Men's Residence Halls from July 13, 1929 to June 30, 1930. The sheets list residents, residence hall, room number and fee for the session or semester.


Box 4 Folder 9 Desk Lamp Register, 1923 July -1924 October, 1923

Box 4 Folder 10 Directory by Room by Hall, 1915-1917

Box 4 Folder 11 Goods Received and Signed For, 1929 January -- 1933 June, 1929, 1933

Box 4 Folder 12 Hartley Hall Blotter, 1913

Box 4 Folder 13 Hartley Hall Work Done (Rugs), 1920 March-1920 June, 1920


Box 6 Folder 19 Instructions for Student Clerks, 1933-1938

(Director Herbert B. Howe's memos to student clerks on the procedures at the desk: keys, cash box, mail, parcels, game room, checking-in residents and transient guests, etc. The volume starts in 1933, which according to Howe is "the first year that we have attempted to run the Hall offices with a student personnel.")


Box 4 Folder 14 John Jay Hall Lost Keys and Miscellaneous Complaints, 1929-1931

Includes elevator service log

Box 4 Folder 15 Livingston Hall Storage Book, 1926

Box 4 Folder 16 Maintenance Records, 1923-1932

Lamps, storage, linens, keys, furniture, etc.


Box 7 Folder 1 Papa Nubling, 1935-1937

Office Copy (Herbert B. Howe). A collection of letters, poetry and other writings by Frederick Nubling, better known as Papa Nubling. A colorful and devoted staff member, according Dean Herbert E. Hawkes, Nubling worked at Columbia for 17 years as a manager of the dormitories. His office was located from 1917-1926 in Hartley Hall and from 1926-1934 in Livingston (later Wallach) Hall. Howe collected the writings in a volume and donated the work to Columbiana in 1935. This office copy includes some additional original letters from Nubling to Howe.


Box 4 Folder 17 Repair and Damage Records, 1928-1933

Box 4 Folder 18 Room Repair Fees, 1914-1919

Hartley, Livingston and Furnald Halls

Box 4 Folder 19 Special Addresses of All Kinds, 1920s-1930s


Box 5 Folder 1 Storage Book, 1912-1916 1928, 1912-1916, 1928

Box 5 Folder 2 Summer Session Rooms Rented, 1915-1919

Transients/Short-term Occupants

Box 5 Folder 3 Furnald Hall, 1921-1925

Box 5 Folder 4 Hartley and Livingston Halls, 1922-1923

Box 5 Folder 5 Furnald Hall, 1925-1927

Box 5 Folder 6 Hartley, Livingston and John Jay Halls, 1927-1928

Box 5 Folder 7 John Jay Hall, 1929-1931

Box 5 Folder 8 John Jay Hall, 1931-1933

Box 5 Folder 9 John Jay Hall, 1933-1934