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News &  Updates

Notes from the Archivist: What We Learned on Our Summer Vacation

September 4, 2018

Summer in academic archives is just as busy as the regular school year. Researchers visit from near and far. Campus faculty and staff retire, units move; we collect records. We prepare archival material for exhibitions and anniversary celebrations for the … Continue reading →

Student Perspective: #ArchitectureApril

April 4, 2018

Last winter, I spent a month processing our new Harrington College of Design special collection. These books belonged to the Harrington College library until 2015, when the college announced it would close. Columbia College Chicago acquired the books, as well … Continue reading →

Student Perspective: Amateur Photograph Album

February 5, 2018

    As I’ve begun to process our Early Photography Collection, one item immediately piqued my interest. The collection is comprised mostly of commercial photography projects: a lot of daguerreotype, ambrotype, carte de visite, and a few tintype portraits which … Continue reading →

Intern Perspective: Impartial Memories

January 19, 2018

By: Matt Carlton, Cultural Studies Student In a semester of immediate information overload and systemic ties to academic neatness, an internship at the archives disguised an opportunity to start thinking about a process (archiving) so refined and polished at the … Continue reading →

“A Canterbury Christmas”

December 19, 2017

Found in our unprocessed Center for Book & Paper Arts Collection, A Canterbury Christmas or A True Relation of the Insurrection in CANTERBURY on Christmas day last, with great hurt befell divers persons thereby is not your average Christmas tale. With pressure from … Continue reading →

Holiday Gift Ideas from the Center for Book and Paper Arts Collection

November 29, 2017

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and that means we’re getting closer and closer to the biggest gift-giving holidays of the year. I’ve never been great at giving gifts. If I stumble on something that one … Continue reading →

What was Columbia like in the 1890s?

September 25, 2017

Inspired by a research question, Head Archivist Heidi Marshall and I sat down to discuss what Columbia was like around the turn of the 20th century. How were the administration, the curriculum, and the location of the school, then titled … Continue reading →

Student Perspective: The Heart of Curated Collections

March 30, 2017

Being approached with the opportunity to process a collection was exciting. It was a task completely shiny and new, far from the procedural digitization and organization from before. Only one other student worker at the time had been working on one, … Continue reading →

Student Perspective: Unveiling Mysteries through Processing

October 31, 2016

By: Amara Andrew My palms were sweating, my heartbeat was racing and I felt like I was about to pass out. I was a nervous wreck when I was first approached about processing a collection for the archives. All that … Continue reading →

Student Perspective: Importance of Research Skills

October 14, 2016

I was sent to the Special Collections Book Room with the task of finding items that exemplify the scope of the collection and could make interesting social media posts. In other words, to find cool stuff and take pictures of … Continue reading →

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About the Archives

We serve as the designated repository for records of the College, select professional faculty work, and manuscript collections that support its curricula. We provide access to these materials through research appointments and collaborate with faculty to create digital teaching resources.

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Faculty & Staff

Learn about submissions of non-current records to the College Archives, as they reflect the historic legacy of the College. Preserving this material is vital for departmental continuity and to showcase each unit's activities and history.

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Center for Black Music Research

CBMR holds materials highlighting the role of black music in world culture with materials originating or representing black music in the United States, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean in a variety of formats.

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