Digitally Available Source Materials for the History of Barnard College
Barnard College Archives, 4th floor, Milstein Center for Teaching & Learning
Martha Tenney, Archivist – [email protected]
Access to Digital Collections — https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu
Barnard Bulletin
The Barnard Bulletin was founded in 1901 as a weekly newspaper and historically covered events on campus, all aspects of student life, affairs of Barnard’s administration and the Board of Trustees, and relations with Columbia. At the time of its launch, Barnard was among the few colleges in the country to print a weekly newspaper. The Bulletin switched to a biweekly schedule in 2007 and to a monthly schedule in fall 2009; it has also shifted from a traditional newspaper design, printed on newsprint, to a more features-oriented, glossy-paged magazine format.
https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/collections/barnard-bulletin
Mortarboard
The Barnard College yearbooks—The Annual and later the Mortarboard—depict life at Barnard and honor the graduating classes. Many volumes feature original artwork, photography, and design done by students, as well as photographs (in black and white, and later, color) of student activities and formal portraits of students, faculty, and staff. Some yearbooks contain histories of the College, histories of academic departments, retrospectives looking back on the events at Barnard of that year, letters from the Dean of the College, student directories, lists and photographs of faculty and administrators, photographs of the graduating class, photographs from various events and clubs, and advertisements by local businesses.
https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/yearbook
Barnard Magazine
The Barnard Magazine provides a way for alums to stay in touch with each other and to learn about developments in the Barnard community. The Magazine was first published in 1912 by the Barnard Alumnae Association. The name of the publication changed sporadically. Originally called the “Bulletin of the Associate Alumnae,” it became the “Barnard College Alumnae Monthly,” the “Barnard College Alumnae Monthly,” and “Barnard Alumnae“; it is currently called Barnard Magazine. Initially the Magazine was published once a year; issue frequency has varied, and today it is published quarterly.
Initial issues were edited by Dean Gildersleeve, who wrote most of the material. Advertisements were introduced in 1921, and photographs in 1922. Initially, lists were published of marriages, moves, and divorces. Later issues saw each class assigned a ‘correspondent’ who published news of class members in personal columns. Alums were asked to write in with personal news, which was published in the back pages of the Magazine. In the 1970s the Magazine’s focus became more general, with articles being written about the state of the world from the perspective of Barnard alums, rather than focusing merely on College activities. The Alumnae Magazine was originally sent out to paying members of the Alumnae Association, but is now sent to all Barnard alums. Materials published in the Magazine offer a unique narrative of the College’s history. Articles, interviews, and notices intended for alumnae often acknowledge and comment on important events not only at Barnard (for example, student movements or historically significant administrative decisions), but also in New York City.
https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/barnard-magazine
Photographs
Photograph collections at the Barnard Archives and Speical Collections depict various aspects of the history of Barnard College, including the academic and social lives of students; portraits of faculty and staff members; annual traditions that took place at Barnard College, such as the Greek Games; the campus and surrounding areas; performing arts; and events with other colleges and universities. Photographs in a variety of formats–black and white photographs, color photographs, slides, and glass plate negatives–encompass both candid shots of campus life and posed individual and group portraits. The selection of images available via the Digital Collections are drawn from a number of distinct archival collections, including BC17, the Barnard College Photography Collection, and BC03, the Buildings and Grounds Collection.
https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/photographs
Recent Online Barnard College Course Catalogues
https://bulletin-next.columbia.edu/barnard-college/courses-instruction/archive/#
Columbia Source Materials
Columbia University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 6th Floor, Butler Library https://library.columbia.edu/locations/cuarchives.html
Jocelyn Wilk, Archivist —
Columbia Spectator Archive, 1877-2015
http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/
Columbia University Quarterly
The Columbia University Quarterly was published by the Alumni Federation of Columbia University from 1898 to 1941. The first issues from 1898 to 1919 (volumes 1 to 21) are available online. Publication was suspended from 1920 to 1929 and resumed from 1930 to 1941. The Quarterly’s predecessor, the Columbia University Bulletin (1890-1898) is also available online. Paper copies are available at the University Archives.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000527444
Columbia University Record Archive
Beginning as the University Record (September 1973-May 1975) and continuing to this day as the Columbia University Record (July 1975-present), this important university-wide publication, now scanned and fully searchable, is an incredibly rich resource of past Columbia activities, events, scientific research, trustee and faculty appointments, awards and honors, libraries news, departmental achievements, budget and financial reporting, faculty and staff updates, as well as containing informative profiles of campus personalities from 1973 to June 2016.
http://curecordarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbiarecord
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What can we learn about an individual early Barnard student/graduate?
Her name – name as student and married name
Her class (that with which she graduated)
Her pre-Barnard residence
Her academic major
Hathi Trust Library Site — https://www.hahitrust.org/
1925 Register of AABC — https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b112564;view=1up;seq=6
1895-1900 Register — https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t4rj5qw8b;view=1up;seq=1
1910-1915 Report and Register — https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t7zk6mv63;view=1up;seq=3
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t7zk6mv63;view=1up;seq=64
1930 Register — https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435008162091
Bibliography of Alumnae Books to 1963 — https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102359637
Last updated: 9/2/2021
[email protected]