The surviving files of official correspondence, reports, documents, and printed materials of King's College from 1750 to 1784 and Columbia College from 1785 to 1890, as well as Columbia University up to 1964. The King's College era materials include grants, deeds, indentures, lists of governors, leases, accounts, etc. The Columbia College era papers commence with documentation regarding the attempts to revive the college at the end of the American Revolution. In the later period these papers primarily supplement and document the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees. Much material was destroyed and scattered in the late 19th century leaving this collection quite incomplete.

This collection contains the papers of Donald C. Brace, one of the founders of the New York publishing house Harcourt, Brace & Company. Materials include correspondence, business records, and proofs of the U.S. editions of Virginia Woolf's works Orlando, The Waves, and The Second Common Reader; the latter two proofs include the author's corrections.