Autograph letters, official and private documents, and accounts, which were previously mounted in eleven volumes. Most of these relate to Columbia University or people associated with the University.

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.

A collection of photo albums (111 items) representing the faculty and graduating classes of Columbia College (now known as Columbia University in the City of New York), and more specifically, the School of Arts (the undergraduate college now known as Columbia College). While the majority of the albums represent Columbia College, there are a few from other Schools including: the School of Law, the School of Mines, and the School of Music. Additionally, there is one album with portraits of Trustees, one from the School of Mines Summer School of Practical Engineering, and one documenting the performance of Capt. Kidd.

Included are architectural drawings, surveys, maps, and site proposals, for Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, designed primarily by McKim, Mead & White. Other architects represented include Adams & Woodbridge; Arnold Brunner (who designed the School of Mines); Eggers & Higgins; the Columbia University Buildings and Grounds Department; Howells and Stokes (designed St. Paul's Chapel); Reinhard, Hofmeister and Wahlquist; and James Gamble Rogers. Drawings for buildings no longer in existence or never constructed and drawings for later alterations, are included. Architectural drawings of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, and surveys of the asylum site prepared for Columbia, 1888-1894. Also included are site plans and proposals, surveys, and maps, circa 1890s-1910s, showing the surrounding area, including such institutions as the Jewish Theological Seminary, St. Luke's Home, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grant's Tomb, and others. Drawings for the Womans's Hospital in the State of New York (designed by Allen & Collens, erected 1903, demolished in the 1970s), circa 1903-1914, are also included. This building was used to house the Columbia School of the Arts in the 1960s since it was located near the campus.

This collection contains three sets of reports from the academic departments to the President of Columbia College (1890) and Columbia University (1900 and 1927).

Correspondence addressed to the editors, Wendell T. Bush and Frederick J.E. Woodbridge, from numerous philosophers including John Dewey, William James, Josiah Royce, and George Santayana. There are two typewritten manuscripts of John Dewey"The Naturalistic Theory of Perception by the Senses" and "Valuation Judgments and Immediate Quality" both of which contain the author's holograph corrections and emendations. Also, two manuscripts of Ernst Cassirer"Kant and Rousseau" and "Ficino's Place in Intellectual History.".

Architectural drawings (no longer in current use by Facilities Management), transferred to the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library from the Dept. of Facilities Management pertaining to proposals, construction, alteration and addition of properties formerly used or owned, and buildings demolished or still extant. The dates of the materials span 1895 to today. The drawings include plans showing the heating and ventilation systems, electrical and plumbing details, and some original construction materials. Some of the buildings represented in this collection are: Avery Hall; Earl Hall; St. Paul's Chapel; Teachers College; Low Library; Ferris Booth; and Uris Hall, as well as details of fences; steps; statues; and bronze railings. Some of the architects hired by the University include McKim, Mead & White, Howells & Stokes, James Gamble Rogers, and Allen & Collens, as well as builder and architect R. Guastavino Co. who was responsible for the domes and vaults of St. Paul's Chapel, Earl Hall, and the Van Amringe Memorial

An artificial collection of phonograph records, reels of audio tape recordings, and motion picture films recording a variety of Columbia University academic and extra-curricular activities and events such as lectures; speeches, some at award ceremonies; commencement; installation of Nicholas M. Butler and Dwight D. Eisenhower as presidents of the university; King George VI of England during his visit, 1939; speech of England's Queen Mother, Elizabeth in 1954; homecoming; football, the band; academic and alumni conferences; and radio programs under the auspices of Columbia. Many of the recordings are of Eisenhower. Other prominent personalities include John Foster Dulles, Herbert Hoover, Isidor Rabi, Eleanor Roosevelt, John R. Dunning, and the Shah of Iran.

This collection consists of the front desk registers and other ledgers and volumes used in managing Columbia's first residence halls in the Morningside campus.

This collection contains records documenting Columbia University's activities slightly prior to, during and immediately following World War I. The collection consists of mostly correspondence, but also includes newspaper clippings, pamphlets, various publications, reports, photographs, service record cards, and numerous lists of Columbia men and women who served during the war.