This collection consists of photographic prints (8x 10 and 11x14) and negatives (35mm and 2 ¼" square) taken by professional photographer Gabriel Amadeus Cooney for Columbia University. Many of the images were ultimately used in a brochure titled Broadway Local published in 1991 and in a series of brochures for the Campaign for Columbia produced between1996 and 1999. Some prints and negatives are in color, but most are in black and white. Many of these negatives and prints correspond directly to contact sheets and prints found in Series I of the Office of Alumni and Development Photograph Collection (UA#0208).

Marie Runyon was an activist and former New York State legislator. Born in North Carolina in 1915, she moved to Morningside Heights and in 1963 began a decades long fight against Columbia University over its real estate practices and expansion in the neighborhood. Runyon founded the Morningside Tenants Committee as well as other tenants' organizations, and she brought a number of cases to court to prevent her eviction from her apartment at 130 Morningside Drive. She also worked for many political and service organizations throughout her career.