Special Collections Summer Report, 2026

As we assisted a continuous stream of researchers navigating and discovering material from the Special Collections essential to their academic and personal work, we were also busy acquiring several new collections, listed below, ranging from early education in Victorian America to Vietnam War Era documents published by the Indochina Resource Center.

While the new acquisitions provided excitement in expansion of core collections, we also said goodbye to our Special Collections Library Associates—Krystal Grow and Anna Descovich— and Victoria Santamorena, Processing Archivist for Special Collections. Victoria had been with Special Collections from the earliest days of our reconstitution and was integral in its current and continued success.

New Acquisitions

The library acquired several sets of materials relating broadly to early education in Victorian America, art education textbooks, Vietnam War era publications related to education and USAID, the influence of American schools in Bulgaria, and the Joseph Mayer Rice Papers.

Evolution of Education:

A Collection of Manuscripts, Related to Education in the 18th- and 19th- Centuries: Spanning almost a century, this collection offers insights into early educational expenses, public desire for youth education, and gender-based pay scale disparities for teachers in Victorian America.

19th-Century Art

A Small Collection of "American Textbooks of Art Education": Includes early textbooks and design guides by Walter Smith (1836–1886), a pioneer of industrial design and Massachusetts State Director of Art Education. Features examples of Egyptian and Roman style architectural elements, plant forms, and ornaments.

Vietnam War Era:

A Small Collection of Material, published by the Indochina Resource Center: Comprises three publications and a signed typed letter from the Indochina Resource Center and Indochina Mobile Education Project (founded 1971). Addressed to Huynh Van Hong (sponsored by USAID in 1967), offering educational insights into Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during U.S. military engagement.

American Education Abroad:

Fifty Years in Bulgaria. Jubilee Publication of the Collegiate and Theological Institute of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Samokov, Bulgaria (by Leroy Farrington Ostrander): A commemorative booklet celebrating the 50th anniversary of the present-day American College of Sofia, detailing campus life, political/religious context, and American educational influence in Bulgaria.

Joseph Mayer Rice Papers:

4.5 linear feet of materials from the family of Joseph Mayer Rice, an early advocate for public school reform and the progressive education movement. Includes photographs, correspondence, and personal family history.

Additional Accessions:

AG 29: Teachers College Community Rug and Hooked Rug Samplers from Jennifer Hoyt’s Offit Gallery Exhibition: Filaments of Learning

Archival Processing, Cataloging & Metadata

ArchivesSpace Management: Completed inputting 596 accession records into ArchivesSpace and created 5 new finding aids.

Controlled Vocabulary & Authority Work: Added 60 subject headings and 50 name authorities to ArchivesSpace for integration into accession records and finding aids.

Processed 5 linear feet of the William F. Russell Papers (with ~2.5 linear feet remaining) and authored finding aid notes.

Reboxed and completed preservation measures for the Kathleen O’Connor Nursing Education Accession.

Conducted an initial survey of the Joseph Mayer Rice Papers.

Stack Management & Mold Remediation

 Identified, assessed, and remediated mold issues discovered in the closed stack research stacks, executing targeted re-shelving of several hundred monographs and planned deaccessioning of those beyond repair.

Outreach, Publications & Professional Development

 Exhibits

Curated the Cabinet of Curiosity display: Reflecting History: On Correspondence, In Conversation, highlighting correspondence across the Gottesman Libraries Historical Collections.

Assisted with material selection for the forthcoming exhibit: The Journey, Physical or Metaphoric, in Classic Works of Children's Literature.

Presentations & Conferences

Developed two presentation proposals accepted by the NYC Archivists Roundtable Archive Week and ACRL.

Completed bibliometric network visualizations based on Special Collections data and presented the process to Columbia University Librarians. The bibliometrics were based on the Teachers College Historical Dissertations and a collection of rare books called the V-Collection.

Authored a blog post on Teaching the American Revolution and Reflecting History: On Correspondence, In Conversation

Reference & Public Services

Responded to 340 individual reference and research questions: