Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Going to Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library was like a field trip. While we've traveled to various niches of Manhattan, Columbia is so far uptown, it's almost like you're not in Manhattan anymore! My voyage started at Columbus Circle, yet another part of the city that is so vastly different than the village. Columbus Circle is modern and shiny and crowded. I was sidetracked on my way to the subway and peeked my head into the Time Warner Building - I suggest you all check it out, it's reminiscent of the malls back home with a touch of New York City opulence. The Time Warner Building screams commercialized cosmopolitan chic - I overheard a woman in Sephora mention that Britney Spears had been there twice since yesterday. Like the village, this part of town seems to attract the rich and famous as a place to be and be seen. On to the subway ride uptown!

I took the 1 train up to 116th street and as I stepped out, I was greeted by young, sweatshirt clad co-eds. This is Columbia. For some reason the kids here (especially the men)look like they belong on a j.crew catalog - typical ivy leaguers. The weather was nice today and the sprawling lawn was covered with young boys throwing frisbees and footballs. I felt like I was on a REAL campus; it was very refreshing considering the concrete that consumes our campus. I found the Butler Library with considerable ease. It's on one side of the huge field and on the other side is the main library, which looks like a national monument that belongs in Washington or Massachussetts or somewhere historic. I know New York is filled with historic institutions but I felt like it was a bit much for a bunch of college students in New York City. Even entering the library as a non-Columbia student felt very "normal"; I'm accustomed to glass protector walls at Bobst and invasive security checks every time I step into an NYU building. I must also mention that the outside of the Butler Library is gorgeous. It has the names of "world authors and US statesmen" (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/butler/walk.html) carved around the building, and yes, Shakespeare is on there, alongside Cervantes, Milton, Voltaire and Goethe. I found it very interesting that Shakespeare was categorized with Voltaire and Goethe. I proceeded inside and received a visitors library card for the semester (so I can come back and not have to check in!) and went upstairs to the 6th floor. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library is at the end of a hall that looks like an ordinary college hall way but when you reach the glass doors that read "Rare Book and Manuscript Library", you feel as if you are walking into a government secured operative like the CIA's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. There is a lot of glass and doors and a long hall way surrounded by more glass and cases that leads to the help desk. Along the way I saw other works in the glass cases and noticed that there was an entire room (the rare book reading room) that was open to staff only. Columbia seems less "tight" than NYU but there are very definitive lines between what is "allowed" and what is not. I asked to see the First Folio and inquired about Jenny Lee, however, she was busy (I should have made an appointment, try to make one before you come all the way here) but I was shown the First Folio anyway. It's in a glass case. It's open to a page with Shakespeare's picture and looks 500 years old, as it should. It also has information on the history of this piece and how it was acquired by Columbia, like we saw at the Morgan Library. I asked whether we were allowed to see it outside of the case and whether seeing Jenny would make a difference and I was told that it would not as the committee decided in August that our class would have to settle with seeing it in the glass case. I'm not sure how set in stone that actually is or if talking with Jenny would at least get me more information on who is allowed to see it (just post-graduate Shakespearean scholars?) or if they resolved not to take it out ever because of the frailty of the book (I was informed that it was 500 years old by the lady at the help desk, she was very friendly). And so my trip to Columbia to see the First Folio concluded by browsing around the rest of the floor and seeing a piece by Chaucer in another of the glass cases.

Columbia is absolutely breathtaking as a campus, I recommend you all get up here while the weather is still considerably nice and take advantage of the library as an alternative to Bobst to get your work done. It's cushier and the ivy league air works much better with the Shakespeare culture and attitude versus that of Bobst and the village.