Archives and Special Collections is the repository for the institutional records of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center that must be permanently retained because of their historical, legal, or evidential value. Working with University offices, the department collects, arranges, describes and makes available these records to Columbia administrators and responsible outside researchers.

At present, there are approximately 3,000 cubic feet of archival records spanning from 1791 to the present. There is material from all four health science schools, especially the schools of medicine and nursing. In addition, though it was never part of the Medical Center, the Archives contains some records of the defunct College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, founded in 1829 as the College of Pharmacy in the City of New York.

The largest group of records is the Central Records of the Office of the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, containing 598 cubic feet and dating from the 1880s into the late 20th century. The Executive Vice President's office has oversight over all health sciences education at Columbia while also usually serving as Dean of the medical school. Because of this role, the office's records are unusually comprehensive, documenting a wide range of topics for all health science schools, centers and institutes.

Finding aids and box lists can be consulted at Archives and Special Collections Reading Room or accessed online. Records for many archival holdings also can be found in CLIO, the library's catalog.

In addition, we hold printed material relating to the Medical Center including school catalogs, yearbooks, annual reports, newsletters, alumni magazines, student publications, and promotional and fundraising materials. Many of these printed items have been digitized and can be found in our Digital Historical Collections.

Though we hold the bulk of the records of Columbia's health sciences schools, some additional records may be found in the Columbia University Archives located at Butler Library on the Morningside Heights campus. Contact them for more information.

Since 2008, the department has on deposit the corporate records of Presbyterian Hospital (1868-1997), now part of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.  These include minutes of the Board of Trustees and its committees, Medical Board minutes, and corporate records of Babies Hospital and the Neurological Institute of New York, which merged with Presbyterian in the 1940's.  The department also holds many early patient records of Presbyterian and its affiliated or merged hospitals.

Records of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, the other side of the New York-Presbyterian merger, are located at the Medical Archives of the New York Weill Cornell Center.

Researchers should be aware that many of the personal papers in Archives & Special Collections also contain material relating to the history of the Medical Center.

University archival records are closed to outside researchers for 25 years from the date of the creation of the record, but they are always open to the office of origin. Other types of records may be closed due to confidentiality requirements or legal reasons; please check the department's Access Policy.

Many Medical Center records are unprocessed, but staff will locate material relevant to a specific topic if possible. All material must be used in the department's Geraldine McAlpin Webster Reading Room.