Russian, Soviet and East European Photographs in the Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Columbia University: A Note on Albums

ABSTRACT

Many collections held by Columbia’s Rare Books and Manuscript Library contain precious and little explored visual documentation on the turbulent history of late 19^th and 20^th century Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. These photographs deal with topics ranging from Russian culture in emigration, the late Romanov dynasty and the Russian imperial military to American travelers and philanthropy in revolutionary Russia and Eastern Europe. The Columbia collections in great part complement those held at the Hoover Institution Archives and the nearby NYPL Slavic collections.

KEYWORDS:

• Russian
• soviet
• Eastern European Photographic albums
• Russian and East European cultural history
• Columbia University Library
• Rare Books Manuscript Library (RBML)
• Documentary photography in US collections

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ My thanks to Vanessa Lee and Tara Craig, both of the Public Services Department of the RBMS Library, Columbia University Libraries for facilitating the access of Edward Kasinec, Research Associate, Harriman Institute, Columbia University to these photographic materials.

² See Hee-Gwone Yoo and Edward Kasinec, Slavic and East European Information Resources 20, no. 3/4 (2020): 258–276 on the Hoover Institution Library and Archive’s photographica and the complementary census by Susan Smith-Peter and Hee-Gwone Yoo and Jessica Werneke in Slavic and East European Information Resources 19, no. 3/4 (2018): 369–421.