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RG 7.1
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. COLLEGE OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES.
Records, 1873-1972 (bulk 1882-1941)
3.5 cubic feet (7 boxes, 1 flat box, 5 volumes, and 1 oversize folder)
SUMMARY:
Correspondence, minutes, financial records, admission applications, student biographical and academic information, scrapbooks, and photographs, 1873-1972, from the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Columbia University, originally the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York.
HISTORICAL NOTE:
The College of Pharmaceutical Sciences was founded as the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York by a group of apothecaries, physicians and wholesale drug merchants in 1829 for the education of apprentices; it was the second college of pharmacy to be organized in the United States. Instruction began in December 1829 and the first diploma was awarded in 1831.
The College had a checkered existence throughout its first fifty years. It moved frequently, suspended classes twice in the 1840s, and came close to foreclosure in 1857. The purchase of its first building in 1878, a former chapel on East 23rd Street, signaled the start of a more stable era.
In 1894, the College constructed a modern facility on West 68th Street near Columbus Avenue where it remained for the rest of its existence. In 1904, it entered into an affiliation agreement with Columbia College (Columbia University after 1912), which allowed it to retain its corporate and financial independence while issuing its degrees under Columbia's name. The College never became an integral unit of the University.
Graduate instruction began as early as 1897 and a four-year course leading to the B.S. was instituted in 1913, though shorter courses for alternate degrees remained available into the 1930s. In 1966, the institution's name was changed to the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Though the post-World War II years brought relative prosperity and increased enrollment to the College, it was unable to find the funds to upgrade and expand its facilities and was placed on probation in 1967 by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education. The College staved off further action until 1973 when the Council notified the College that it would lose its accreditation. Unable to find funding or a merger partner, the College graduated its last class in May, 1976.
ORGANIZATION:
The records are organized into six series: I. Correspondence & Subject Files. II. Faculty. III. Student Statistics. IV. Admissions Applications. V. Financial records. VI. Scrapbooks & Oversize.
SCOPE & CONTENT:
This is not a comprehensive collection of the records of the College. The bulk of the records predates 1940, consisting largely of late 19th and early 20th century student statistics, admissions applications, and financial records.
Series I. Correspondence & Subject Files: A miscellany of correspondence and printed material. The largest amount relates to the College's centennial celebration in 1929 and includes letters of invitation and acceptance/regrets, press releases, and schedules of events.
Series II. Faculty: Minutes or drafts of minutes of faculty meetings, 1895, 1904-1906. There is also a small number of letters from faculty members regarding appointments, curriculum changes, and attendance at faculty meetings.
Series III. Student statistics: While the series includes two class grade books, the bulk is made up of questionnaires completed by matriculated students, 1882-1889, 1913, 1915-1916. Information varies over time but usually includes date and place of birth, name of parent or guardian, date of entry into the profession, and name and place of employing pharmacist. Arranged by year, then alphabetically by name of applicant. Only the statistics for 1913 appear to be complete. Statistics for 1882-1899 include only students with surnames beginning with "A" or "B."
Series IV. Admissions applications: Besides the application, these usually also include the questionnaires found in Series III, as well as the New York State Pharmacy Student Qualifying Certificate. In some cases, correspondence with the student is also present. All of the records seem to be for students who actually matriculated. Records are for 1915-18, 1921-23, 1926-28, but only those for 1917 and 1922 are substantially complete.
Series V. Financial records: Includes account and cash books, invoices, and salary rolls.
Series VI. Scrapbooks & Oversize: Five volumes including four volumes of scrapbooks created by students for the Pharmacy Law course in 1954, and one volume of newspaper clippings about the centennial celebration, 1929-1932.
ITEMS REMOVED:
Faculty minute books have added to the larger collection. Several books from the College's library have been integrated into the Historical Collection, as have two histories of the College by Henry Rusby and Curt Wimmer. A volume of Wimmer's class notes from his course in commercial and organic chemistry analysis, 1904, has been removed to the Student Notebook Collection. A 1925 snapshot of part of the faculty has been added to the general photograph collection. In addition, several volumes of pharmacist's prescription record books have been cataloged as a separate collection.
RELATED COLLECTIONS:
Archives & Special Collections also has incomplete sets of College yearbooks, catalogs, commencement programs, alumni magazines, annual reports, Board of Trustees minutes, and Faculty minutes in its holdings. The records of Steven Gross, last Dean of the College, are located in the American Institute for the History of Pharmacy collection at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in Madison.
PROVENANCE:
The records were discovered in the basement of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences building by Dean Leuzarder, a hazardous waste management specialist, shortly before it was to be razed in 1976. Leuzarder saved the records and stored them in his New Jersey offices before donating them to Archives & Special Collections in 1995 (acc.#95.01.01).
Processed c. 1995; reprocessed and finding aid written by S. Novak, Spring, 2001
BOX 1 Series I. Correspondence & Subject Files
- Building fund drive pamphlet, "The expanding spectrum of pharmaceutical education," (1958?).
- Centennial celebration correspondence, 1928.
- Centennial celebration correspondence, January, 1929
- Centennial celebration correspondence, February, 1929
- Centennial celebration correspondence, March, 1929
- Centennial celebration correspondence, April, 1929
- Centennial celebration correspondence, May, 1929
- Centennial celebration correspondence, June, 1929
- Centennial exhibition on "Scientific Pharmacy," 1929, 1933
- George Decker: Legacy, 1940-1941
- Directory, 1968, 1970/71-1971/72
- Endowment fund drive, 1938
- Examination questions, New York State Board of Pharmacy, 1909
- Graduation: newsclipping, May 1912
- Student guidance bulletin, [1940?]
- Lectures on "The Apothecary's Profession": program, 1910
- Student registration instructions, 1923-24
- Charles Rice: memorial statement, 1902
- Rusby, Henry H.: correspondence with U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1905-1917; reprint from JAMA, 1930
- Nelvil St. Cyr, Consul of Chile to Haiti: requesting admittance to the membership of the College, 1916
- College of Pharmacy letterhead stationary, 1954
- Student handbook, 1909-1910
- Board of Trustees: Directory of members, 1970/71-1971/72
- Minutes of faculty meeting, January 4, 1895
- Minutes of faculty meeting, May 16, 1904
- Minutes of faculty meeting, December 21, 1904
- Minutes of faculty meeting, January 30, 1905
- Minutes of faculty meeting, March 10, 1905
- Minutes of faculty meeting, October 31, 1905
- Minutes of faculty meeting, December 19, 1905
- Minutes of faculty meeting, January 31, 1906
- Faculty correspondence, 1910, 1912, 1918
Series II. Faculty records
Series III. Student statistics
33-34. Class roll books: includes attendance & grades, 1912/13- 1913/14
BOX 2
| 1. | Unknown year |
| 2-19. | 1882-1899, A-B |
| 20. | 1913, A-G |
| 21. | 1913, I-R |
| 22. | 1913, S |
| 23. | 1913, T-Z |
BOX 3
| 1. | 1915 |
| 2. | 1916, H-P |
| 3. | 1916, P-Z |
Series IV. Admissions Applications
| 4-5. | 1915-1916 |
| 6. | 1917, C-G |
| 7. | 1917, H-N |
| 8. | 1917, O-R |
BOX 4
| 1. | 1917, S-Z |
| 2-3. | 1918, 1921 |
| 4. | 1922, A-L |
| 5. | 1922, M-Z |
| 6. | 1923, J |
| 7. | 1923, K-Q |
BOX 5
| 1. | 1923, R-W |
| 2-4. | 1926-1928 |
BOX 6
Series V. Financial records
| 1. | Department of Analytical Chemistry; supplies order book, 1911-1937 |
| 2. | Physical inventory, April 3, 1873 |
| 3. | Faculty salaries, 1931-1932 |
| 4. | Weekly salary rolls February 16, 1935-March 15, 1935; June 21, 1935 |
| 5. | Budgets, 1904/05-1905/06, 1909/10-1910/11, 1914/15-1915/16 |
BOX 7
| 1-2. | Invoices, 1927 |
| 3-4. | Invoices, 1928 |
| 5. | Invoices, 1934 |
| 6. | Invoices, 1935 |
Account books, 1909-1941 (3 v.)BOX 8 (flat box)
Cash books, 1901-1904, 1924-1926 (2 v.)
Series VI. Scrapbooks & oversize
Scrapbooks, 1929-1932; 1954 (5 v.)Housed in Map Case 2:18:
Blank certificate for "holding diploma until 21 years of age."
Unidentified group photo, date unknown (c.1900)
Certificate of membership granted to Samuel A. Osborn, April 25, 1907 (fragment).
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