Although genealogy may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a health sciences library, the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library’s Archives & Special Collections has a remarkable range of resources for ancestor hunters. The department holds the records of Columbia’s four health science schools – medicine, nursing, dentistry, and public health – documenting a history dating back to 1767. We also hold many of the surviving records of the College of Pharmaceutical Science (1829-1976), originally known as the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York, though this college was never located at the medical center.
With that many schools over that many years, it is no surprise that there have been thousands of graduates – over 20,000 between 1769 and 2016 from the medical school alone – and some are bound to have left a paper trail. When you count students who attended Columbia but did not graduate, the number is even larger.
The descendants of those students are likewise numerous, making genealogical requests a sizable part of the Archive's reference work. For those family historians having an ancestor with a connection to one of Columbia's health science schools, here are some of the resources that may be helpful:
Course catalogs. The course catalogs of the University and the individual schools dating from the early 19th century will often have lists of students and graduates. These sometimes mention the student’s hometown and, in the case of the medical school, the name of their “preceptor” – the practicing physician with whom they were apprenticing. Most of these catalogs have been digitized and can be found on the Archives & Special Collections' Digital Collections page.
Yearbooks. While we have scattered volumes dating to 1908 for the dental school and to 1920 for the College of Pharmacy, the earliest School of Nursing yearbook is 1936, while the medical school’s first yearbook was not published until 1947. These all too have been digitized and are available through our Digital Collections page.
Student records. Student records exist in abundance for the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons but considerably less so for the other schools. The medical school has 23 volumes of student registers (1816/17-1861/62, 1875/76-1908/09) and 48 boxes of graduates’ records (1828-1857, 1873-1902). The registers hold information on all matriculated students; the graduates’ records are of those who actually received a medical degree from Columbia. Information in these records varies greatly depending on date, so it is helpful to read the finding aid beforehand. We have only fragments of 19th- and early 20th-century student records for the schools of dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy and none at all for public health. All 20th-century student records for the medical school (up through the Class of 1989) are held in the Archives; access to these records is regulated by the Family Educational & Privacy Act (FERPA). Student records of the other schools are held by the University Registrar’s Office.
Other resources that might be of interest to genealogists include class photographs, alumni directories, and the School of Nursing’s alumni magazine, the 1906-1960 issues of which have been digitized. Archives & Special Collections also has databases of medical school obituaries and Civil War veterans.
Those who wish to conduct onsite research can contact us to make an appointment.