Music Library Milestones > Timeline
1860
Charles Burney's A General History of Music, 4 vols. (1776-1789) and John Hawkins's A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, 5 vols. (1776) are the only book on music in the Columbia University Library.
1896
The Department of Music is founded. University President Seth Low makes "a gift of $500 for the purchase of books on Music."
1898
The composer Edward A. MacDowell, founder of the Department of Music and its first professor, donates "books on music and musical scores and autographs of musicians," including several autograph scores of his own works.
1905
The collection of some 1200 operatic scores and orchestral parts belonging to the conductor Anton Seidl is purchased by The Friends of Anton Seidl and presented to the newly founded Music Library. Seidl had died of ptomain poisoning at the height of his career as a conductor of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera.
1913
James Pech donates to the University his collection of sacred and secular choral works, operatic scores, and some early music histories. The Music Library takes up residence adjacent to the Department of Music's quarters which occupy the seventh floor of the newly completed Journalism Building (now the Pulitzer Building).
1929
The Music Library's holdings consist of 1300 volumes, 2000 bound scores, 3000 unbound scores, and 100 pianola rolls.
1931
Phonograph records are first mentioned in the Music Library's circulation report, October 1930-May 1931.
1934
The Music Library becomes part of the University Library System. The University appoints its first full-time professional music librarian, who adapts the music classification system developed by George Dickinson. The resulting Vassar-Columbia Music Classification System is established for all music scores. It continues to be used here and in other libraries. The cataloguing of the Music Library's holdings is begun.
1943
The Music Library acquires Béla Bartók's collection of southeastern European folk music, including manuscripts of the composer's studies in Rumania and Turkey. The library also acquires the Judah A. Jaffe collection of phonorecords including over 3,000 items, both disks and cylinders, that document the history of recording from its earliest days.
1960s
The Music Library acquires the microfilms, photostats, and transcriptions, concentrating largely on Beethoven, of faculty member Erich Hertzmann, and also the scores, manuscript sketches, and personal and professional correspondence of composer and long-time Department of Music Chairman Douglas Moore.
1962
The Music Library acquires a large collection, mostly scores, the gift of John and Johanna Bass.
1965
The Music Library relocates, along with the Department of Music, to the seventh floor of Dodge Hall.
1980s
The University Libraries System's catalogues go online. CLIO – Columbia Libraries Information Online – makes data on the University Libraries' post-1981 acquisitions as well as many pre-1981 materials accessible electronically. Through the internet-based LibraryWeb, users have access to many reference databases and to online catalogues in institutions worldwide.
1989
The Music Library acquires the gift of the Robert Weiner Collection of recordings.
1995
The Music Library acquires the Robert Miller Collection of piano music, containing works composed during a 30-year period beginning in the 1950s. The collection includes a Stefan Wolpe holograph score and some 250 holograph facsimiles. In addition, the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music deposits a collection of photographs and autograph letters relating to important 20th-century composers.
1997
The Music Library receives a substantial gift from a private foundation, to be used for digital sound delivery.
In the Spring, the Library opens its newly renovated quarters, occupying the entire seventh floor of Dodge Hall. In September, the Library is inaugurated as the Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library.