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Alexander McMillan Welch (1869-1943) was a New York City based architect who practiced independently and as a member of Welch, Smith & Provot. His firm was best known for designing New York City townhouses in the Beaux-Arts style. The collection includes 1,641 architectural drawings, 196 student drawings, 14 student notebooks, 99 loose photographs and 3 photo albums of project photography, project specifications and files, and some professional ephemera.

This collection is made up of architectural drawings, correspondence, specifications, contracts, invoices, minutes, financial statements, patents, advertisements, photographs, photograph album, test results and reports, memoranda, tile samples, factory order cards, and other materials pertaining to The Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company's projects. The dates of the materials span 1866-1985, with bulk dates 1890-1942. The architectural records include structural, decorative, and acoustical sample products and fragments. Also included are materials added to the files by George Collins (1917-1993), Professor of Art History at Columbia University. Prof. Collins secured the donation of this archive in 1963, and remained its custodian until it was transferred to the Drawings and Archives Collection at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library in 1988. The records document Prof. Collins' research efforts, as well as the Company's projects in forty states (including District of Columbia), four Canadian provinces, and eleven other foreign countries.

The Health Sciences Historical Collection is an artificial collection that documents the development of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, the School of Dental and Oral Surgery, Sloane Hospital for Women, Vanderbilt Clinic, the School of Nursing, and the Mailman School of Public Health.

The surviving files of official correspondence, reports, documents, and printed materials of King's College from 1750 to 1784 and Columbia College from 1785 to 1890, as well as Columbia University up to 1964. The King's College era materials include grants, deeds, indentures, lists of governors, leases, accounts, etc. The Columbia College era papers commence with documentation regarding the attempts to revive the college at the end of the American Revolution. In the later period these papers primarily supplement and document the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees. Much material was destroyed and scattered in the late 19th century leaving this collection quite incomplete.

This collection contains photographs and contact sheets of alumni, faculty and student life taken expressly for a 1980s admissions brochure, capital campaign brochures in the 1990s and the Columbia alumni magazine in the 1980s through early 2000s. Additionally, there are reproductions of photographs and illustrations dating prior to the late 1970s which were used in the magazine.

This collection documents the professional work of film critic, professor, and author, Amos Vogel. The bulk of the records are concerned with numerous films that Vogel has screened for Cinema 16, the independent film society that he founded and directed for sixteen years, as well as administrative records, correspondence, photographs, and printed material.

This collection documents, though partially, the professional life of architectural and art historian, librarian, and preservationist James Grote Van Derpool (1903-1979). Generally, this collection contains correspondence, office files, printed materials, photographs, slides, literary productions, and legal documents. A large portion of this collection consists of papers that reflect the activities of Van Derpool as "defender of the architectural treasures," including records and papers relating to research done for the National Parks Service. Also in the collection are records of lectures on the history of American architecture given at educational institutions, clubs, societies, business organizations, and religious and cultural group meetings. There are also papers relating to Van Derpool's research on the history of Avery Library at Columbia University and the life and work of Italian architect Leon Battista Alberti. Additionally, there is a group of records of the Advisory Committee of the University of Illinois for the time period when Van Derpool was chairman. Van Derpool's book collection was incorporated into the permanent collection of Avery Library after his death.

An artificial collection comprised of correspondence, diaries, lecture notes, essays, administrative documents, minutes, and other documents related to Columbia University. Materials were created by or for students, alumni, faculty, administrators, staff, trustees, and honorary degree recipients.