Butler Library Books 1934

This 1934 silent film, Installation of Books, Butler Library, Columbia University, shot in black-and-white 16mm, documents a pivotal moment at Columbia University in New York City. Books and materials are unloaded from Butler Library—opened in 1934—and carted across the quad to Low Library, the former main repository. Several striking shots capture a large group of Columbia students posing proudly before Butler’s neoclassical facade, marking the library’s debut. A pre-war record of academic transition, it blends scholarly bustle with campus camaraderie in a historic shift.