Numerically from 1 to 900, with each number designating a subject. Though there seems to be a slight hierarchical aspect to the system (“Columbia University,” for instance, is #1), there is nothing about the numbering that makes it possible to predict where a subject will be found. Numerous instructional and clinical departments can be found in the 70s & 80s, for instance, but there is no reason why they should be there rather than somewhere else.

The subject categories are often extraordinarily large or vague; researchers should not assume that everything relating to a specific subject is actually filed under that subject heading. A good example is #233: Gifts/Grants/Committees. It encompasses a wide range of subjects including some (but by no means all) records of grants and committees; extensive material on the planning and building of Long Library (records of which also exist under #92: Library); as well as completely unrelated topics such as parking.

Complicating this further, it appears that over the century central records clerks reassigned folders to different numbers, sometimes erroneously filing records under inappropriate subject headings. Archives staff has not attempted to correct these mistakes.

The best example of this is several folders containing important correspondence from the 1910s and ‘20s about the origins and planning of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. These folders, entitled “Development of the Medical Center” were later refiled under #545: Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center Fund, Inc., a fundraising entity established by the University and Hospital in the late 1950s, under the mistaken notion that the older files dealt with fundraising.

Because of the subject arrangement, it is impossible to find correspondence of specific individuals unless they can be linked to a specific topic(s). However, throughout this period copies of correspondence sent/received by the Vice President/Dean’s office were often passed on to the University President’s office where records were largely arranged by name of correspondent. These records may be consulted at the University Archives & Columbiana Library.

It is not known when exactly the central records system at the Health Sciences campus was established – though internal evidence suggests 1902 or ’03 – or why the present arrangement was chosen. The establishment of a central file system serving as the repository for the correspondence of both the dean of the medical school and of other administrators reporting to him followed University practice at the time. The central records of the President of the University were established at about the same time on the Morningside Heights campus.