Center for Ethnomusicology (Columbia University Libraries)

Founded by Professors Willard Rhodes and Nicholas England in 1967, Center for Ethnomusicology was home to the mid-century music collector Laura Boulton during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Formerly called Center for Studies in Ethnomusicology, the institute is a major portion of Boulton's huge collection of field recordings from around the world (but especially strong in Native American and African materials). It was purchased from Boulton by the university in 1964. His collection, which was recorded between the 1930s and the 1960s, forms the core of the center's archival holdings. The collection is known as the "Laura Boulton Collection of Traditional and Liturgical Music."

In recent years, the center has been moving toward a new mission and model for the use of its archives and scholarly resources. It is currently involved in a major project to digitize its entire audio collection which amounts to several thousand reel-to-reel tapes. The goal is to make significant portions of this archive available to students, scholars and communities.

Researchers and students are welcome to use the center's holdings by visiting the facilities in 701C Dodge Hall on the Columbia campus and working with the physical tapes (now mostly copied onto CDs) and paper collection records.

It is open to members of the public during weekdays at 09h00am until 17h00pm.