Geroid T. Robinson, 1893-1971 (Columbia A.M. 1922; Ph.D. 1930) professor of Russian history at Columbia University. He was born Rodney G. Robinson, hoped to be a journalist and was on the staff of THE DIAL and THE FREEMAN from 1919 to 1924. From 1925 to 1927 he did doctoral research in the Soviet Union. From 1946 to 1951 he was the first head of Columbia's Russian Institute. In 1950 he became Seth Low Professor of History and retired in 1960.

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, documents, subject files, photographs, art works, and printed materials. This collection covers the entire span of his life, although by far the greatest part relates to his activities as a professor from the 1930s to the 1960s. Among the correspondents are many important figures in American Russian studies or Columbia University; there are also many letters from his wife, Clemens T. Robinson and Lewis Mumford. Manuscripts by Robinson include his "Rural Russia under the Old Regime" lectures, notes, speeches and essays, and also miscellaneous pieces (essays, reviews, poems, stories, plays, etc.) that he wrote while he was an aspiring young journalist and writer in the 1910s and 1920s. Manuscripts by others consist of student theses, papers, books and reports that were given him for review or comment. Subject files deal with such topics as his service in World War I; Columbia University (especially the Libraries and the History Department); and various aspects of academic life and Russian studies. Almost nothing in the collection has any bearing on his government service during World War II; items from the war years concern personal affairs or scholarship. There are photographs of Robinson and his wife; family photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and Russian scenes. Art works include items by Clemens T. Robinson. Among the printed materials are two books inscribed by Mumford to Robinson