Robert K. Merton Archive

For more than thirty years, Robert K. Merton played an important role at the Russell Sage Foundation. A key advisor from 1966 to 1989, Merton was also RSF’s first Foundation scholar. But more than an invaluable resource at the Foundation, Merton was a giant in the fields of urban history, intellectual history, sociology, and African-American studies. After his death, his wife donated his papers to Columbia University, where he spent more than fifty years as a faculty member. These papers trace his intellectual trajectory and development from the late 1920s until his death in 2003, and offer insights on how the field of sociology developed. Now, the Russell Sage Foundation has provided funding to ensure that Columbia’s library system can organize Merton’s documents in a manner than maintains their physical integrity and provides access to others who wish to view them.