Music Performance: The Early Years > Alexander Hamilton Medal
Columbia Magazine (Winter, 1993)
Cover, showing the window card for Oklahoma!, the ground-breaking Rodgers and Hammerstein 1943 musical
Columbia University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Department of Music faculty member Walter Frisch contributed this issue’s lead article, “The Road to Oklahoma! Began on Morningside Heights.”
Alexander Hamilton Dinner
Program booklet, 1956
Columbia University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
In 1956, Columbia recognized the Rodgers and Hammerstein contribution to musical theater by presenting them with the University’s Alexander Hamilton medal, awarded by the Alumni Association “for distinguished service and accomplishment in any field of human endeavor.” Until 1994, when the medal honored the 75th Anniversary of the Core Curriculum and the Tenured Teachers of the Core, including music faculty, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the only recipients of the award whose achievements centered on music.