All posts by Amy McDonald

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Hartman Center

“You’ve Got . . . Personality: Testimonial and Celebrity Endorsement Advertisements”

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Date: 8 April-30 June 2010
Location and Time: Rare Book Room cases during library hours
Contact Information: Jackie Reid, 919-660 5836 or j.reid(at)duke.edu

Testimonial advertisements, today seemingly reserved for fading actors, retired politicians, and late-night cable infomercials, were once a mark of innovation and prestige in advertising. This exhibit, a complement to “The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond’s, 1920s-1950s,” highlights some examples of this style of advertising, as documented in the collections of the Hartman Center.

In 1923, JWT created a new advertising campaign for Pond’s creams, based on the testimonials of leading American society women and European titled nobility. That campaign lasted for over thirty years and is the focus of half of the exhibit. Newsletters, internal memos, publications, ads and other items allow the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at bringing a concept to fruition in a long-standing advertising campaign.

Taking a broader view, the other half of the exhibit documents an overview of the use of testimonials and celebrity endorsements in advertising for a range of products. From an 1893 endorsement by arctic explorer Lieutenant Peary for Kodak, to Count Basie for Camel cigarettes, to Coach K for American Express, a wide variety of well-known celebrities are shown endorsing products. Advertisements, reports, and memos illustrate advertisers’ belief that celebrity testimonials could lend products a feeling of familiarity and credibility, while also creating the illusion that to purchase a given product was to belong to an elite cast.

Post contributed by Jackie Reid, Director of the Hartman Center, and Lynn Eaton, Hartman Center Reference Archivist

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, News and Features, Travel Grants

2010-2011 Mary Lily Research Grants Awarded

Duke University cheerleaderThe Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Mary Lily Research Grants. These grants allow scholars to travel to Durham to conduct research using the Bingham Center’s collections.

  • Katie Anania, Art History, University of Texas-Austin, for dissertation research on the rise of feminism as a framework for evaluating contemporary art.
  • Lori A. Brown, Architecture, Syracuse University, for research for a book examining the relationships between space, abortion, and issues of access.
  • Kate Eichhorn, Culture and Media Studies, The New School, for research comparing zines and scrapbooks as archival collections of ephemera.
  • Julie Enszer, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, for an examination of lesbian-feminist print culture in Durham, NC, 1969-1989 as part of a historical narrative of lesbian-feminist publishing.
  • Karen Garner, Historical Studies, SUNY Empire State College, for an examination of U.S. global gender policy in the 1990s.
  • Rebecca N. Mitchell, English, University of Texas – Pan American, for research for an article examining the proto-feminist aspects and eroticism of Victorian mourning attire.
  • Michelle Moravec, History and Women’s Studies, Rosemont College, for research on feminist art activism as a U.S. social movement, 1967-1991.
  • Whitney Strub, Women’s Studies and American Studies, Temple University, for research for a book examining the relationships between queer sexuality, LGBT activism, and antigay activity in post-WWII United States.

Watch The Devil’s Tale for news about upcoming discussions with several of the travel grant recipients from the Bingham, Hartman, and Franklin Research Centers.

From Our Collections, Human Rights Archive, Manuscripts, New at the Rubenstein Library, News and Features

Patricia Derian Papers Coming to Duke

The Archive for Human Rights has signed an agreement with Patricia Murphy Derian to serve as the repository for her papers, which document her long career in human rights.

Patt, as she is known to friends and family, was involved in the civil rights struggles in Mississippi prior to being tapped by President Jimmy Carter to head the newly-minted Bureau for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. In 1977, she became the nation’s very first assistant secretary for human rights.

Her papers consist of country files, general files, correspondence, and a collection of audio and video interviews. Processing of the collection will begin immediately and should be complete by summer of 2010. If you’d like to arrange a visit to view the collection, or if you have any questions, please e-mail us at special-collections(at)duke.edu.

Post contributed by Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist.

Events, Franklin Research Center, Symposia and Conferences

Freedom Politics: From Jim Crow through Civil Rights and Black Power

Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Time: 1:30 PM (please see schedule)
Location: Room 240, John Hope Franklin Center (directions)
Contact Information: fhi(at)duke.edu

"After a cross is burned in front of a freedom house, it is turned into a freedom sign." Photographed by Tamio Wakayama.

2009-2010 Mellon HBCU Fellows Rhonda Jones and Dirk Philipsen will bring together leading African American Studies scholars for the Franklin Humanities Institute‘s 2nd Annual HBCU Fellowship Program Symposium. The symposium will explore the relationship between education and democracy, from the history of student-led social movements like SNCC to the use of African American oral histories in civic education today.

The symposium is co-sponsored by John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

Please register by e-mailing fhi(at)duke.edu by Friday, 9 April. A light dinner will be provided for participants in the 5:30 PM workshop, so please indicate in your e-mail if you plan to attend that session. Registration is free.

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Hartman Center

“The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond’s”

Date: 5 April-22 August 2010
Location and Time: Special Collections Gallery during library hours
Contact Information: Jackie Reid, 919-660 5836 or j.reid(at)duke.edu

Nadejda, Marchioness Milford Haven, n.d., by Edward Steichen. Photograph courtesy of the J. Walter Thompson Company Archives.

Nadejda Mikhailovna Romanov Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven, won a Charleston dance competition at Cannes in 1921 with the future King George VI.

Anne Tracy Morgan organized the American Fund for French Wounded, earning the Croix de Guerre and recognition from the French Legion of Honor.

Clare Josephine O’Brian Egerton, Duchess of Sutherland, lost $84,000 of jewels on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

Along with other socialites, heiresses, and royalty from families such as the Vanderbilts and the Roosevelts, these women appeared in Pond’s socialite endorsement campaign, masterminded by the J. Walter Thompson Company. The Hartman Center‘s new exhibit,”The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond’s, 1920s-1950s,” charts the course of this wildly-successful thirty-year campaign.

Adding to the prestige of the campaign, the women’s photographs were taken by distinguished fashion photographers such as Edward Steichen, Baron Adolph de Meyer, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, and Cecil Beaton.

A print catalog of these photographs will complement the exhibit. Please e-mail hartman-center(at)duke.edu to request a copy.

Events, Jazz Archive, Readings and Talks

Sam Stephenson and The Jazz Loft Project

Date: Monday, 12 April 2010
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Jeremy Smith, 919-660-5839 or jas5(at)notes.duke.edu

Join us as the Jazz Archive hosts Sam Stephenson, director of the Jazz Loft Project.

Sam will discuss the history of his work on this fascinating audio and photographic archive and will highlight some of the recent project results, including a new book, radio series, and traveling photography exhibition. The Gothic Bookshop will provide copies of The Jazz Loft Project at a 20% discount and Sam will be available to sign copies.

Guests are invited to bring their own lunches, but dessert and drinks will be provided.

Just for Fun

Pharaoh Peepses II

Meghan Lyon, our technical services assistant, just came back from a week in the Land of the Pharaohs. Just for fun, she and her husband Vaughn took along a packet of Peeps. “The weirdest part,” she notes, “was that they never melted, despite it being over 100 degrees on most days.”

This photograph, taken at the Ramesseum, is included in National Geographic Traveler’s Peeps in Places contest. We hope she wins! (Go vote!)

And, lest you object that this post doesn’t relate to the RBMSCL’s collections, we offer this fragment of a literary text from our papyri collection. It dates from Ramesses II’s lifetime.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Films, Readings and Talks

“The Library, The Archive, The Collection”: Research as Studio Practice in the Art of the Moving Image

Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Time: 12:30 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963 or kirston.johnson(at)duke.edu

A still from “The Great Art of Knowing” showing Byrd’s bookplate.

Award-winning filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow David Gatten will present his 2004 film, “The Great Art of Knowing.”

The film belongs to a series exploring the extensive library of William Byrd II, a prominent 17th-century Virginian landowner and author. Taking as a point of departure Athanasius Kircher‘s Ars Magna Sciendi (often translated as The Great Art of Knowing), the film attempts a reconstruction of the lives of William Byrd and his daughter Evelyn, and underlines the centuries-old desire to build systems of total knowledge and complete understanding.

Gatten is the 2010 Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker for Duke’s Program in the Arts of the Moving Image. His residency is funded by the Provost’s Council for the Arts Visiting Artist Residency grant.

In addition to his 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship, Gatten has shown his films at the Whitney Biennial, the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and several other international film festivals. His work belongs to the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as those of numerous university and private collections.

Franklin Research Center, Symposia and Conferences

Talking Toward Common Ground

Date: Thursday-Friday, March 25-26, 2010
Time: please see schedule
Location: Friedl Building, East Campus
Contact Information:


This timely conference will bring together the worlds of social sciences and humanities research for a conversation about how the two can mutually benefit in improving our knowledge of race, inequality, and social difference. Speakers include Duke professors Mark Anthony Neal, Wahneema Lubiano, Dante James, Michael Hardt, and Lee Baker.

The conference is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to register in advance. Public parking information and directions are also available here.

Sponsored by the Center of African American Research in the Department of African and African American Studies. Co-sponsored by the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality, Sanford School of Public Policy, Mary Lou Williams Center, Department of Sociology, John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, John Hope Franklin Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of Cultural Anthropology.

Bingham Center, Events, Human Rights Archive, Readings and Talks

Solidarity with Incarcerated Women

Date: Monday, March 29, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Duke Women’s Center (map and directions)
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

When we think of prisoners, we generally think of men. Yet according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 114,000 women are currently incarcerated in the United States.

In Monday’s discussion, Victoria Law, author of the newly-released Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women and publisher of Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison, will examine the particular challenges facing incarcerated women and discuss their past and present strategies of resistance.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Duke graduate student and member of the organizing committee for Durham’s Harm Free Zone, will talk about the Harm Free Zone process and facilitate interactive writing exercises based on some of the writings in Tenacious.

This event is co-sponsored by Duke’s Women’s Center, the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, and the Archive for Human Rights.