Category Archives: Events

Bingham Center, Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Readings and Talks

Celebrating the Dorothy Allison Papers

Dorothy AllisonLast September, several years of work happily came to fruition, as the Dorothy Allison Papers arrived at the RBMSCL. Now, the papers have been processed and are open for research–and Dorothy Allison herself is returning to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture for a series of celebratory events.

Two or Three Things: Readings from the Works of Dorothy Allison
Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room

This afternoon of readings from Dorothy Allison’s works includes a performance of selections from her memoir, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, by Duke undergraduate Jennifer Sherman. Light refreshments will be served. This event is co-sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies.

Out in the South: Writers in Conversation
Date: Friday, September 23, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: White Lecture Hall (map and directions)

Please join us for a fantastic opportunity to hear four distinguished Southern authors—Dorothy Allison, Shirlette Ammons, Jim Grimsley and Minnie Bruce Pratt—discuss their lives and work. Each author will read selections from his or her writings, followed by a panel discussion. A book-signing and reception will follow. This program is co-sponsored by Carolina Wren Press and the Program in Women’s Studies.

The papers of Allison, Grimsley, Pratt, and Carolina Wren Press are held by the RBMSCL.

Author biographies:

Dorothy Allison describes herself as “a feminist, a working class story teller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet and a happily born-again Californian.” She is perhaps best known as author of Bastard out of Carolina among other works and as a renowned activist in the LGBTQ community.

Shirlette Ammons is a poet, writer, musician and director of an arts program for children. Her second collection of poetry, entitled Matching Skin, was published by Carolina Wren Press in June 2008.

Jim Grimsley is a playwright and novelist, and currently director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University. Jim’s second novel Dream Boy won the American Library Association GLBT Award for Literature (the Stonewall Prize) and was a Lambda finalist, and his gay-themed fantasy novels Kirith Kirin and The Ordinary both won Lambda awards, just to name a few of his many literary honors.

Minnie Bruce Pratt is an award-winning poet who began teaching and grass roots organizing in North Carolina in the 1970s, and has continued her work as a professor, writer, and activist through today. Her latest book, Inside the Money Machine, was recently published by Carolina Wren Press.

If you’re unable to make these events, stop by the Duke University Libraries and check out “Language, Power, Stories, Words: An Exhibit from the Dorothy Allison Papers,” which will be on display in the Rare Book Room cases through October 25, 2011. (Or, view the online exhibit.)

For more details on the events and the exhibit, contact Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Bingham Center,  at 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu.

 

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Films, From Our Collections, Human Rights Archive

Rights! Camera! Action!: The Betrayal

Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Franklin Humanities Institute Garage, Bay 4, Smith Warehouse (map)
Contact Information: Patrick Stawski, 919-660-5823 or patrick.stawski(at)duke.edu, or Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963 or kirston.johnson(at)duke.edu

The fourth season of the popular Rights! Camera! Action! film series begins with The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), winner of the Spectrum Award at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Filmed over the course of 23 years,  this is the epic story of a Lao soldier family’s journey from war-torn Laos to the mean streets of New York. Thavisouk Phrasavath describes his own life as a young man struggling to survive a war and survive the hardships of immigrant life, counterpointed by his mother’s astonishing tale of perseverance. Renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras’ directorial debut is a remarkable collaboration with Phrasavath—a poetic, cinematically-resonant film about the hidden, human face of war’s “collateral damage.”

A discussion with co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath will follow the film. The screening is co-sponsored by the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Duke’s 2012 Winter Forum.

The Rights! Camera! Action! film series, which is sponsored by the Archive for Human Rights, the Archive of Documentary Arts, the Duke Human Rights Center, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and Screen/Society at Duke’s Arts of the Moving Image Program, features documentaries on human rights themes that were award winners at the annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The films are archived at the RBMSCL, where they form part of a rich and expanding collection of human rights materials.

Events, From Our Collections, Manuscripts, Readings and Talks, University Archives

Julian Carr and the Magical Occoneechee Farm

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Date: Sunday, August 28, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Big Barn Convention Center at The Shops at Daniel Boone (map and directions)
Contact Information: Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County, 919-732-2201 or info@orangeNChistory.org

Julian Shakespeare Carr
Julian Shakespeare Carr. From the Picture File, M671.

At his summer home in Hillsborough, Trinity College trustee (and donor of much of the land that is now East Campus) Julian Shakespeare Carr built a model farm that became nationally-known for its innovative farming practices.

This latest event in the “Stores and Stories” series, which is sponsored by the Historical Foundation of Hillsborough and Orange County, will focus on Carr’s Occoneechee Farm.

The dramatic presentation—which will feature Tom Stevens, Hillsborough’s mayor, as Carr—is based on Carr’s farm journal, part of the RBMSCL’s Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers. Additional stories and photos from the farm in its heyday will also be shared.

Events, From Our Collections, History of Medicine, News and Features

History of Medicine Open House

Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Rachel Ingold, 919-684-8549 or rachel.ingold(at)duke.edu

This past July, over 20,000 rare books and journals, 4,500 manuscripts, and a variety of instruments and artifacts from the History of Medicine Collections were moved from the Medical Center Library to the RBMSCL. You may have followed the move via “Medical Move Mondays” here on The Devil’s Tale.

On Tuesday, you’ll have your chance to see (some of) the newest items in the RBMSCL’s collections. Join Rachel Ingold, Curator of the History of Medicine Collections, to learn more about the history behind the collections and view some of the unique and spectacular item—ranging from 16th century books that contain hand colored illustrations of amputations to actual amputating saws and more!

Amputating Instruments
No, you can't use these in the Rare Book Room.
Events, News and Features, Readings and Talks

An Artist’s Adventures with the Supernormal

Date: Thursday, August 18, 2011
Time: 3:30 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Elizabeth Dunn, 919-660-5824 or elizabeth.dunn(at)duke.edu

"Artist as Medium," 2008Video and installation artist Susan MacWilliam will speak about her archivally-based art, which focuses on the world of the paranormal, the tradition of psychical research, the supersensory, and ideas about perceptual phenomenon.

This summer, she is studying the experimental and groundbreaking ESP and telepathy research of Dr. J. B. Rhine through materials in the RBMSCL (focusing on the Parapsychology Laboratory Records) and at the Rhine Research Center. Susan MacWilliam’s residency in Durham is supported through funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

For Thursday’s talk, she will show some of her video pieces and discuss the ways that she transforms her archival discoveries and interviews into artistic creations.

Light refreshments will be served.

For more background on Susan MacWilliam’s work, please visit her website.

Post contributed by Elizabeth Dunn, Research Services Librarian.

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, Events, Readings and Talks, Travel Grants

Unnatural Intimacies

Date: Friday, August 12, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

Join the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture for a discussion, titled “Unnatural Intimacies: Deviance, Sexuality, and the Historical Relationships of Lesbians and Prostitutes, 1935-1965,” with Marika L. Cifor, the recipient of a Mary Lily Research Grant.

Ms. Cifor is a candidate for a Masters of Arts in History and a Masters of Science in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in Archives Management, at Simmons College. During her research visit, she will be studying the Bingham Center’s lesbian pulp fiction collection. Light refreshments will be served.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Hartman Center

Look Boys and Girls!

Date: May 5-July 25, 2011
Location and Time: Rare Book Room cases during library hours
Contact Information: Jackie Reid, 919-660 5836 or j.reid(at)duke.edu

Cover of The Story of PeanutvilleOver the last 30 years, the explosion of Saturday morning cartoons and children’s television programming has caused American parents no shortage of worry about their children’s exposure to advertising. As the Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History’s new exhibit, “Look Boys and Girls! Advertising to Children in the 20th Century,” shows, this advertising is anything but a new phenomenon: advertisers started selling directly to kids, rather than their parents, in the early 20th century. Companies like Heinz and Palmolive published children’s stories (like The Story of Peanutville at right) that positively portrayed their products.

Advertising to Children: A Timeline

1910s: Companies like the Winchester Rifle Company established contests to encourage the use of their products.

Late 1920s: Kids could join “clubs” and might receive prizes and higher status if they consumed more of the sponsoring company’s product. Some companies promoted products through sponsored radio shows and even through schools.

1930s: Comic strip advertising was used to target children and played off the popularity of this section of the newspaper.

1953: Two of the first television shows aimed exclusively at preschoolers, “Baby Sitter” and “Ding Dong School,” were broadcast.

Outdoor Advertising Incorporated Report1960s: As interest in young consumers increased, advertisers consulted the latest psychological studies about how best to target children. This segmentation of the market has continued to narrow, with children now broken into two-year age groups like “tweens” or “explorers.”

1962: McDonald’s ran its first print advertising campaign and used cartoon-like characters to appeal to children.

1979: Well-known children’s advocate, Peggy Charren, testifies before congress, stating that “children’s advertising should be considered, per se, an unfair commercial practice.” Cable station Nickelodeon launches.

Late 1990s: Advertisers continued to expand their reach to these influential customers through the Internet, re-emphasizing “old-fashioned” ways of appealing to children through contests and loyalty clubs.

If you can’t visit the exhibit in person, be sure to check out the online exhibit!

We’d also like to welcome Julian, son of Hartman Center intern Katharine French-Fuller. He made his first visit to the library today (which included a visit to this exhibit)!

Events, Readings and Talks, University Archives

Durham Before Duke (and After)

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Date: Sunday, June 5, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Durham County Library, Main Library, 300 N. Roxboro Rd. (map and directions)
Contact Information: Amy McDonald, 919-681-7987 or amy.mcdonald(at)duke.edu

Cover of Durham County by Jean Bradley Anderson

For the past twenty-one years, those of us with questions about Durham’s history have made a beeline for one book: Jean Bradley Anderson’s Durham County, first published in 1990 by our friends at the Duke University Press.

Now, Mrs. Anderson’s second edition of Durham County, released in April, tells Durham’s history up to the end of the twentieth century.

To celebrate, the Duke University Archives has joined with the Durham County Library to present an afternoon with Jean Bradley Anderson. Join us at the Durham County Library’s Main Library, where Mrs. Anderson will discuss this monumental book, as well as interesting and surprising moments in her research. She’ll also answer questions from the audience—so here’s your chance to ask the expert historian everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Durham! A book signing and refreshments will follow the discussion.

Can’t make the event? Leave us a comment and let us know what you’d like to ask Jean!

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, Events, From Our Collections, Readings and Talks, Travel Grants

Art, Abortion, Activism

Date: Thursday, May 5, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

New York Feminist Art Institute poster, ca. 1980s
New York Feminist Art Institute poster, ca. 1980s. From the Irene Peslikis Papers.

Tomorrow, please join the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture for “Art, Abortion, Activism: Facets of Feminist History,” a Scholars’ Tea with Mary Lily Research Grant Recipients Jennifer Nelson and Michelle Moravec.

Jennifer Nelson, Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Redlands, will be speaking on her research for her book, Abortion Referral and Feminist Health in the 1970s. Her research at the Bingham Center focuses on the Feminist Women’s Health Center Records.

Michelle Moravec, Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies at Rosemont College, is researching an article entitled “While Historians Debated, Artists Created: Culture, History and the Women’s Movement.” Her research will explore the papers of feminist artists Kate Millett and Irene Peslikis, among others.

Light refreshments will be served. The tea is co-sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Films, RL Photos

Filmmaker and Projectionist

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Filmmaker David Gatten threads 16mm prints of his films for a screening in the Rare Book Room this past Thursday.

These photos were taken by guest Michael Graziano, and we thank him for letting us share them here. (For more information about the event and the films shown, visit this earlier blog post.)

You’ll find more photos from the screening at the “RBMSCL Events” set on the RBMSCL’s Flickr photostream!