Category Archives: From Our Collections

Audiovisual Materials, New at the Rubenstein Library, New Finding Aids

Wense Grabarek in the First Person

July 2, 2013 Meghan Lyon

The 50^th anniversary of a key moment in the desegregation of Durham, North Carolina came and went largely without fanfare last month. It was in May 1963 that, amid growing racial discord in the city, Mayor Wense Grabarek prevailed upon business and community leaders, black and white alike, to cooperate in desegregating the city. The mayor was in an unusual position: having held office for less than a day when a series of sit-ins around Durham resulted in 130 arrests, Grabarek’s first task upon being sworn in was to stop a riot at the jail. Achieving this by letting supporters deliver sandwiches and cigarettes to the jailed protesters, he then turned his attention to the NAACP and CORE, who promised mass demonstrations in the wake of the arrests. Jean Anderson, in Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina, tells the story this way:

He went in person, a slight, dapper man, always with a red carnation in his lapel, to a meeting of protesters, one thousand strong, held at Saint Joseph’s A.M.E. Church. Habitually soft-spoken and immensely polite, he asked permission to enter and address them. Then, pointing out that by their demonstrations they had informed the community of their deeply felt grievances, he spoke about the danger of racial tension and division and promised to take positive steps to respond to their complaints. Finally, he asked for their support and understanding. Impressed by his coming, his tone, his words, they accepted his sincerity and promised to halt demonstrations and give the mayor time to act on his promises.

Mayor Grabarek formed the Durham Interim Committee to reconcile the community’s opposing groups, in so doing acknowledging the damage of segregation and the real possibility that Jim Crow could prevent Durham from realizing its potential, particularly given the economic promise of the newly formed Research Triangle Park. The efforts of Grabarek and of the leaders appointed to the Committee allowed Durham a degree of progress that eluded many other southern cities.

Wense Grabarek addressing the congregation at St. Joseph's AME Church, May 1963. — Wense Grabarek addressing the congregation at St. Joseph’s AME Church, May 1963.

A modest man and a successful accountant who continues to work full time six days a week, Wense Grabarek is now 93 years old and eager to add his perspective to the history of Durham, the adopted hometown that called him mayor from 1963 to 1971. To this end he has donated to the Rubenstein Library a number of recorded interviews he has given since the early 2000s, as part of a larger collection of papers that he is gathering for donation later this summer. You can check out the finding aid for the interviews here.

Wense Grabarek in conversation with Tim Tyson, Sept. 2011

The recordings include an interview with Steven Channing for his documentary Durham: A Self Portrait, an 8-hour conversation with author and scholar Tim Tyson detailing his work as mayor, and, presented here, with the permission of WTVD, an interview with Angela Hampton on the events of May 1963:

An oral history has been scheduled with Mr. Grabarek in July, and this time the interviewer will be the Rubenstein Library. We hope to learn more about the mayor’s life before and after the 1960s, including his experiences as a soldier in World War II and the philanthropic work he and his wife have done over the years in education.

Post contributed by Craig Breaden, Audiovisual Materials Archivist in the Technical Services Dept.

From Our Collections, Just for Fun, Technical Stuff

Spirit of Play

July 1, 2013 Meghan Lyon

I was absolutely taken with this albumen image as I reviewed the “From Atlanta [,] Georgia to Mammoth Cave [,] Kentucky, November 1895” photograph album prior to my cataloging it. The children are laughing and making faces, perhaps interrupted in a game of “cops and robbers,” since many of the boys are holding guns or rifles. Their sense of fun is infectious and it reminded me of the neighborhood games groups of us played during my childhood. Yet I was surprised that such a large interracial group would have been playing together at this time. Is this a late-nineteenth-century South I never dared imagine?

Post contributed by Alice Poffinberger, Original Cataloger in the Technical Services Department.

Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library

New Acquisitions: Family Letters from the Segregated Armed Forces

June 28, 2013 Will Hansen

In June and July we’ll celebrate the beginning of a new fiscal year by highlighting new acquisitions from the past year. All of these amazing resources will be available for today’s scholars, and for future generations of researchers in the Rubenstein Library! Today’s post features a new collection in the Library’s John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture. Check out additional posts in the series here.

The Dykes Family Letters are an intimate exchange of correspondence between two African American servicemen during World War II. Nearly 40 letters from Private Leo Dykes, 5th Marine Ammunition Company to his brother Lawyer Dykes of Akron, Ohio describe his experiences serving from Camp Lejeune, NC to San Francisco to the Asian Pacific Islands from 1943-1945. The collection is augmented by a separate batch of 26 letters from Corporal Benjamin Peavy, 51st Aviation Squadron, to his sister Hattie Dykes, wife of Lawyer Dykes, while stationed at the Greenville Army Flying School in Greenville, MS from 1942-1944.

Letter from Private Leo Dykes to Lawyer Dykes, 1 January 1944.

The letters are an exceptional display of the close familial ties shared by both men to their relatives back at home during a time of war. Though neither Dykes nor Peavy saw active duty during the war, the two share their experiences serving as African Americans in a still segregated military.

Post contributed by John Gartrell, Director, John Hope Franklin Research Center.

Archive of Documentary Arts, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library

New Acquisitions: Icons of Civil War Photography

June 27, 2013 Will Hansen 1 Comment

Some of the most celebrated, recognizable, and graphic images of the American Civil War come from Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War and George N. Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, both published in 1866. Among the most important pictorial records of the conflict, together they shed a stark light on the destruction witnessed during the war and its aftermath. As legendary examples of early American photography these albums also help us to understand the history of documentary photography and the emergence of the widespread documentation of war. Look for a feature on these important new additions to the Library’s Archive of Documentary Arts in the next issue of RL Magazine!

Alexander Gardner, "President Lincoln on Battle-Field of Antietam," 1862. — Alexander Gardner, “President Lincoln on Battle-Field of Antietam,” 1862, from Gardner’s *Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War*.

George Barnard, "City of Atlanta no. 2," from — George Barnard, “City of Atlanta no. 2,” from Barnard’s *Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign*.

The Rubenstein Library is grateful to the B. H. Breslauer Foundation for their generous support of the acquisition of Gardner’s Sketch Book.

Post contributed by Kirston Johnson, Curator of the Archive of Documentary Arts.

Bingham Center, From Our Collections

New Acquisitions: Artists’ Books by Women

June 26, 2013 Will Hansen

In June and July we’ll celebrate the beginning of a new fiscal year by highlighting new acquisitions from the past year. All of these amazing resources will be available for today’s scholars, and for future generations of researchers in the Rubenstein Library! Today’s post features additions to the collection of artists’ books by women in the Library’s Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture. Check out additional posts in the series here.

nava2resized — Image courtesy of Nava Atlas.

Dear Literary Ladies by Nava Atlas. New Paltz, New York: Amberwood Press, Inc., 2010. Edition of 15. Gift of the author.

According to Atlas, “this artist’s book fancifully poses questions on writing and the writing life, with the replies derived from classic authors’ letters, journals, and autobiographies. Reaching back to answer contemporary questions with voices from literary history reveals the timeless concerns and challenges of writers, with a particular emphasis on these issues from a female perspective.” The book was also produced in a trade edition.

Skirt Book: Made in the USA by Julie Mader-Meersman. 2010.

This unique artists’ book is made in the form of a skirt with custom fabric printed with scans of country of origin tags from clothing. Booklets made from fabric remnants and original textile tags are sewn on around the garment.

32 Big Pictures: A bound series of hand cut collages about Barbie by Dana F. Smith. San Francisco, California, 2011.

The images in this book were originally created from magazine collages overlayed on the pages of an over-sized Barbie coloring book. According to the artist, “it was created as a painstaking labor of love and reveals untold ways that Barbie is interlaced with modern American culture.”

barbiemakeover — “Barbie’s Makeover.” Image courtesy of Dana F. Smith.

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

Human Rights Archive, New at the Rubenstein Library

New Acquisitions: Human Rights in the New World

June 25, 2013 Will Hansen

In June and July we’ll celebrate the beginning of a new fiscal year by highlighting new acquisitions from the past year. All of these amazing resources will be available for today’s scholars, and for future generations of researchers in the Rubenstein Library! Today’s post features a key early work in the development of the concept of human rights.

Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar and one of the first Spanish colonists in the Caribbean, is best known today for his exposé of the horrifying treatment of indigenous peoples by Spanish settlers during the first decades of colonization. First published in a 1550s series of tracts in Seville, the tracts represented the first argument for the rights of American Indians to be treated as fellow human beings, the first argument for the abolition of slavery in the New World, and one of the first attempts to appeal to a universal code of human rights.

The tracts, especially the sensational details of torture, abuse, and murder, spread throughout Europe as evidence of the Spanish abuse of power in the New World. The Library’s new acquisition is the first Latin translation and first illustrated edition of Las Casas’ text, entitled Narratio Regionum Indicarum per Hispanos Quosdam Devastarum Verissimi…, published in Frankfurt in 1598. The work features a powerful series of eighteen copper engravings by Theodor de Bry, depicting abuses of the native peoples.

casas-narratio_regionvm-1598-02blog — Image courtesy Dorothy Sloan Books.

De Bry never visited the New World, and the images can be seen as prime examples of the “Black Legend” of sensationalistic, anti-Spanish (and anti-Catholic) propaganda used to curb the might of the Spanish empire. This edition of the work of Las Casas advocating for basic human rights for the native populations of the Americas was wildly popular and influential, thanks in part to the images, which retain some of their original power to shock and provoke thought about the treatment of the original inhabitants of the New World.

casasburning — Image courtesy Dorothy Sloan Books.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

From Our Collections, Hartman Center

Mad Men Mondays: Episode 13 “In Care Of”

June 24, 2013 Meghan Lyon

The season finale delivered many memorable moments that will keep us guessing until next year. Stan tells Don that he wants to be the one that goes to Los Angeles to open a satellite office that will service the Sunkist account. After a bad phone conversation with Sally, Don gets drunk at a bar when he is supposed to be at work. Later he wakes up in jail. Pete is horrified to find out that his mother is lost at sea. She married Manolo on a cruise and it is presumed that he threw her overboard in order to inherit her money. When Don comes home the next morning he pours out all of the liquor bottles and tells Megan that he wants them to go to Los Angeles so he can start the new SC&P office. She is thrilled and resigns her soap opera job. Peggy changes into a revealing dress and tells Ted, Jim, and Harry that she is leaving early because she has plans. In Detroit, Bob encourages Pete to test drive a stick shift Camaro Z28. Pete knocks over a GM sign in the process and is subsequently taken off the Chevy account. Peggy comes home after her date and finds Ted at her door. He says that he loves her and will leave his wife. They sleep together and make plans for the future. Betty calls Don in the middle of the night to say that Sally bought beer and got drunk with some classmates and is suspended from Miss Porter’s. Ted tells Don that he wants to go to Los Angeles so he can start over with his family. Don makes a great campaign pitch to Hershey’s, but then ruins it by telling them his true story of growing up in a whorehouse and stealing money from the johns to get Hershey’s chocolate. That night Don tells Megan that they are not going to Los Angeles after all. She is upset and talks about leaving him since she already set up meetings in Hollywood to further her acting career. Pete and his brother decide not to pursue an investigation into their mother’s disappearance. They clean out her house and Pete brings some furniture over to Trudy’s house. He tells her and Tammy goodbye, as he is going to California. Ted tells Peggy that he will stay with his wife to protect his kids. She is upset and tells him to get out. Don attends a partners meeting and they confront him about his questionable behavior. They tell him to take some time off and regroup, but refuse to give him a return date. On his way out he sees Duck Phillips bring Lou Avery in, presumably as a replacement. The episode ends when Don picks up his kids for Thanksgiving and shows them the dilapidated house where he grew up.

Episode thirteen referred to Chanel #5, Camaros, Thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, and cruises, among other things. Here is a selection of ads and images that illustrate some of the products and cultural references mentioned in last night’s Mad Men. A gallery of our highlighted images may also be found on Pinterest and Flickr.

Digital Collections, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, TRLN CCC Project, University Archives

Eight New Digital Collections on Civil Rights

June 20, 2013 Amy McDonald 2 Comments

The Duke University Libraries are proud to announce the completion of the still image digitization for the Duke-held collections of the Content, Context, and Capacity (CCC) Project.

This inter-institutional collaborative project of Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State, and NC Central is digitizing records relating to the Long Civil Rights Movement. The Long Civil Rights Movement is a term used by historians to expand the traditional definition of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s both further into the past and into more recent times. Collections from this project date back to as early as the 1880s and to as late as the first decade of the 2000s.

In total, all four institutions will digitize over 350,000 documents. Duke’s share of that total is approximately 66,000 scans from eight archival collections from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. In addition, during the next (final) year of the project, the CCC staff will transition to the digitization of audio collections. Duke will focus on the digitization of the North Carolina tapes from the Behind the Veil Oral History Collection, which is scheduled for publication in 2014.

Check out the gallery of selected documents digitized as part of the project (click to enlarge) and browse each of the eight collection’s finding aids, now containing the embedded digitized documents, below.

descriptive image — Flyer in opposition to Allen Building Takeover Questionnaire, February 1969. From the Allen Building Takeover Collection.

Collection descriptions and links to finding aids (containing digitized materials):

Charles N. Hunter Papers, 1850s-1932 and undated: An educator and reformer ahead of his time, Charles N. Hunter’s papers feature valuable writings and speeches as well as correspondence with many luminaries, including Booker T. Washington.
Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, 1909-1997 and undated, bulk 1935-1983: Elna Spaulding was a Durham civic leader who served as a County Commissioner and as the present of Women-in-Action for the Prevention of Violence and Its Causes. Her papers include correspondence and records of her civic life with many organizations.
Women-In-Action for the Prevention of Violence and Its Causes, Inc. (WIAPVC) Durham Chapter records, 1968-1998: Founded by Elna Spaulding in 1968, the WIAPVC is an organization dedicated to community improvement. Its records document both its successful projects and its fund-raising challenges.
Basil Lee Whitener Papers, 1889-1968: Basil Lee Whitener was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1957 to 1968 from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His papers document his opposition to civil rights legislation as well as his activities as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Rencher Nicholas Harris Papers, 1851-1980 and undated, bulk 1926-1965: Rencher Nicholas Harris was Durham’s first African-American city councilman. His papers document a myriad of local issues in the 1950s, including segregated schools, health care, and zoning laws.
Allen Building Takeover Collection, 1969-2002: This collection documents the events and the remembrances of the February 1969 Allen Building Takeover, during which students occupied Duke’s administrative building demanding improvement of African-American life on campus and skirmishes between sympathizers and the police on the quad became violent.
Black Student Alliance Records, 1969-2006: The Black Student Alliance is a Duke African-American student advocacy organization. Its records include evidence of the organization’s projects as well as their publications and compiled scrapbooks illustrating student life.
Department of African and African American Studies Records, 1966-1981: These records trace the development of the Black Studies Program into a full-fledged academic department. In addition, the records contain evidence of radical political thought in the 1970s.

Researchers will find a great deal of material to analyze in these eight collections. The CCC staff encourages you to visit the finding aids of each collection and start exploring the varied perspectives, narratives, and memories that help to comprise the Long Civil Rights Movement.

The grant-funded CCC Project is designed to digitize selected manuscripts and photographs relating to the long civil rights movement. Funding is provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division on the Department of Cultural Resources. For more about Rubenstein Library materials being digitized through the CCC Project, check out previous progress updates posted here at The Devil’s Tale!

Post contributed by Josh Hager, CCC Graduate Assistant.

From Our Collections, Hartman Center

Mad Men Monday – Episode 11 “Favors”

June 10, 2013 Kate Collins

The title of last night’s show accurately sums up a major theme seen in the episode. Many characters need or give favors, though not without consequences. The SC&P staff realizes that they are competing for two similar clients, Sunkist and Ocean Spray, so one will have to be resigned. While talking to Peggy, Pete’s mother claims she is in love with her nurse Manolo, and implies that their relationship is sexual. Sylvia and Arnold are afraid because their son Mitchell is reclassified 1A by the draft after dropping out of school and sending back his draft card in protest. Peggy tells Pete what his mother said to her over a friendly post client meeting dinner. Later Pete argues with his mother about Manolo. Don awkwardly brings up Mitchell’s draft status at a client dinner with Chevy. Peggy calls Stan to remove a dying rat from her apartment but he refuses to help. Sally and her friend Julie stay at Don and Megan’s apartment while attending the Model UN. They meet Mitchell in the lobby and swoon over him. Ted gets mad at Don for the uncomfortable moment during the Chevy dinner. He offers to help get Mitchell into the Air National Guard if Don will agree to drop Sunkist in favor of Ocean Spray. Don agrees and calls Sylvia to tell her the good news. Julie signs Sally’s name on a love note slipped under Mitchell’s door. Sally returns to retrieve the note from the Rosen’s apartment, only to find Sylvia and Don about to have sex. She runs away and Don tries to follow. Bob tries to reassure Pete about Manolo and touches his knee to Pete’s suggestively. Pete rebuffs Bob and fires Manolo. Don comes home drunk and Megan tells him that he is the “sweetest man” for helping Mitchell. Sally shouts “you make me sick!” and runs off to her room. Don tries to talk to Sally but makes up a weak excuse.

Episode nine’s plot referred to Post cereals, whiskey sours, rat traps, tea, and Ocean Spray, among other things. Here is a selection of ads that illustrate some of the products and cultural references mentioned in Sunday night’s Mad Men. A gallery of our highlighted images may also be found on Pinterest and Flickr.

Hartman Center, New at the Rubenstein Library

New Acquisition: Adventures in Negro History

June 7, 2013 Meghan Lyon

This year, Duke commemorates the 50^th anniversary of racial integration at the university, when in 1963 five African American students matriculated into the undergraduate program. Also in 1963, Pepsi sponsored the production of a record album, “Adventures in Negro History,” recently acquired by the John W. Hartman Center as part of the Douglass Alligood Papers. Alligood was one of the first black executives in the advertising industry, and is currently a Senior Vice President at BBDO agency. Long a champion for minority inclusion in the advertising business, Alligood chairs the BBDO’s Diversity Council, which advises management on diversity policies. He has also worked at RCA and for the minority-owned agency UniWorld Group. The record album contains dramatic readings by Detroit-based actors, including Jerry Blocker, Burniece Avery and Jiam Desjardins, which depicts the contributions of people of color to American history. Included are both the famous (Crispus Attucks, Phyllis Wheatley, Ralphe Bunche) and lesser known figures: Christopher Columbus’s pilot, Pedro Nino; Revolutionary War hero Salem Poor; and philanthropist Paul Cuffe.

Post contributed by Rick Collier, Technical Services Archivist.

Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University