During a recent visit to Philadelphia, I paid my respects to two of my favorite people from the history of Duke University: Julian Abele and Horace Trumbauer. Trumbauer’s architecture firm was hired to design the new campuses of Duke University, which were constructed between 1925 and 1932.

Abele was the first African-American graduate [...]]]>

During a recent visit to Philadelphia, I paid my respects to two of my favorite people from the history of Duke University: Julian Abele and Horace Trumbauer. Trumbauer’s architecture firm was hired to design the new campuses of Duke University, which were constructed between 1925 and 1932.

Abele was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Architecture (1902). As Trumbauer’s chief designer, he designed Duke Chapel. In addition to Duke, Abele’s work can be seen at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Trumbauer never received a formal education in architecture but designed some of the grandest residential homes of the Gilded Age, and later hotels and office buildings. One of his clients was James B. Duke, who hired Trumbauer to design his Fifth Avenue mansion in NYC (construction was completed in 1912). The success of the project likely led to Trumbauer’s firm receiving the commission to design Duke University.

Julian Abele is buried in the Lehman section of Eden Cemetery, designated the oldest African-American cemetery in the United States.

Horace Trumbauer is buried in the Franconia section of West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

You can track the progress of the construction of Abele’s designs for Duke’s East and West Campuses in our digital collection, “The Construction of Duke University, 1924-1932.”

Post contributed by Kim Sims, Technical Services Archivist for the Duke University Archives.

The Chevy executives in Detroit aren’t happy with any ad campaigns the merged agency is submitting. Don asks them to work all weekend to come up with new ideas for Chevy. After talking with Sylvia, Don begins having flashbacks of being a teenager in the brothel with his stepmother. Jim brings in his doctor [...]]]>

The Chevy executives in Detroit aren’t happy with any ad campaigns the merged agency is submitting. Don asks them to work all weekend to come up with new ideas for Chevy. After talking with Sylvia, Don begins having flashbacks of being a teenager in the brothel with his stepmother. Jim brings in his doctor to “fix everyone up” and gives some staff an energy serum shot, guaranteed to give 1-3 days of uninterrupted creative focus and energy. The energized creatives are unable to focus, leaving Peggy and Ginsberg frustrated with their frenetic, but useless, work. Don asks Peggy to find a soup ad in the archives to inspire them for the campaign. Don’s thoughts are more focused on a pitch to win Sylvia back, rather than to persuade Chevy.

Sally babysits her brothers at Don’s apartment while he works and Megan is at a dinner. Awakened by sounds from the dining room, Sally walks out to find an African-American woman rummaging through the cupboards. She tells Sally she raised her dad, but she’s actually a thief. Finally returning home, Don finds the kids, Megan, Henry, Betty (back to a blonde), and the police in his apartment. He promptly faints. The episode ends with Don reassuring Sally the robbery was not her fault, and Don telling Ted to call him in 1970 when Chevy is ready to make an ad.

Episode eight’s plot referred to Admiral radios, Chevy Impala, tuna salad, soup, and gold watches, among other things. Enjoy our 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.

Please join us for a conversation with internationally renowned photographer Lynn Saville on Thursday, May 23rd from 1:00 until 2:00pm in Perkins Library Room 217. Lynn will [...]]]> Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Perkins Library, Room 217 (Click for Map)
Contact Information: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963, kirston.johnson@duke.edu

Please join us for a conversation with internationally renowned photographer Lynn Saville on Thursday, May 23rd from 1:00 until 2:00pm in Perkins Library Room 217. Lynn will discuss her latest project, “Vacancy: The Disquieting Beauty of Emptiness,” which focuses on New York City and the strikingly beautiful visual effects of economic turmoil.

Fine-art and documentary photographer Lynn Saville was educated at Duke University and Pratt Institute. Saville specializes in photographing both cities and rural settings at twilight and dawn, or as she describes it, “the boundary times between night and day.”

Lynn Savile, Dyckman Street, C-Print, 2012

Lynn Saville has received numerous awards and grants and her photographs are published in two monographs: Acquainted With the Night (Rizzoli, 1997) and Night/Shift (Random House/Moncelli, 2009). Her work is represented by the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York and her prints are included in numerous permanent collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the George Eastman House, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the International Museum of Photography, the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University, and many others. She lives in New York City with her husband, the poet Philip Fried.

This event is free and open to the public.

With the opening of Star Trek Into Darkness this week, it seemed like a good time to check out what our collections have on Star Trek.  As it turns out, Star Trek’s long history before becoming a star-powered summer blockbuster is well represented in our collections.

I found a number of Star Trek comic books in the

With the opening of Star Trek Into Darkness this week, it seemed like a good time to check out what our collections have on Star Trek.  As it turns out, Star Trek’s long history before becoming a star-powered summer blockbuster is well represented in our collections.

I found a number of Star Trek comic books in the Edwin and Terry Murray Comic Book Collection which are a lot of fun:

“The Hijacked Planet” Star Trek #18 (May 1973), Gold Key Comics

“All Those Years Ago” Star Trek Annual v. 1 #1 (1985), DC Comics

But my favorite piece comes from the Edwin and Terry Murray Fanzine Collection. Fanzines are nonprofessional publications produced by fans of particular pop culture genres or works.  Most of the fanzines in the Murray collection are from comic book fans, but there are some from the genres of science fiction and fantasy, including issue 3 of Spockanalia. Spockanalia was the first fanzine devoted exclusively to Star Trek. The first issue was published in 1967 during the first season of the original television series. Spocknalia 3 was published in 1968 and features essays on Star Trek, fiction, drawings, and even a letter from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Here are some highlights:

Cover of Spockanalia 3, drawn by Allan Asherman

Letter from Gene Roddenberry

Vulcan Graffiti, by Sherna Burley

Enterprise Graffiti, by Sherna Burley

Young Vulcan’s Handbook of Emotional Control, by Deborah Langsam

Post contributed by Kate Collins, Research Services Librarian

The CGC staff move into the SCDP office space and everyone scrambles to figure out their place at the new agency.  A number of staff members get laid off. Don meets Sylvia at a hotel for a daytime tryst.  Ted leads a creative meeting discussing Fleischmann’s Margarine.  Later he and Don continue brainstorming over [...]]]>

The CGC staff move into the SCDP office space and everyone scrambles to figure out their place at the new agency.  A number of staff members get laid off. Don meets Sylvia at a hotel for a daytime tryst.  Ted leads a creative meeting discussing Fleischmann’s Margarine.  Later he and Don continue brainstorming over drinks in Ted’s office and Ted drinks too much.  Pete’s difficult mother shows up at his apartment and he becomes responsible for her care.  Because of her issues Pete misses an important meeting with Mohawk Airlines.  Ted and Don fly upstate to the Mohawk meeting in Ted’s airplane through a storm.  Sylvia waits for Don at the hotel at his request and a red dress is delivered to her room.  Joan is in pain and Bob Benson takes her discreetly to the emergency room, where he talks the nurse into admitting her.  Later Joan returns the favor by advocating for his job during a meeting about staffing cuts. Sylvia breaks off the affair with Don and he seems devastated.  The episode ends with news of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, which Megan watches in tears.

Episode seven’s plot referred to St. Joseph’s Children’s Aspirin, Fleischmann’s Margarine, Topaz Pantyhose, Mohawk Airlines, gin and tonics, among other things.  Enjoy our 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.

The Rwandan audiotapes of the International Monitor Institute (IMI) records are comprised almost entirely of the transcripts of radio broadcasts translated from Kinyarwanda into French and English. These are the broadcasts which aired in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, which took place from April through early July of [...]]]>

The Rwandan audiotapes of the International Monitor Institute (IMI) records are comprised almost entirely of the transcripts of radio broadcasts translated from Kinyarwanda into French and English. These are the broadcasts which aired in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, which took place from April through early July of that year and in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred. The genocide was triggered by the assassination of Hutu President Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. An IMI piece on radio as a tool of genocide (available in the organizational records) summarizes these events: “His plane was shot down on his return from Arusha, Tanzania, where he met with RPF leaders and signed an agreement further limiting his regime’s hold on power (known as the August 1993 Arusha Accords).”

President Juvénal Habyarimana

During colonization from the late 19^th to the mid-20^th century, the German and Belgian colonial elite manufactured a native elite in the Tutsis, a process of colonization that Franz Fanon describes in The Wretched of the Earth. Hutus thus experienced discrimination in education and various sectors of the economy. In 1959, Hutus took control of Rwanda following the independence movement, forcing many Tutsis to seek refuge in neighboring countries. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) comprised of exiled Tutsis, invaded Rwanda, initiating a civil war. Habyarimana’s assassination resulted in an escalation of Hutu anxiety that the Tutsis would seize power of the government and that discrimination against Hutus would be reestablished.

Radio became a powerful weapon used to incite and direct the Rwandan genocide. The majority of radio broadcasts in the Rwandan audiotapes collection are from the privately-owned Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM). What I found especially interesting about the content of these broadcasts (the transcripts of which can be found in the IMI organizational records and the audiotapes of which can be found in the Rwandan Videotapes and Audiotapes inventory) was the way in which its efforts to direct the extermination of the Tutsi population was paralleled by its efforts to claim authority over the telling of history. The radio broadcasts reveal a struggle over who gets to tell history and, therefore, a struggle over a monopoly on truth. In other words, the RTLM broadcasts exhibit a phenomenon which seems to be more universally true, which is the political necessity of storytelling.

There are a few particularly conspicuous aspects of the history-telling of the RTLM broadcasts, one being the discourse of revelation or enlightenment – the idea that if we only peel back the layers, we can finally see the truth. And this encounter with the truth is the basis for political action, or, in this case, the basis on which genocide becomes justified. “Slavery,” for example, is a term that is repeated throughout these broadcasts. Several journalists recall the state of Hutu slavery during colonization in order to characterize the discrimination Hutus experienced. Drawing on such a vocabulary, the radio broadcasts attempt to illuminate the Rwandan genocide as a slave rebellion. Freedom from slavery, according to this narrative, lies in the ability to discover the true history and nature of that discrimination, in opposition to the stories of the colonizers and the native elite. For the same reason, I’m less interested in the truth or accuracy of this, or any, construction of history than in the need and tendency to construct history more generally.

In one broadcast which aired on April 12, 1994 (6 days after Habyarimana’s assassination),[ii] Georges Ruggiu gives his audience a history lesson. He evokes Tutsi discrimination against Hutus in the colonial educational system and the ways in which the Germans and Belgians perpetuated this discrimination. Ruggiu situates the RPF’s efforts to seize power in Rwanda and oppress Hutus within that context. “Now we are going to continue with history,” he begins one segment. He goes on to describe how Hutus, beginning with the first school for Tutsis in 1917, were denied education and how, as a result of this denial of access, the Hutu became slaves to the Tutsi “who, according to the colonial legend, were born to rule.” I suspect that Ruggiu does not understand Hutu slavery as merely metaphorical. The discourse of slavery in these broadcasts seems to represent Hutu slavery as naked reality; that is, these broadcasts understand historical Hutu slavery to be literal. Indeed, in the segment that follows, Ruggiu draws on historical documents that testify to the fact that historically “Tutsis killed Hutu kings and enslaved Hutu people.”

Listen to an excerpt of this broadcast here.

In a second broadcast from April 17, 1994 (11 days after the assassination), journalist Agenesta Mukarutama leads a roundtable discussion about how the RPF seeks to return Rwanda to its pre-revolutionary time in which the Tutsi commanded and the Hutu obeyed. “But,” the broadcast tells us, “Rwandans have learned their history and are ‘saying no’ to a repetition of history.” Genocide is perceived as the only way to break out of an historical cycle of discrimination and oppression. Murego argues that “what it [the RPF] did not understand is a lesson from history. In fact, the political skeleton before ‘59 is clear: Some people command and others obeyed, and the RPF inserted its objectives in that scope . . . Since the conditions have changed, there is now no way to impose oneself as it was before . . . what happened is that it is a genuine restoration of the former reality where some people commanded, you understand who, and others have learnt to say ‘no.’ That is where the president of the PL [le Parti libéral] has made an important statement: ‘those who are saying no today, they are saying no considering their history, the history of their country . . .’” (emphasis is mine).

By suggesting that “there is now no way,” that is, that it would be either impracticable or unbearable for Rwanda to return to a pre-revolutionary state governed by colonial structures, Murego essentially makes a philosophical statement about history – not just what the content of that history is, but more specifically, the temporality in which revolutionary history operates. The Rwandan genocide here is not just a “saying no” to Tutsi rule; it is a “saying no” to a particular conception of the temporality of history that stands in opposition to the revolutionary conception of history. Murego’s argument, here, seems to be that the RPF does not understand how historical time actually works. Ngirumpatse, a participant of the roundtable, follows this up:

“First thing, at the risk of disappointing many Rwandans, especially the educated people, I have always considered the Arusha Agreements as an exception in the people’s history. No any people make a revolution just once. France has made a Revolution, it had two or three restorations, it took 100 years for the Republic to impose itself. When I say Republic, I mean the power of people.  . . . So I consider the Arusha Agreements as an exception in the people’s history.” Ngirumpatse makes this claim repeatedly:  “I consider the Arusha agreements as an exception in history.”

Ngirumpatse refers to the Arusha Accords as exceptional insofar as they are exceptionally generous; this generosity, it seems, arises from the mistaken belief among Rwandans that their revolution was finished once and for all. But again, what is more interesting to me is the temporality of the historical discourse within the broadcasts themselves – the repetition of the insistence that history cannot and will not repeat itself.

Well, it’s finally happened.  The 2,065 newspaper boxes and volumes and 8,526 pamphlets, books, and ledgers that could not move in January or February have finally been sent to the LSC. We also moved our framed art collection from the stacks to our swing space, where we have an ingenious new storage solution (stay tuned [...]]]>

Well, it’s finally happened.  The 2,065 newspaper boxes and volumes and 8,526 pamphlets, books, and ledgers that could not move in January or February have finally been sent to the LSC. We also moved our framed art collection from the stacks to our swing space, where we have an ingenious new storage solution (stay tuned for further blog coverage on our art move). Now all of that work is complete, and with the exception of books and portraits in the Gothic Reading Room, our collections have officially moved out of the old stacks space.

Our last day in the 1928 stacks was Friday, April 26. We checked under the 1928 elevator and took one last look at every shelf on our 8 labyrinth-like levels to make sure we left nothing behind. And so now we say good-bye. While cleaning up the last of the collections I found this appropriate bit of graffiti on the stack walls. What a lovely way to bid our old stacks farewell. Goodnight 1928 stacks!

Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collections Move Coordinator in Rubenstein Technical Services.

Issues involved with the handling and preservation of ephemera—campaign buttons, stickers, scrapbooks, photo albums, brochures and pamphlets and such—have been an ongoing concern among curators and archivists, as many of our procedures and best practices concern materials commonly recognized as “important artifacts” such as art, works of prominent photographers, rare manuscripts and books. Many modern [...]]]>

Issues involved with the handling and preservation of ephemera—campaign buttons, stickers, scrapbooks, photo albums, brochures and pamphlets and such—have been an ongoing concern among curators and archivists, as many of our procedures and best practices concern materials commonly recognized as “important artifacts” such as art, works of prominent photographers, rare manuscripts and books. Many modern manuscript collections pose an additional challenge when they include files of clippings, the two-sided nature of which inadvertently creates an “accidental archive” of items of potential research interest. Many of the Hartman Center’s advertising collections suffer from this wealth of excess. Magazine and newspaper pages containing ads for one product frequently have an equally (if not more) useful ad on the reverse, or a provocative news article. In the example here, taken from the Doris Bryn Papers, the reverse side of a department store ad contains an article “Are Women Persons? Educators Disagree” that appeared in the Oct. 15, 1950 edition of the Sunday Herald.

The backside of a 1950 advertisement for a department store wonders, “Are Women Persons?”

As indicative of the kinds of debates taking place during the postwar re-integration of women into domestic life and the slow march toward women’s rights and gender equality, the article poses potential research utility; at the least, great fodder for an undergraduate paper. The big challenge is: how to remember where to find these little gems the second time around?

Post contributed by Rick Collier, Technical Services Archivist for the John W. Hartman Center.

A series of big changes consumed the May 5th episode of Mad Men last night, and not everyone is pleased with the results.

Pete, Joan and Bert consult with a banker to take SCDP public. Roger’s scheming gets SCDP a chance to pitch a campaign for a new concept car by Chevrolet. Don resigns [...]]]>

A series of big changes consumed the May 5th episode of Mad Men last night, and not everyone is pleased with the results.

Pete, Joan and Bert consult with a banker to take SCDP public. Roger’s scheming gets SCDP a chance to pitch a campaign for a new concept car by Chevrolet. Don resigns the Jaguar account during an angry exchange over dinner with Herb Rennet. Pete and Joan are angry with Don’s actions. Pete and his father-in-law awkwardly run into each other at a brothel, which results in the loss of the Vicks account for SCDP. Megan takes her mother’s advice and gets Don’s attention with a short dress. Peggy is unhappy with the apartment she bought and Abe tries to reassure her. Ted kisses Peggy when she says that she admires him because he is strong. Peggy fantasizes about Ted while she talks to Abe. Don and Ted run into each other at the hotel bar the night before the Chevy pitch and agree to join forces. After winning the account, SCDP and CGC merge. Peggy is surprised and disappointed with the merger news.

Episode six’s plot referred to flight attendants, Mustangs, Shalimar perfume, paint fumes, Vicks cough drops, Jim Beam, and pinot noir, 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.

And here’s something to listen to while you’re looking at the ads (especially the last one)!

Edward Ranney is an internationally recognized photographer who has photographed the natural and man-altered landscape for over forty years. His work of the 1970s in the southern Andes of [...]]]>

Moray, 1975. Toned gelatin silver print by Edward Ranney.

Date: Tuesday, May 7
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Perkins Library, Room 217 (Click for map)
Contact information: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963, kirston.johnson@duke.edu

Edward Ranney is an internationally recognized photographer who has photographed the natural and man-altered landscape for over forty years. His work of the 1970s in the southern Andes of Peru resulted in the book Monuments of the Incas (1982), which was reprinted in an expanded edition in 2010.

Since 1985, Ranney has dedicated himself to a comprehensive photographic survey of pre-Columbian sites along the Andean Desert Coast. His recent work with Lucy R. Lippard in the Galisteo Basin, near Sante Fe, was published in Down Country in 2010.

Edward Ranney has received numerous awards, including two Fulbright fellowships for his work in Peru, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellowship. His work has been presented in individual exhibitions at the Princeton University Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and the Centro Cultural of Miraflores in Lima, Peru. His other books include Stonework of the Maya, Prairie Passage, and Pablo Neruda’s Heights of Macchu Picchu.

This event is free and open to the public.