Diving into the Archives of the Duke University Marine Lab

Post contributed by Stella Turner and Ayden Schirmacher, Susan Baker Reinhardt Interns at the Duke University Marine Lab

Duke students diving off the pier at the Duke University Marine Lab (c. 1990s), photo by Scott Taylor.

Over the past year, the two of us have had the pleasure of working as the Susan Baker Reinhardt Interns at the Duke University Marine Lab, under the supervision of Jodi Psoter, Duke’s Librarian for Marine Science & Conservation and Climate & Sustainability. Our job has been to help digitize archival materials so that you can have access to what life and research has been like at the Duke University Marine Lab over the years. In this post, we wanted to share some of the interesting things we’ve learned from this experience, and in doing so honor Sue Reinhardt, the internship’s namesake.

About the Internship

Susan Baker Reinhardt (1957-2022) was a scientist and volunteer who studied at the Duke Marine Lab as an undergraduate, graduating with her B.S. from Duke in 1979. Sue continued her studies, earning a master’s in marine biology from the University of South Florida in 1984. She published multiple papers in the field of marine science, including some on lipid composition of various marine organisms, and multiple studies on tar pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. Outside of her incredible scientific career, she was also a dedicated volunteer to the Red Cross, libraries, and other services organizations. Sue was awarded the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Volunteer Service and the President’s Points of Light Volunteer Service Award for her contributions. This internship, established by Sue’s husband and daughters in her memory, is intended to honor their wife and mother and inspire others.

Digitizing Marine Lab Research (Ayden)

For the last eight months, I’ve been taking one-of-a-kind paper publications and Duke-authored works from as far back as 1891 and scanning them for digital accessibility. I’ve come across some really cool projects, most of which focus on the local ecology of Beaufort and Carteret County, NC, where the Marine Lab is located.

Some discoveries stood out more than others. One 1918 paper on decapod crustaceans had several pages of plate prints of countless species. A unique find from 1993 explores the role of light in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents. For me, though, the most surreal materials to read were the Duke Marine Lab bulletins from 1939 to 1945. While scanning them, I couldn’t help thinking about what else was happening in the world at the time. Even as World War II reshaped global history, these researchers continued documenting fish populations, coastal habitats, and marine biology along the North Carolina coast. Their work feels like a quiet reminder that science and everyday life keep moving forward even during turbulent times.

Looking through these documents also made me think about how distant previous generations can sometimes seem. My parents’ and grandparents’ college years feel like a completely different era. But the materials I’ve digitized often make the past feel surprisingly close. For example, a yearbook from 1998 has similar jokes and the same party pictures you’d find anywhere on campus today. For my master’s project, I used various remote sensing tools. Likewise, a 1965 briefing details pioneering uses of undersea vehicles for extreme ecosystem research. And my ecology class has gone on field trips where we explore and talk about some of the species discovered by twentieth-century Duke scientists.

This digitization project has shown me that archives are more than collections of old documents. The historical papers, bulletins, and Marine Lab reports reveal how scientific curiosity persists through changing technologies, shifting academic cultures, and even major world events. Each document captures a moment that once felt present to someone else. Digitizing these materials not only preserves them for future study but also highlights the continuity of discovery at Duke and along the North Carolina coast. In many ways, the work reminds me that today’s research and experiences will eventually become part of the same historical record, connecting future scholars to the work we do now.

Digitizing Marine Lab Photos (Stella)

Before this digitization project began, thousands of photos taken at the Marine Lab, primarily in the 1970s-1990s, had been tucked away in the University Archives and/or on defunct websites, where they were not publicly accessible. My job was to process and upload many of these photos to the DUL@Duke Marine Lab Flickr account so that Duke Marine Lab alumni and the Marine Lab community can relive some of these incredible moments.

In the hundreds of photos I’ve processed, there are some special images that stuck with me. In one photo taken circa 1981, a group of students and a professor pose on the Bookhout Lab fire escape, casually dressed in their summer clothes. It immediately reminded me of my own cohort at the Marine Lab – a group of incredibly fun and smart students, enjoying the weather outside any chance we could. A photo from the 1990s shows the Marine Lab’s “No Boat Race,” featuring the R/V Voodoo (made of a lawn chair and a chicken), the Genetic Drift (made of a kitty pool), and the Nucleo-tide (made of three trash cans), all being pushed by students and faculty in the channel. I had never heard of this competition, but it immediately told me that the Marine Lab in the 1990s had the same incredible, absurd atmosphere it does now.

Nearly every photo reminded me of my own experience at the Marine Lab, from dolphin-spotting outings on Research Vessels to late nights fishing on the swim dock, learning wet lab techniques in Bookhout, and getting knee-deep in mud and silt for fieldwork. Across all the images, it’s clear how much the students and faculty love every part of the Marine Lab, and how the closeness of the community allows for such great hands-on learning. My fall semester in Beaufort was full of beautiful sunsets, incredible classes, and one-of-a-kind fieldwork experiences. But the most important parts by far were the friendships and mentor relationships I found on Piver’s Island. That same uniquely close community is exactly what is found in every photo in the DUML collection.

Throughout this work, I was reminded just how many people have passed through the Marine Lab in its almost 90-year history and experienced the same beautiful campus and community that I did. There are so many smiling faces in these photos. I only know a few of them personally – just a handful of professors who are still working at DUML today – but I share an understanding with all of those students and staff, who had the same transformative experience I had, learning marine science surrounded by marine science. The beauty of this project is that all of those alumni and their loved ones can revisit their time at the Marine Lab through these photos, regardless of how far away from Beaufort their careers and lives have taken them.

A Word from the Librarian for Marine Science & Conservation (Jodi)

Many of the images on the Flickr site were unlabeled and the people photographed were unidentified prior to digitization. We have labeled these images to the best of our ability. If you come across a photo that you have more information on, or can identify those pictured, we would love to know. If you are a Flickr member, feel free to leave a comment directly on the site. You can also submit comments, requests, and additional information via our online form.

I would like to express my thanks to Ayden and Stella, our 2025-2026 Reinhardt Interns, for all their hard work on creating the Flickr site. Thanks also to David Liddle, 2024-2025 Reinhardt Intern, for his work on bounding boxes, creating spreadsheets, and many hours scanning in the Archives. A huge thank you to Janil Miller, the previous Marine Lab Librarian, for leaving us the framework and documentation to complete this project.

Thanks also go to Faith Haines, a master’s student at University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, who also contributed to this project. As a component of her field experience work, Faith created a webpage to display items from the digitization project. This webpage also provides a central digital space linking historic Duke University Marine Lab materials and related items.

Finally, my deepest thanks to Bill Reinhardt, whose generosity and philosophy of supporting people made this project possible.

About the Team

Stella Turner is a junior at Duke University majoring in Biology and Marine Science. Her semester at the Marine Lab made a huge impact on her but didn’t alter her career trajectory. Stella was accepted into Duke’s nursing program which starts Fall 2026. She’ll be completing her senior year at Duke and her first year in the nursing program at the same time!

As a Californian, Boston College Eagle, and Duke Blue Devil, Ayden Schirmacher’s life has spanned the entire United States. Her research, too, has taken her to all corners of the Earth, from studying seals by drone in Alaska to satellite remote sensing of whales in Antarctica. Ayden graduated in May 2026 with a master’s in environmental management from the Nicholas School of the Environment, concentrating on Coastal and Marine Systems and Environmental Analytics and Modeling. But her biggest achievement? Passing the FAA remote pilot test and now being licensed to fly drones!

Faith Haines graduated in May 2026 from the Master of Library Science program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Duke does not have a library science program, so we forgive her for wearing the other shade of blue. As part of a two-semester field experience, Faith worked with Duke’s Librarian for Marine Science & Conservation to write lesson plans, develop programming, engage in research support, and create the webpage that displays Stella’s and Ayden’s work. As a result, she had the unique experience of presenting at both a library science conference AND a science conference this spring.

Jodi Psoter is the Librarian for Marine Science & Conservation and Climate & Sustainability. She works and lives in Beaufort, NC, home of the Duke University Marine Lab, approximately three hours east of Durham. Using a mix of Zoom and in-person meetings, she coaches students, faculty, field experience students, and library interns to explore options, think creatively, and focus on the end user during teaching, research, and learning.