From Our Collections

“I AM… SOMEBODY”: Honoring Jesse Jackson Through the Florence Tate Papers

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Post contributed by Krista Bradley, John Hope Franklin Research Center Graduate Intern

Jesse Jackson was a reverend, activist, and political icon from Greenville, South Carolina, who helped shape modern civil rights politics. Rising to national prominence in the 1960s as a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he built his career on grassroots organizing, self-pride, community building, and active participation in American democracy. In 1971, he founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), whose mission was “to protect, defend, and gain civil rights by leveling the economic and educational playing fields, and to promote peace and justice around the world.”  The organization later evolved into the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which still operates today. Within Operation PUSH, Jackson became known for his motivational work with Black students, often reciting the poem “I Am Somebody,” written by Atlanta pastor and civil rights leader Reverend William Holmes Borders, Sr. Jackson’s use of the poem gained national attention in his 1972 Sesame Street appearance, where he performed the call-and-response poem with a group of children.

sepia colored poster with Jesse Jackson headshot
1984 Jesse Jackson campaign poster, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

By the early 1980s, Jackson had built enough momentum to take a bold step: running for president—and what a historic run it was! In his first presidential campaign, he elevated the idea of a “Rainbow Coalition,” originally developed by Fred Hampton to organize marginalized groups in Chicago and fight racism, poverty, and police brutality. Jackson’s use of the term transformed it into a broader ideology of uniting diverse communities, young and old, and encouraging them to use their voting power to effect positive change. Though he did not win the 1984 Democratic nomination, Jackson’s third-place finish significantly reshaped national conversations about who can wield political influence. Building on this progress, he launched another presidential campaign in 1988, winning several primaries and caucuses—including key victories in Southern states. These victories established him as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination, even though he ultimately finished second. Jesse Jackson’s life’s work is the result of a vivid imagination rooted in fearlessness, pride, and determination. He inspired so many communities across the country, not only through his pursuit of higher office, but also through the doors he dared to open.

group of political buttons
Jesse Jackson presidential campaign buttons, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Florence Tate (1931-2014) was a 1966 graduate of English from LeMoyne College in Dayton, Ohio. There, she began her career as a reporter and became active in several civil and human rights organizations and Pan-Africanist affairs. As Jackson’s press secretary during both of his presidential campaigns, Tate assembled a collection that documents the strategic labor and teamwork associated with seeking higher political office, while preserving the essence of the civil rights movement and the individuals who carried it forward. Her papers, acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center in 2017, include campaign buttons, photographs, press releases, newspapers, zines, internal communications, business cards, correspondence, and extensive notes. Materials on Jesse Jackson in her collection remind us that historic legacies are rarely built without trustworthy and knowledgeable support in both open and closed spaces. By providing access to these materials, we honor a lifetime spent enduring impossible obstacles and pushing the boundaries of possibility.

Handwritten notes and business cards, Florence Tate Papers, 1960s-2006, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

 

Citation: Rainbow Push Coalition(2018). Accessed 2026 February 25. https://www.rainbowpush.org/organization-and-mission

Featured, From Our Collections, Technical Stuff

Not THAT Thomas More

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Last fall, an intern alerted the Technical Services Department to a problem in one of Rubenstein Library’s archival catalog records: “The catalog record for the Thomas Moore Papers lists ‘More, Thomas, -1685’ as the author. The author’s last name should be spelled “Moore” (with two Os), and his date of death, though unclear, was almost certainly after 1817, which is when the letters in the collection were addressed to him.”

The cataloging error for More, Thomas.
A screenshot of the original catalog record, with “More, Thomas, -1685” as creator.

Nerd alert: This is my favorite kind of library mix-up. This was an old-style catalog record, where the title was just “Papers,” and as our intern pointed out, it said that the collection’s creator was “More, Thomas, -1685.” To confirm: No, it’s not THAT Thomas More.

How does this sort of mis-attribution make its way into the catalog? My best guess is that this was a technical error by an authority service vendor, which probably happened years ago but was only just now caught. As our intern pointed out, the date of the collection is centuries after 1685; plus the name was spelled differently. I investigated and found that our own legacy description (the card catalog, dating from 1958) has Thomas Moore, spelled correctly, but at some point between 1989 and 2023, our online catalog’s entry for Thomas Moore got matched and merged with an authority record for Thomas More, d. 1685. In this case, it is a pretty obvious mistake. It also amused me that both Thomas Mores share their name with an even more famous St. Thomas More (1478-1535), Renaissance humanist and author of Utopia. But, it’s not always this obvious that there’s a problem. More and more frequently, common creator names are getting mismatched and merged by AI or other automation tools, which are often unable to reliably disambiguate names—and so, will often assume and act as if all Thomas Mores/Thomas Moores are the same person.

Letter in the collection addressed to Mr. Thomas Moore of Baltimore

Errors like these serve to underline the important role of professional catalogers in the creation and maintenance of our collections’ metadata. Determining a creator’s identity, and distinguishing between identities, is a fundamental component of technical services librarianship. It can be very tricky to dig up information about historically obscure creators of manuscript collections—especially for a name as common as Thomas Moore. In Rubenstein Library Technical Services, we prioritize name authority work as part of our broader inclusive description program. By researching and establishing name authority records for the individuals and organizations documented in our collections, we expand access and discovery of materials from historically under-described communities and groups. Name authority records are shared across libraries, allowing for cooperative cataloging among different repositories. The Library of Congress Name Authority File is a dataset full of Thomas Mores and Thomas Moores — all contributed by different libraries in order to clarify which Thomas was the Thomas More who authored or created the specific work they have in their collection. By participating in this process, we make it easier for researchers to find connections between our holdings and other libraries’ collections, and we expand the existing name authority file by adding important access points and information to help disambiguate between similar names.

Rubenstein’s 19th century Thomas Moore was hard to pin down—the letters addressed to him in the collection indicated that he lived in Baltimore in 1817. I took a look through the letters and confirmed he worked as a watchmaker and was an Irish immigrant. There were way too many Thomas Moores in online immigration and naturalization logs for me to to be certain of a birth, death, or naturalization date. But, as I researched, I was able to determine that the RL’s Thomas Moore is also documented in the papers of the Moore and Gillespie family of South Carolina, held at University of South Carolina. His era of activity (early 19th century), his location (Baltimore), his country of origin (Ireland), and his profession (watchmaker) were enough for me to disambiguate the RL’s Thomas Moore from the dozens of other Thomas Mores and Moores that were already established as names in the Library of Congress Name Authority File. So, along with updating our collection’s catalog record, I was able to contribute a new authority record just for him. Problem solved! Going forward, our library and any other library holding more (Moore?) of his papers will be able to link to the right Thomas Moore, from the right century.

Featured, From Our Collections, Students and Interns, University Archives

Unlocking the Mysteries of “Trinity College Locket, June 1903”

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Post contributed by Meredith Mobley, University Archives Intern for Student Engagement.

Duke’s University Archives (UA) houses many endlessly interesting artifacts from the history of the University. The collection that houses these materials, the Artifacts and Relics collection, contains everything from rolling pins and trowels to ESP testing cards and boxers with the library’s logo printed on them. As part of my role as UA Intern for Student Engagement, I interact with these and similar materials on a daily basis, but this collection in particular never ceases to pique my curiosity and send me tumbling down a rabbit hole.

These past few weeks I’ve been intrigued by a specific locket in Box 13 of this collection. The Artifacts and Relics collection contains a fair amount of jewelry, mostly having to do with student organizations, such as Tombs (an athletic honor society)

or various Greek letter organizations. The locket that I am writing about, though, seems to be a personal commemorative piece, perhaps meant to celebrate a person’s class and graduation from Trinity College, the predecessor to Duke University. The locket prominently features a woman with bat ears and bat wings, exemplifying the popular art nouveau style of the early 1900s. On the back of the locket the following is engraved: “Trinity June 1903.” Inside the locket a four-leaf clover has been lovingly placed.

Many of the objects in the Artifacts and Relics collection were collected by individuals or other organizations before being passed on to the University Archives. Documentation by these parties may not detail the history of the item or who donated it. This means that their histories are blurry, and we rarely have detailed information about who originally owned them or the story of their creation. This locket is no different. All the information that is available is found on the envelope that the locket is stored in, which reads, “Trinity College Archives, Locket, June 1903, Source unknown.”

I decided to try to find out more about the locket itself. Was it purchased from a local jeweler? There are ads for local jewelers in college publications from the time, could this be a piece they sold? I imagine a student in their senior year at Trinity, meandering down Main St. and seeing the locket displayed in a window, instantly enamored. Are there more of these lockets out there, or is it one of a kind? My search commenced by looking through online catalogs and finding aids of other nearby institutions’ university archives. Looking for something so exact, though, is a “needle in a haystack” endeavor. I was unable to find anything of note — no lockets to be found at all! It was time for some help from a colleague. Together, we reverse image searched the locket and found that it was indeed mass produced, but that the locket in our collections had been made unique through after-market add-ons. On the front of the locket, almost appearing to be held by the Bat-Woman,

is an equal armed cross with “T” in the middle, surrounded by engraved alpha and omega letters. The back features the previously mentioned engraving. The locket was made by Unger Brothers, who are most famous for their art nouveau silver sterling jewelry and utensils, produced in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

There are some things we likely will never know about this locket. Was it a graduation gift from the owner’s family? Part of a student organization’s welcome to new members? What was the experience of this student at Trinity College? Are there more of these out there, still being cherished by families? The life of whoever cherished this locket remains unknown. I think that is part of what makes the objects in the Artifacts and Relics collection so entrancing – their material histories are definite and simultaneously unknown to the viewer. They are physical embodiments of the personal experiences of those who studied and worked at Duke, yet the experiences that made many of these objects dear enough to survive until this point are “fogged over” to our present eyes. Imaginations (and potential research questions) flow abundantly.

If you are interested in learning more about how student records are preserved in the University Archives, please reach out to AskRL@duke.edu! Documenting the impact that students and student organizations have on Duke University is integral to the mission of the University Archives. More information about sharing student group records with the University Archives can be found here.

Citations

Trinity College Locket (front), 1903, Box 13, Artifacts and Relics collection, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Trinity College Locket (back), 1903, Box 13, Artifacts and Relics collection, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Featured, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, New at the Rubenstein Library, New Finding Aids, Technical Stuff

Anne Pickford: A Timeless Model

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Post contributed by Brandee Newkirk, Processing Intern for the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

For my first-ever processing project as an intern at the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, I was given the opportunity to process the papers of Anne W. Pickford, known professionally as Kaylan Pickford. Anne Pickford was a model between the 1970s and the 2000s. However, unlike traditional models who typically begin their careers in their late teens or early twenties, Pickford, with the help of her friend J. Frederick Smith, started her career in her 40s after two marriages and the birth of two children.

To better understand the significance of Anne Pickford’s presence in the modeling industry, it is helpful to understand the changes the fashion industry made by the early 1980s. Through the commercial success of 1960s models like Twiggy and Donyale Luna, by the late 1970s the fashion industry saw the potential in establishing new relationships between the models and the public audience. This new preoccupation with how models engaged with the audience created the rise of the “Supermodel” and saw the deliberate hiring of models at younger and younger ages.

For Anne Pickford, who began her career in the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, the industry’s interest in cultivating youth as fashion ambassadors made it difficult for her to enter the industry at a later age. In an interview with the New York Times, Pickford described the beginning of her career as difficult and how she had to break through, stating, “I earned $3,000 the first year and $3,000 the second year. Then I sort of caught on.” This financial difficulty is reflected in the Hartman Center’s collection of Pickford’s papers, as Pickford kept detailed records of her checkbooks and pay stubs.

This early difficulty led Pickford, throughout her career, to dedicate herself to celebrating her age, opting not to dye her grey hair or undergo cosmetic surgery. When considering the fashion industry at the time, Pickford had good reason to assume an ageist bias. Models such as Brook Shields, Farida Khelfa, and Paulina Porizkova all began their careers in their mid-to-late teens, and larger fashion brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, and Jean Paul Gaultier were all known for hiring only teen to twenty-year-old models. This industry standard trickled down to more commercial advertising.

Inside the Anne “Kaylan” Pickford papers, researchers will see Anne Pickford’s interest in challenging the commercialization of older women. Featured in the collection are a series of advertising images that showcase Kaylan Pickford using beauty cosmetics or luxury goods. Anne Pickford wanted older women to be celebrated for their beauty in aging, making a conscious effort to turn away commercial pharmaceutical jobs for more beauty-based photoshoots. The collection also includes the writings of Anne Pickford. Two of her books, Always a Woman (1982), and Always Beautiful (1985), were written to inspire “mid-life” women and provide helpful tips on maintaining beauty without resorting to surgery.

Anne “Kaylan” Pickford’s collection is a celebration of what it means to get older. Anne Pickford dedicated her career to letting women know that just because they have lived a successful life, it does not mean that their beauty has faded.

 

Digital Collections, Featured, From Our Collections

Duke Grad Student Awarded Grant to Digitize Historic Slavery Records

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Post contributed by Hannah Jacobs, Digital Humanities Consultant

Duke Libraries is pleased to announce its partnership with History doctoral candidate Jobie Hill on her newly funded project, Bearing Witness to Enslaved Women and Their Future Issue and Increase in the Massie Family’s 18th– and 19th-Century Reproductive Labor Systems (Bearing Witness). Hill is the recipient of a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) award through its Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices program.

Bearing Witness is one of sixteen projects that received funding through the Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices program, which seeks to “deepen public understanding of the histories of communities whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or attended.” Since its launch in 2021, the program has awarded nearly $12 million for 49 projects.

Bearing Witness received $300,000 and is a three-year project beginning in January 2026 and ending in December 2028. Hill’s institutional partners include Duke Libraries’ David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library; the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin; the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library; the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary; Virginia Museum of History & Culture; and Saving Slave Houses, the non-profit Hill founded to support research and public outreach.

sepia tone map of land
1795 Land Survey by Major Thomas Massie, Massie family papers, 1766-1920s, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Hill’s research focuses on people enslaved by the Massie family during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bearing Witness will result in the digitization of the family’s papers housed at the partner institutions and a database of at least 1,300 birth records of people born into slavery and documented in these papers. As Hill writes of these records,

“Strategic business processes, such as systematic tracking and bookkeeping ledgers, allowed slaveholders to count and control bodies, organize them for labor, and claim them as property. By adapting legacy accounting practices to the unique needs of slave breeding the Massie family converted enslaved women into mothers, mothers into birth records, and birth records into a self-sustaining reproducing labor system that yielded wealth-building dividends. Through these practices their sophisticated reproductive labor enterprise was sustained for more than a century.”

At Duke, Hill will work with Hannah Jacobs, the libraries’ Digital Humanities Consultant, and a team of graduate research assistants, to gather and organize information about the people enslaved by the Massie family to create the Enslaved Persons Database. The database will be shared with the public as a downloadable dataset. In addition to the publicly accessible database, the team will create a Guide to the Massie Family Archive, an online finding aid for the holistic Massie collection.

 

 

 

Events, Exhibits, Featured, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, Symposia and Conferences

Franklin Research Center Announces the Opening of the Sylvia Wynter Papers, Exhibition, and Symposium

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Post contributed by John B. Gartrell, director John Hope Franklin Research Center 

The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to share that the archive of philosopher, scholar, and author Sylvia Wynter will be opened to the public beginning March 3. The archive, which was acquired by the center in 2018, has been undergoing processing for the past 2 years and the writings series will be made available first to researchers, with the remaining sections of the collection opening by the summer of this year.

sepia colored headshot photo of Sylvia Wynter
Sylvia Wynter photo, 1970s

To commemorate and share the contents within the papers, the Franklin Research Center is mounted an exhibition entitled “Noise up the World: Introducing the Archive of Sylvia Wynter,” which will be on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Library from February 26-August 1. This exhibition is co-curated by John B. Gartrell, Dr. Deborah Jenson, Diego Avila Lopez, and Michaelle Vilmont.

Two events will kickoff the exhibition and opening of the papers. On Monday, March 2, there will be an opening reception from 5:30-7:00pm and Tuesday, March 3, the “Archive as Ceremony” symposium will occur from 8:30am-4:30pm. Both events will take place in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room 153 of the Rubenstein Library. The symposium is co-sponsored by the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History & Culture, Department of Romance Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

collage of writings for event poster
Archive as Ceremony Symposium flyer, March 2 and 3

Any researchers wishing to use the collection should register a research account and order materials prior to their visit. The collection guide for the papers is now live – https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/wyntersylvia. For any additional inquires, please contact the Franklin Research Center – franklin-collection@duke.edu.

Program for “Archive as Ceremony,” March 3, 2026 (Holsti-Anderson Assembly Room, Rubenstein 153)

9:00am – Light breakfast

9:30am – Opening Remarks

9:45am – Keynote Address, Anthony Bogues, Asa Messer Professor of Humanities and Africana Studies, Affiliated Professor of History of Art and Political Science, Brown University, “Archives : Black radical/ anti-Colonial Thought / Theory and History Making”

10:30 Discussant: Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, Associate Professor of Literature, Duke University

10:45-11:00, Q&A

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Roundtable, “Organized Noise: Processing and Making Public the Sylvia Wynter Papers”, with John B. Gartrell, Tracy Jackson, Russell-Flowers Technical Services Archivist, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and Bedour Alagraa, Assistant Professor of Political and Social Thought in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Noon-1:00 Lunch Break

1:00 Panel, “The Discovery Archive and the Journey Toward the Human”

Diego Ávila López, Doctoral Student in Romance Studies, “Navigating 1492: Sylvia Wynter and the Colonial in the Archive”

Michaelle Vilmont, Doctoral Student in Romance Studies, “Who Brings Society Into Being? Sylvia Wynter, Frantz Fanon, and the Genres of Being Human”

1:45 Discussants: Richard Rosa, Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Duke University; Tony Ballas, Doctoral Student in Literature, Duke University

2:00 Q&A

2:15 Panel, “Wynter from Subsistence to Catastrophe”

Bedour Alagraa, Assistant Professor of Political and Social Thought in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, “The Interminable Catastrophe”

Isabel Bradley, Assistant Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture, New York University, “On Subsistence and the Sociogenic Principle”

3:00 Discussants: Anne-Maria Makhulu, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University; Laurent Dubois, John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor in the History & Principles of Democracy at the University of Virginia

3:15 Q&A

3:30-3:45 Break

3:45 Epilogue: Deborah Jenson, Professor Emeritus of Romance Studies, Duke University, “Sylvia Wynter: Human Autonomy and the ‘Cognitive Charter’”

4:00 Discussant: Felwine Sarr, Anne-Marie Bryan Distinguished Professor of French, Duke University

4:15-4:30 Q&A

Thanks to the facilitation of Professor Anthony Bogues, the John Hope Franklin Research Center was able to acquire the papers of Sylvia Wynter in 2018. Over the last 2.5 years, the archive has been painstakingly organized and prepared to be shared with the wide range of scholars from those who know Wynter’s work intimately to those who are only discovering her voice. A small team here are Duke, including scholars, graduate students, the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Duke University Libraries exhibition team has dedicated this past year to commemorate the opening access to these papers with this symposium and exhibition which serve as a prelude to the seeds of future events involving the large and distinguished community of Sylvia Wynter scholars, students and researchers whom we acknowledge humbly and respectfully.

Consumer Reports, Consumer Reports, Events, Exhibits, Featured, Hartman Center, Readings and Talks

Save the Date: “Test, Inform, Protect: Consumer Reports Archives Exhibit Opening and Panel Discussion”

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Due to weather, this event has been rescheduled from January 27 to March 4.

Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Time: 4:30 – 6:30 PM
Location: Rubenstein Library Room 153 (Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room)
Registration required:  Click the blue “Begin Registration” at the bottom of the page here to reserve your seat.

For 90 years, Consumer Reports has been the premier source for product reviews and ratings, consumer advice, and consumer issues advocacy in the United States—and a model for consumer movements around the world. The nonprofit organization manages a complex of testing facilities, advocacy and outreach offices, and a media operation that delivers content through radio, television, and online, in addition to the popular Consumer Reports magazine and seasonal Buying Guides.

Join the Duke University Libraries for a special event featuring a panel discussion and gallery talk highlighting the opening of two Consumer Reports exhibits—This Sneeze is for Science, featuring photography of the striking visual narratives depicting scientific testing of consumer products; and Test, Inform, Protect: The Consumer Reports Archives at Duke University, which explores the history and impact of the organization over its 90-year history.

Attendees will hear from panelists from Duke and Consumer Reports, who will comment on the significance of the Consumer Reports Archives, the evolution of the organization and the impact it has had on the Consumer Movement.

Gallery talks with exhibit curators will offer opportunities to connect with the exhibits and reflect on the intersection of science, activism, and public trust.

Panelists will also be available for questions at the conclusion of the panel discussion.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Panelists

  • Lisa L. Gill, Investigative Reporter, Consumer Reports
  • Jason Holmes, Director of Testing, Consumer Reports
  • Edward Balleisen, Senior Vice Provost of History and Public Policy, Duke University
  • Jacqueline Wachholz, Director, Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
  • Moderator: Ashton W. Merck, Historian and Researcher, Duke Ph.D. (2020)

 

Header Image: Dishwasher testing preparation, undated, Consumer Reports Archives, Iconographic Materials, Box PD20, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

 

 

Bingham Center, Events, Featured, Readings and Talks

Save the Date: “Freeing Joan Little: Gender, Incarceration, and Struggles for Justice”

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Date: Thursday, January 29th, 2026
Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm
Location: Smith Warehouse, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Bay 4; 114 S Buchanan Blvd, Durham, NC

In 1974, a twenty-year-old Black woman named Joan Little found herself facing the death penalty for killing a white guard who had tried to rape her in an eastern North Carolina prison. The folks who campaigned on Little’s behalf understood the webs of sexual violence, state violence, and racialized carcerality that ensnared her, and they linked her trial to other sites of existential concern for Black women’s—and everyone’s—liberation. Her August 1975 acquittal spoke to the power of their critique and the reach of their organizing. 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of this landmark case that still offers lessons in the struggle for justice. Join historian Christina Greene, Ph.D. ’96, and death penalty lawyer Shelagh Kenney to discuss what Joan Little tells us about gender, incarceration, and state violence then and now.

Christina Greene is professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of Free Joan Little: The Politics of Race, Sexual Violence, and Imprisonment; Shelagh Kenney, is Interim Director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. Adriane Lentz-Smith, Associate Professor of History and African & African American Studies at Duke University, will introduce and moderate the discussion.

In addition to the panel, an exhibition of items related to Joan Little, including one of her handwritten, illustrated poems, will be on display in Perkins Library during the month of January 2026.

Header image:  “Abolish Women’s Prisons” photograph of protestors outside of the NC Correctional Institution for Women, The News and Observer – Raleigh Times, November 1974. Nancy Blood Papers, Box 3, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Featured, From Our Collections, History of Medicine, Students and Interns

Finding Humanity in the Archives

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Post contributed by Jennifer Dai, Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine Intern.

As I near the end of my first semester as the Josiah Charles Trent History of Medicine Intern at the Rubenstein Special Collections Library, I’ve started reflecting on some of the amazing materials I’ve had the opportunity to work with. From Vesalius to the Four Seasons, I’ve handled exquisite and priceless items, often becoming caught up in their splendor and rarity. In those moments, I’ve found it easy to forget the human side of medicine. I look at hand-colored drawings and notice the artistry and the time it took to create such pieces but forget that the depictions are often of actual events that happened to real people.

I’ve spent the past few months researching patent medicine (aka quack medicine). Its colorful advertisements, deadly undisclosed chemicals, statistics, and fun facts are flashy and interesting. But they distract from the humanity of medicine. How did these cure-alls truly affect those who were on the receiving end of these treatments? How and why were they used? This is where the story of William Anderson Roberts comes in.

Letter from William to his wife depicting a horseback riding show he attended after the war.

The William Anderson Roberts Papers start in the 1850s with a young William corresponding with friends and family about his faith, work as a portrait painter, and love life. By August 1859, letters that used to be addressed “Dear Brother” are now addressed “Dear Brother and Sister”, implying he has married (which he did, to a woman named Mary earlier that year). In 1861, William enlists in the Confederate Army and, throughout the war, is consistently in and out of the hospital. Despite numerous letters and attempts to be discharged due to a chronic medical condition called Neuralgia, he remains in the army until the end of war in 1865.

Letter describing Gold Remedy as a cure for opium addiction from 1886.

This lifelong affliction led to William’s first prescription for opium. He states that it not only “relieved the dreadful pain, but it soothed and quieted my irritable nervous system and stimulated my mind to act with double strength and quickness.” Later in his writing, he claims he could have stopped the habit if it hadn’t been for the “Cruel War.”

During the “Cruel War” in 1864, a doctor prescribed opium to help with ongoing diarrhea and dysentery after William had a bad case of measles. This treatment continued for weeks, and when he tried to stop, he found that he could not complete his assigned duties. He tried for years to overcome his dependence but was unable to paint or function without taking morphine.

Note from William describing his poor relationship with his wife and troubles with morphine addiction.

William never overcame the addiction. By the 1880s the effect of continued opiate use is apparent in his correspondence. Where he had previously been requesting assistance from patent medicines, he now practically begs for cures. He states that his wife doesn’t understand him and has never even tried and goes as far as to say she would be better off if he were no longer alive. He mourns the life he could have had and discusses his guilt over not being a healthy and happy husband and father.

Fittingly, the last item attributed to him, and how his date of death is estimated, is a receipt for morphine dated between June and September 1900. Based on this estimate, he died at 63 years old.

Receipt for opium from 1900.

William’s story isn’t particularly unique. Many people then became addicted to opium after taking the medicine under a doctor’s orders. Many people still do.

What is remarkable about this collection is that we have access to his letters over 150 years after they were received. This collection, and those like it, give us the chance to see the humanity in individuals from over 100 years ago. To understand a person’s struggle and see firsthand the effects it has on them is something deeply intimate. Looking beyond the titles or rarity of items, you may just find the humanity of someone you will never meet.

 

 

 

 

Further reading on William Anderson Roberts

Caswell County post about William Anderson Roberts

Archive of Documentary Arts, Bingham Center, Do Your Research, Featured, Franklin Research Center, Hartman Center, History of Medicine, Human Rights Archive, Travel Grants

Research Travel Grants Open for 2026 – 2027

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The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is now accepting applications for the 2026 – 2027 Research Travel Grant Programs, offering awards of up to $1,500 to support research projects associated with the following collecting Centers, subject areas, and collection holdings:

  • Archive of Documentary Arts General Grant
  • Archive of Documentary Arts Sidney Gamble Travel Grant
  • Doris Duke Foundation Travel Grant
  • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Travel Grant
  • Harry H. Harkins, Jr. T’73 Travel Grant
  • History of Medicine Collections
  • Human Rights Archive
  • John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History
  • John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
  • Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture (Mary Lily Research Grants)

Anyone whose research would be supported by resources from the Rubenstein Library’s research centers is eligible to apply. We encourage applications from students at any level of education; faculty and teachers; visual and performing artists; writers; filmmakers; public historians; and independent researchers.

For assistance determining the eligibility of your project, please contact AskRL@duke.edu with the subject line “Travel Grants.”

Eligibility

Applicants must reside beyond a 100-mile radius of Durham, N.C., and may not be current Duke students or employees.

Information Session

An online information session will be held Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 2-3 PM EST. This program will review application requirements, offer tips for creating a successful application, and include an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of staff involved with the travel grant program. This information session will be recorded and posted online afterwards. You can register for the session here.

Timeline

The deadline for application will be Friday, February 27, at 8:00 PM EST. Decisions will be announced by the end of April 2026 for travel during May 2026 – June 2027. Awards are paid as reimbursements for personal expenses after completion of the research visit(s).

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