Maybe if it had tables full of researchers and some lovely teal carpeting?
That’s right, it’s our old reading room! As you can see it has undergone quite a change since renovation began earlier this summer. Not only is that teal carpeting gone, but steel bracing has been installed for extra structural support. Check out theRubenstein Library Renovation blog for more pictures and updates on our ongoing renovation.
Workers are removing shelving and hazardous building materials from the rear entrance of Rubenstein Library.
Visitors to the Rubenstein Library may notice things are a little noisy in the library as renovation work begins. In the next few weeks interior demolition of our former space will continue and the tower crane for the renovation project will be installed. Since we’re on the other side of the building now, it shouldn’t be too loud in our reading room, but, as always, we’ll have foam earplugs available for researchers. Further details and updates are available on the Rubenstein Library Renovation blog.
Mad Men brought us many great moments this season, and so did our weekly search for vintage ads to accompany the episodes each Monday morning. In the process, we discovered more interesting ads than we could post. We decided to share some of those in two final blogs that were calling our Mad Men Monday Outtakes.
This week we give you ads that almost made the cut for our earlier blogs. For instance, on April 22, we chose a more traditional picture of Avon than we offer here in an ad we really liked for bath products. Others we chose in anticipation of possible themes or references on future episodes, but as always, Mad Men kept us guessing. If the season had extended to December, 1968, we were certain there would be some reference to the Elvis comeback concert. And we found Seagram’s warning about hunting accidents one week too late.
We hope you’ve enjoyed Mad Men Mondays as much as we have. Don’t forget that you can still find all of our Mad Men Mondays picks on Pinterest and Flickr.
The Rubenstein Library’s three research center annually award travel grants to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars through a competitive application process. Congratulations to this year’s recipients, we look forward to working with all of you!
John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture Travel Grant Recipients
Dr. Richard Bell, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, College Park; Project: “Slavery’s Market: A Microhistory.”
Dr. Frederick Carroll, Instructor, Department of History, Norfolk State University; Project: “Race News: How Black Reporters and Readers Shaped the Fight for Racial Injustice, 1910-1978.”
Ms. Mandy Jolly, Undergraduate, Department of History, Lenoir-Ryhne University; Project: “Journalistic Racism from Early Travel/Exploration Logs from the 19th and 20th Century.”
Dr. Phillip Misevich, Assistant Professor of History, St. John’s University; Project: “On the Frontier of Freedom: Abolition and the Growth of Atlantic Commerce in Southern Sierra Leone, c1790s to 1880s.”
Ms. Marie Stango, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Michigan; Project: “Antislavery and Colonization: African American Women in Nineteenth Century West Africa.”
Dr. Shirley Thompson, Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin; Project: “No More Auction Block for Me: African Americans and the Problem of Property.”
Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said, Theodore W. Lentz Fellow in Peace Studies and Human Rights, Webster University; Project: “Traditional Marriage for the Modern Nation: Family Formation and the Politics of Religion in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa.”
Mr. James Wall, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Georgia; Project: “Redefining Success: The Strule for Freedom Rights in Southwest Georgia, 1945-1985”
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History Fellowship and Travel Grant Recipients
Zoe Sherman uses the Outdoor Advertising Association of America Records
FOARE Fellowships for Outdoor Advertising Research:
Elizabeth Semler: History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Minnesota, “’Got Milk?’: Dairy Advertising and Scientific Authority in the late 20th Century”
Zoe Sherman: Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, “The Commodification of Audience Attention in the US, 1865-1920”
John Furr Fellowships for JWT Research:
Ai Hisano: History, University of Delaware, “A History of Food Color in the United States, 1880s-1970s”
Cristina Sánchez-Blanco: Media Management, University of Navarra (Spain), “Advertising Account Planning in JWT”
Hartman Center Travel Grants:
Francesca Russello Ammon: American Academy of Arts & Sciences, “Culture of Clearance: Waging War on the Landscape in Postwar America”
Leslie Anderson: University of California – Merced, “The Politics of Domesticity” (Senior Thesis)
Mary Bridges: International Studies, Yale University, “Global Infrastructure of US Business Activities in the Interwar and World War II Periods”
Jessica Burch: History Department, Vanderbilt University, “Soap and Hope: culture, Capitalism, and Direct Sales in World War II America”
Dr. Andrew Case: Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison, “Dear Friend: Direct Mail Marketing and the Transformation of Buying and Selling in Postwar America”
Kristi Whitfield Johnson: Baton Rouge, LA, “Canning Foods and Selling Modernity: The Canned Food Industry and Consumer Culture, 1898-1945”
Dr. Richard K. Popp: Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, “Direct Marketing, Communication Networks, and the Remaking of consumer Culture, 1960-2000”
Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture Travel Grant Recipients
Valerie Behrer, English, University of Minnesota, for dissertation research on the connections between girls’ subjectivities, autobiographical practices, and the development of American radical feminism from the late 1960s to the 1970s.
Erin Leigh Durban-Albrecht, Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, for a set of related projects—including a film and her dissertation—that use Kathy Acker’s Kathy Goes to Haiti to explore racialized gender and sexuality, cultural production, and U.S.‐Haiti relations in the 20th and early 21st century.
Dr. Lauren Gutterman, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School, for a book that will examine the personal experiences and public representation of American wives who desired women, 1945 to 1979.
Monica Miller, English and Women’s & Gender Studies, Louisiana State University, for dissertation research on the use of ugly women as characters that defy the stereotype of the beautiful belle in the work of 20th century Southern women writers.
Michelle Pronovost, Fashion Institute of Technology, for research on the confrontational fashion of riot grrrls in zines from the 1990s.
Dr. Andrea Walton, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, for research supporting an article and book chapter on philanthropist Eleanor Thomas Elliott.
Kelly Weber, History, Rice University, for dissertation research related to the politics of daughterhood in the New South, 1880 to 1920.
Stacy J. Williams, Sociology, University of California, San Diego, for dissertation research on how social movements have affected feminist discourse about cooking, 1874 to 2013.
Dr. Mary Ziegler, St. Louis University, for a book about how abortion providers helped define lay understandings of the constitutional, statutory, and common law concerning abortion in the United States.
Eleanore and Harold Jantz Fellowship
The first recipient of the Eleanore and Harold Jantz Fellowship is Chunjie Zhang, Assistant Professor of German at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Zhang is a graduate of Duke (PhD 2010). Her project is “Representations of non-European cultures in the German discourse in the eighteenth century.”
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.
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.
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.
“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 BurleyEnterprise 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 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.
Post contributed by Mary Samouelian, Doris Duke Collection Archivist
Cecil Beaton’s portrait of Doris Duke
One of the most well-known photographs in the Doris Duke Photograph Collection is a very glamorous Doris Duke draped in a floral gown and pearls, standing against an ornate backdrop. The photograph was taken in the early 1930s by Cecil Beaton, a fashion photographer known primarily for his portraits of celebrated persons. For most people this image is Doris Duke.
Doris Duke’s class portrait, probably from kindergarten
However, the recently published Doris Duke Photograph Collection finding aid sets out to introduce you to a Doris Duke who is very different from her public persona. Approximately 3,500 photographs out of 12,000 photographs in the collection have been digitized and are viewable from within the finding aid. Amongst these digitized items you can scroll through images of Doris as a young girl, Doris’ volunteer work for the United States Government during World War II, images of her travel, various estates,and an assortment of pictures of her dogs, cats, cows, and camels!
If you are interested in seeing the actual photographs, you can hover the cursor over any of the images and information about the physical location of the photograph within the collection is displayed. You can then request the box(es) you are interested in using through Duke University’s library catalogue.
Hover over digitized photographs to find out which box it’s stored in
The finding aid also describes photographs that have not been digitized but are available for use in the Rubenstein Library. Some of the more fascinating images in the collection are tinted photographs of Duke Farms (Somerville, New Jersey) from the 1900s, autographed pictures of a sultry Rudolph Valentino (Doris’ school girl crush), and color glass mounted slides of Doris Duke’s trip to the Middle East in 1938.
As our faithful readers know, back in February we finished moving our collections in preparation for our upcoming renovation, but there is one thing that didn’t make the trip with us: our old photocopier. Instead we’ve upgraded to a KIC Scanner for our reading room. What’s a KIC Scanner?
This is a KIC Scanner
It’s a free, self-service scanner that make it easy to produce high resolution color scans. The KIC Scanner can accommodate material up to 17 x 24 inches, and it has an adjustable bed that makes it possible to scan most books without injuring their spines.
You can save your file in a variety of formats including PDF, JPG, and RTF, and for typed or printed material you can also create a searchable PDF. Once you’re done scanning, you can email the resulting files to yourself or save them to a USB flash drive.
A scan from The Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds, made on our KIC scanner
Post Contributed by Kate Collins, Research Services Librarian.
Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University