All posts by Kate Collins

Bingham Center, Events, Readings and Talks

Race, Gender and Identity in Artists’ Books

March 22, 2013 Kate Collins

Date: Monday, March 25, 2013
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Perkins Library, Room 318 (Rubenstein Library Classroom)
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

The book form can become a vehicle for personal histories and obsessions. Please join us for a discussion of how Clarissa Sligh and Nava Atlas have explored their own experiences of race, gender, and identity through book arts. Both artists have placed their papers at the Sallie Bingham Center, which also has a collection of over 300 artists’ books by women.

Photos of Nava Atlas and Clarissa Sligh

Clarissa Sligh is a visual artist, writer, and lecturer. When she was 15 years old she became the lead plaintiff in the 1955 school desegregation case in Virginia. After working in math and science with NASA and later in business, she began a career as an artist, using photographs, drawings, text, and personal stories to explore themes of transformation and social justice.

Nava Atlas is known both as a vegetarian cookbook author and as a fine artist. Her artists’ books engage images, text, and structure to explore themes of social justice and women’s roles. Many of her works re-appropriate found materials and challenge the language and images used to reinforce gender roles and stereotypes.

Read more about Atlas and Sligh in the Spring 2012 issue of Women at the Center.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian, Sallie Bingham Center

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

Family “Letter” Donated to the Franklin Research Center

March 21, 2013 Kate Collins

Braun Family — Marley and Jason Braun donate Slave Bill of Sale to the Rubenstein Library

Marley Braun recently contacted the Rubenstein Library because she wanted to find a proper home for a very peculiar “letter” that belonged to her great-grandmother, Mrs. Edna Balderston. Perhaps Mrs. Balderston was shocked when she opened the “letter” envelope to find that it actually contained two bills of sale for 3 slaves in Baltimore dated October 11, 1805. The slaves listed in the bills were named Elizabeth, age 20, Harriet (her daughter), 6 months, and Delilah, age 14, for a total of $493.

The slave bills stayed in the family for a few generations behind glass until Marley, a former 10-year Duke employee, and her husband Andy, ’92 Duke alum, decided the bill deserved a place where it could not only be cared for but shared with people interested in its history. Marley and her son Jason came to the Rubenstein this past week to donate the bill of sale and view other bills of sale currently held by the Rubenstein in the African American Miscellany Collection. The bills within this collection span from 1757-1863 and this new addition will further help document the experience of African Americans during the era of slavery; thanks to the Braun family, Marley, Andy, Jason, and Hayley for this fascinating addition to our collections.

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

From Our Collections

Black Presence in the Picture File

February 22, 2013 Kate Collins

The Picture File is a collection that covers an expansive scope of visual history. With over 6,000 items spanning the 17th to 20th centuries, it is the kind of collection that makes mining the African American experience both exhaustive and exciting. This reality is best exemplified by the presence of this photograph located in the Geographic Series.

From Picture File, 1600s-1979, Box 4, folder m162.1

At first glance, the photograph is rather striking, if not disturbing. An African American man standing with hands shackled, surrounded by four uniformed white men. The back of the photo however describes a different story, “Members of the Georgia Hussars with [unidentified African American man] at Clyo, GA in 1908(?) to prevent lynching of prisoner.” The inscription further notes, “This negro afterward died of tuberculosis and syphilis in Chatham County Jail while awaiting a new trial on appeal.”

Note on back of photoraph — Note on back of photograph

The historical record of local protection against the lynching of African Americans is indeed a controversial one. But this interesting image at least captures the actual presence of authorities standing guard against violence against this incarcerated man.

Post contributed by John Gartrell, Director of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture. This is the third in a series of posts on interesting documents in our collections to celebrate Black History Month.

Bingham Center, Events, Readings and Talks

The Power of This Story: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Durham 1960-1990

February 21, 2013 Kate Collins 1 Comment

The Sallie Bingham Center has partnered with the Women’s Studies Senior Seminar to present a series of public conversations exploring how social change happened here in Durham. Each panel features individuals and representatives of organizations whose papers are held by the Bingham Center. Please note the different locations for each panel.

Panel 1:

Joanne Abel, YWCA’s Women Center, Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists, and War Resisters League
Barb Smalley, Ladyslipper Music
David Jolly, NC Lesbian and Gay Health Project

Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Reception to follow)
Where: East Duke Parlors, East Campus, Duke University

Panel 2:

Jeanette Stokes, Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South
Kat Turner, Lesbian Health Resource Center and NC Lesbian and Gay Health Project
Donna Giles, Triangle Area Lesbian Feminists and Feminary

Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Reception to follow)
Where: Perkins Library, Room 217, West Campus, Duke University

Panel 3:

Mandy Carter, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) and War Resisters League
Caitlin Breedlove, Southerners on New Ground (SONG)
Steve Schewel, Founder, Independent Weekly

Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Reception to follow)
Where: Durham County Library, 300 N. Roxboro Street, Durham, NC

Sponsored by Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Rubenstein Library; Durham County Library; Duke Program in Women’s Studies; Vice Provost of Academic Affairs; the Pauli Murray Project; and in conjunction with Women’s Studies Senior Seminar.

Renovation

The Move by the Numbers

February 18, 2013 Kate Collins 2 Comments

After a month of intensive activity, the largest and most complicated phase of the Rubenstein Library move wrapped up, and we bid farewell to William B. Meyer, our wonderful library movers, on Feb 12. In the 24 days that these 15 movers were onsite they relocated more than 30,000 linear feet of rare books, manuscript collections, university archives, pamphlets, and other material to both our temporary library and the Library Service Center.

Map Cases — Our map cabinets in their new home

We are excited to report that we have a considerable amount of our collection up in our new home on the 3^rd floor of Perkins:

17,600 linear feet of books, manuscripts, university archives and other collections
39 map cabinets
4-volume, double-elephant edition of Audubon

The movers transported 836 large blue trucks of material to our offsite Library Service Center!

The team at LSC has already ingested 148,727 items! Thank you LSC team!!

Please note that due to the HUGE amount of material sent to LSC, some items are still being processed into their system. As such, it may take longer than usual for some materials to be pulled.. Researchers are encouraged to contact the Rubenstein Library to confirm that their collections have arrived before coming to the reading room. Please call the Rubenstein Library at 919.660.5822 or send us a message. Thank you to all our patrons, researchers, colleagues, friends and fans for their continued patience and support as we finalize the Rubenstein Library move!

But that’s not all!

Although one phase of the move is complete, there is still plenty of work and moving to be done between now and the start of the Rubenstein Library Renovation. We are still prepping our newspaper collection for transport to LSC, and we still need to move the art collection, including the portraits in the Gothic Reading Room. Stay tuned for more updates as we complete these projects.

Last but not least, you can always relive the exciting events from the last 6 weeks anytime on our blog: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/tag/movediary/

Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collection Move Coordinator.

From Our Collections, Renovation

Week 3 is done!

January 25, 2013 Kate Collins

We’re three weeks in to our move which means we’re halfway there! It does feel like we’ve reached a tipping point with the shelves in our new space feeling more full than our old space. Here are some of our favorite that have made the move with us this week:

Portable ECG — The portable electrocardiograph from the History of Medicine Collections is indeed portable

Our collection of glass eyeballs, a perennial favorite from the History of Medicine Collections, has also made the move.

Renovation

Things We Will (Probably) Miss: Our Old Elevator

January 24, 2013 Kate Collins 2 Comments

As the Rubenstein Library moves out of our space in original West Campus library building, it also means we won’t be using the 1928 elevator to carry us through all seven floors of the building anymore. While I could never decide if I found this elevator endearing or frightening, I think I’m going to miss its old school charms. It has a heavy metal door and a brass gate that need to be opened and closed by hand, as well as instructions on how to use the button and the door and gate.

If you want a chance to experience the thrills of Otis yourself, here’s a little video of a trip from the third floor up to the sixth floor in our former home.

News and Features, Renovation

Rubenstein Library Moving December 17th – January 6th

November 30, 2012 Kate Collins 2 Comments

Over the past year we’ve enveloped our books, trayed our books, used lots of post-it notes, and found many interesting things in the stacks, and now it’s time for us to get moving!

Between December 17th, 2012 and January 6th 2013 we will be closed while we relocate our workspaces and collections to our new space. We will reopen to the public on January 7, 2013 in our new temporary reading room: the third floor of Perkins Library!

Staff will have been relocated by January 7th, but our collections will be moving until February 17th, 2013. Access to collections and reference services will be limited while we finish moving them.

If you’re planning a research trip we strongly encourage you to come after February 17th. If you just can’t wait and need to come between January 7, 2013 and February 17, 2013, please contact us at least four days before your visit so we can make sure we have the material you want to use.

We’ll miss you while we’re closed, but we’re excited to have you visit us in our new home! If you have any questions about our move or the library renovation in general check out our Information for Researchers and Visitors and our Renovation FAQ, and if you still have lingering questions let us know.

From Our Collections

Durham Tobacco History, In a Box

November 28, 2012 Kate Collins 1 Comment

As a new research services librarian at the Rubenstein Library, it’s been fascinating to explore what we have in the library. People have this idea that our collections are made up of only old books and paper, but our holdings are far more diverse than that, as I’m sure our blog readers know. Recently, a researcher was looking at a box from the Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers and when they returned the box I noticed it was oddly light and also labeled as fragile. Curious, I opened the box to find strange dark brown lumps sealed in plastic bags.

Box 2 of the Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers

Fortunately there was small piece of paper in the box explaining that I was looking at tobacco twists from 1885 that were made in Durham, N.C. by the W. T. Blackwell & Company, which Julian Shakespeare Carr became a partner of in 1871. Tobacco twists were made by braiding and twisting tobacco leaves together into a sort of rope that could then be knotted or coiled, like these examples. While tobacco twists are strange looking today, they were one of the most common forms of tobacco in the 1800s. Consumers could cut off as much tobacco as they needed, whether it was headed for their pipe for smoking or straight into their mouths for chewing.

However, in the late 19th century Americans began to move away from chewing tobacco and pipes toward cigarettes. This box contains another Blackwell & Company product: Bull Durham cigarettes. These cigarettes are still wrapped in their paper pack, so you can’t get a good look at them, but if you could you would find filterless, hand-rolled cigarettes. At this time the cigarette production hadn’t been mechanized so it was an incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Even the best factory workers were only able to roll 4 or 5 cigarettes a minute.

Blackwell’s competitor and Durham neighbor, W. Duke, Sons & Company pioneered the use of the recently invented cigarette rolling machine in 1884, enabling them to produce up to 200 cigarettes a minute from one machine and sell those cigarettes at a substantially lower cost. By the end of the century W. Duke, Sons & Company became the dominant tobacco company in Durham and the country, and Blackwell & Company and its Bull Durham brand eventually ended up as part of the Duke’s growing tobacco empire.

Post contributed by Kate Collins, Research Services Librarian.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Films

The Extravagant Shadows Screening

November 26, 2012 Kate Collins

Date: Friday, November 30th, 2012
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Biddle Rare Book Room, Perkins Library, Duke University
Contact Information: Kirston Johnson, kirston.johnson(at)duke.edu

Please join us this Friday at 3:00pm for a screening of The Extravagant Shadows, David Gatten’s new work of digital cinema. Gatten is an award-winning filmmaker and Guggenheim fellow, and is currently a Lecturing Fellow and Artist in Residence with Duke University’s Program in Arts of the Moving Image. Earlier this year he was named one of the fifty best filmmakers under fifty by Cinema Scope magazine.

Fourteen years in the making, The Extravagant Shadows is a film concerned with libraries, reading, letters, and lovers. It premiered at the 50^th annual New York Film Festival and has received widespread acclaim.

“David Gatten’s first digital work, The Extravagant Shadows, undertakes the head-scratching question of what it would mean for a film to be of its textual sources. A historical narrative of love separated across space and time is embedded in various codes and correspondences, all of it pocked by ellipsis and obscurity, never unfolding so much as digressing, disclosing, doubling back.” – Max Goldberg, Fandor

“Gatten […] lays long excerpts, condensations, and re-writings of text upon the image itself, so that looking at the image is as much about seeing as it is reading—if these two activities can even be separated. The text tells a looping, broken and elliptical tale of love across distances, love missed and time passed, of communicating via letter, manuscript, telegraph, […] notes, novelization, monologues and memories across and within these spaces. Of the lost meanings, allusive facts and fixtures, of the supreme ambiguity of purposes, of a sense of time, of narrative to be found between, around and inside text and its transmissions to the reader.” – Daniel Kasman, “Love in the Painted Image,” MUBI

This event is sponsored by the Archive of Documentary Arts, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and the “Thinking Cinematics Working Group” with support from the Franklin Humanities Institute and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University.

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