All posts by Meghan Lyon

Digital Collections, From Our Collections, TRLN CCC Project

Digitizing the LCRM Update #8 – A Preserved Love Story

Dried rose with correspondence, Asa Spaulding to Elna Bridgeforth, circa December 1931. Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, Box EC-4, Folder 3: esgms04003022
Dried rose with correspondence, Asa Spaulding to Elna Bridgeforth, circa December 1931. Asa and Elna Spaulding Papers, Box EC-4, Folder 3: esgms04003022

Elna Spaulding is a central figure in the materials that Duke has digitized for the Content, Context, and Capacity Grant.  The records of the Women-in-Action for the Prevention of Violence and Its Causes, an organization that Mrs. Spaulding founded and led from 1968 until 1974, are available now.  In addition, all of Mrs. Spaulding’s personal papers have been digitized and will shortly become available for viewing.

In anticipation of both the publication of Elna Spaulding’s myriad professional accomplishments and Valentine’s Day, this month’s update focuses on the personal connections underlying the accomplished careers of Elna and Asa Spaulding. In the years prior to their wedding on June 24, 1933, Asa Spaulding and Elna Bridgeforth corresponded regularly.  The following two quotes are from letters that Mr. Spaulding sent to Miss Bridgeforth:

“I would not put you out of my life if I could, and I could if I would…Do you know the song: ‘I wouldn’t change you for the World.’  The words are quite significant.” (December 30, 1931)

“As I start out upon the first day of a New Year it is with thoughts of you and with [a] heart full of thanksgiving for what the past year has meant to us and with much anticipation as to what lies before us.  I wish I might look into the future and see.” (January 1, 1932)

Unfortunately, we do not have Elna Bridgeforth’s replies, but we know that she kept a rose that Asa gave her with one of these letters (pictured here) throughout her life.  We encourage readers to peruse the correspondence between the future Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding to gain a unique look into one of the most influential couples in the modern history of Durham.  You may even find inspiration for a Valentine’s Day note of your own.

Post contributed by Josh Hager, CCC Project Graduate Assistant.

Renovation

Game Day

The big game — UNC vs. Duke — may be tonight at Cameron, but we’ve been preparing for weeks with our school-colored Big Blues. Normally, we use these carts to transport library materials around the Triangle. Lately, these carts have been helping us get Rubenstein collections to the LSC as quickly as possible.

Rival library trucks battling it out during the move.
Rival library trucks battling it out during the move.

Although our move is wrapping up this week, we would like to remind researchers that materials may still be in transit and that delays in retrieving our collections may continue for the next few weeks as we ingest everything into the LSC. Please continue to contact Research Services as early as possible if you are planning a research visit to the Rubenstein Library so that we can be sure to have what you need on hand when you arrive.

Rare Books, Renovation

Audubons on the move

One of the last (but not least!) collections to move during our Big Move was our set of John James Audubon’s Birds of America. The Rubenstein Library is fortunate to have a complete double elephant folio set, published between 1827 and 1838. Only 120 sets are known to exist. Our conservation staff was on hand yesterday as the movers carefully lifted and transported the very heavy Audubons to their temporary home. We’re looking forward to them being back on display after the renovation.

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Birds of America folios in their cases in the Rare Book Room.
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Safely storing the Birds of America until after the renovation.

Can’t wait until after the renovation to see these great books? The University of Pittsburgh has digitized them.

Renovation

Week 4 is done!

We only have 2 weeks of moving left, thank goodness. We’re starting to see some results after all this hard work. We have been striving to send 3 full trucks to LSC everyday – that is 54-60 of these big blue carts per day!

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Big Blues on the way to the Library Service Center.

We are also almost totally done moving collections into swing space. This week, among other things, we moved the rest of our vault items. This was fun, since it meant we got to visit with our beloved Trent Collection of Whitmaniana as it traveled through the library to its new home.

Our Curator of Collections and some bound Walt Whitman manuscripts.
Our Curator of Collections and some bound Walt Whitman manuscripts.
Renovation

Week 2 is done!

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Moving the bound-withs required a ladder. (Bound-withs are separately published pamphlets or titles, bound together into 1 book.)

We have made a lot of progress this week, moving everything from domestic advertisements from the Hartman Center to bound-withs to ledgers to more History of Medicine materials to our small manuscript collections. It’s time for another weekend. More updates next week!

Hartman Center, Renovation

Collections for a rainy day

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The weather for the past week has been nothing but rain here in North Carolina. Just for fun, I looked up the January 17, 1862 entry in this diary from Philadelphia, and guess what I found?

January 17, 1862: Not very pleasant.
January 17, 1862: Not very pleasant.

January 17, 1862: Not very pleasant. (It was also “rainy and unpleasant” on January 18.) Perhaps this woman should have borrowed J. Walter Thompson’s umbrella, from the J. Walter Thompson Artifacts and Memorabilia collection.

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J. Walter Thompson’s umbrella.

Despite the rain, both of these collections safely made it to swing space today.

From Our Collections, Renovation

Carts galore

Things are rolling right along in Week 2 of the move. We’re working closely with the LSC as they ingest most of our books and manuscripts from the old stacks. At the same time, our fragile, oddly sized, and highly used collections are moving to swing space. This means we have lots of carts in motion.

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Folios waiting for shelving in swing space.
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Beautifully trayed books waiting to go to LSC.
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Well-padded carts getting loaded onto the movers’ truck.
Rare Books, Renovation

Week 1 is done!

Rubenstein Library On the Move is off to a great start. Our new swing space is open for business and we’ve welcomed a dozen researchers to the new reading room.

We’ve also welcomed our movers, who have made excellent progress this week by packing up the Rare Book Room, moving almost all of our folios into swing space, and shipping over lots trays of books to LSC.

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Our new reading room has been busy this week.
New reading room desk (with our smiling happy faces!)
New reading room desk (with our smiling happy faces!)
The Biddle Rare Book Room is now empty of books.
The Biddle Rare Book Room is now empty of books.
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Our stacks in swing space are quickly filling up with folios!

We’re looking forward to a restful weekend before getting started with Week 2!

From Our Collections, Rare Books, Students and Interns, Technical Stuff

Fun Finds from the German Judaica Project

As the German Judaica Intern for the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of rare and interesting materials. I am currently processing a collection of German Judaica books dating from the late eighteenth century through the twentieth century. These materials represent a range of topics, including prayer books, histories of the Jewish people, commentary in German on Jewish religious texts, Zionism, and works on the “Jewish question.” My job is to catalog these books so that they can be made available to the public. Over the course of this project several books have piqued my interest, and I would like to share them with you.

The first are two pictures from the book Die Israelitische Bibel, a mid-nineteenth century illustrated Hebrew and German Bible with annotations by Ludwig Philippson.

Die Israelitische Bibel

The second book is titled Das Judische ABC. It is a dictionary of sorts about key figures and events in Jewish history, covering topics such ranging from the patriarch Abraham to authors such as Martin Buber.

Das Judische ABC, with entries from the letter “H.”

The final book I would like to highlight is a prayerbook. A number of these types of books have been cataloged, including holiday prayer books and daily prayer books. Many of them are in Hebrew, and have elegant covers and pages lined in gold leaf.

Prayerbook from the collection.

The collection as a whole is extensive and an excellent addition to the Duke Library. My hope is that through cataloging these materials, more people can have access and utilize them in their research.

Post contributed by Crystal Reinhardt, intern for the German Judaica Project in Rubenstein Technical Services.

 

Reminder: The Rubenstein Library is closed until Jan. 7!