All posts by Will Hansen

Events, Exhibits

Gallery Talk: Suzanis, Women, Weaving, Life Journeys

A suzani needlework textile.

Date: Wednesday, February 15
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Thomas Room, Lilly Library, East Campus
Contact Information: Mary Samouelian, 919-660-5912 or mary.samouelian(at)duke.edu

Please join us to learn more about the Lilly Library exhibit featuring suzani needlework dowry pieces, a custom interwoven within the social fabric of the women of central Asia. Learn about the textile tradition and techniques of the suzani, discover an enthusiast with an intriguing Duke connection, and enjoy the collection on display on the main floor of Lilly Library.

The gallery talk will feature Greta Boers, Librarian for Classical Studies at Lilly Library, and Mary Samouelian, Doris Duke Collection Archivist for the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Ms. Boers will introduce and discuss her private collection on display on the main floor of the Lilly Library and Ms. Samouelian will recount Doris Duke’s introduction to suzanis in her travels as well as her longstanding admiration of these handcrafted dowry cloths.

A reception with light refreshments will be held after the talk. This event is free and open to the public.

Events, History of Medicine, Readings and Talks

P. Preston Reynolds on Integrating Hospitals

P. Preston Reynolds
P. Preston Reynolds will speak on racially integrating hospitals, 1963-1967.

Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Time: Light buffet supper at 5:30 PM; lecture begins at 6:00 PM
Location: Biddle Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Rachel Ingold, 919-684-8549 or rachel.ingold(at)duke.edu

Please join the Trent History of Medicine Society/Bullitt History of Medicine Club for its next speaker series event on Tuesday, February 14, 2012.  P. Preston Reynolds, MD, PhD, FACP, will be discussing “The Federal Government’s Efforts to Racially Integrate Hospitals Under Medicare, 1963-1967.” Dr. Reynolds is Professor of Medicine in the General Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care Division and a faculty member for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Reynolds’ research has focused on the history of race discrimination in healthcare and medical education.  She has published and lectured on the subject, received major funding from the NIH and national foundations, and won awards for her scholarship. She currently is writing a book on the history of Durham’s black hospital, Lincoln Hospital, and healthcare for blacks in the Carolinas, and revising a comprehensive guide to resources on the history and contributions of African Americans to the health professions.

 

Events, Exhibits, Readings and Talks

“Charles Dickens: 200 Years of Commerce and Controversy”

Date: 31 January-1 April 2012
Location and Time: Rare Book Room cases during library hours
Contact Information: Will Hansen, 919-660-5958 or william.hansen@duke.edu

Banner for Charles Dickens exhibit

This month marks the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, one of the most popular and influential authors of all time.  The Rubenstein Library commemorates the occasion with the exhibition “Charles Dickens: 200 Years of Commerce and Controversy.”

"Charles Dickens as He Appears When Reading," by C.A. Barry, Harper's Weekly, Dec 7, 1867.

Come see first editions of Dickens’s works, notorious plagiarized and pirated versions of The Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations, rare ephemera relating to beloved works such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, documentation of Victorian London, and more!  If you can’t make it to the Library, an online exhibit is also available.

But that’s not all!  Come to the Library’s Biddle Rare Book Room on February 8 at 7:00 p.m. to see author and Duke professor Michael Malone reenact Dickens’s fabled dramatic readings of beloved scenes such as the graveyard opening of Great Expectations, the death of Nancy from Oliver Twist, the “great trial” from The Pickwick Papers, and the Crummles theatricals from Nicholas Nickleby.

 

Archive of Documentary Arts, Digital Collections

Portraits from Charleston

The Archive of Documentary Arts continues its monthly series highlighting work in our holdings that has been digitized. This month we are spotlighting the Michael Francis Blake Photographs, 1912-1934. The collection includes 117 photographs of men, women, and children taken between 1912-1934 by Michael Francis Blake. Blake opened one of the first African-American photography studios in Charleston, S.C. and the photographs represent his work from the 1910s to his death in 1934.  The images come from a photographic album entitled “Portraits of Members,” which might have been used by clients in the studio to select the backdrop and props they wanted in their photographs. To see more of Michael Francis Blake’s photographs, visit the library’s digital collection.

Post contributed by Kirston Johnson, Moving Image Archivist, and Karen Glynn, Photography Archivist, Archive of Documentary Arts.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Bingham Center, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, History of Medicine, New at the Rubenstein Library

New Year, New Acquisitions

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What better way to ring in the new year (okay, we’re a couple of weeks late) than with a roundup of exciting new acquisitions from the second half of 2011?   All of these amazing resources will be available for researchers in the Rubenstein Library in 2012 and for years to come!

  • Stereograph of John Wesley Powell with a Native American. From the Powell Expedition Photograph Album.

    Powell Expedition Photograph Album: A remarkable album of 539 photographs taken during John Wesley Powell’s Second Expedition along the Colorado River in 1871-75 by John K. Hillers, E. O. Beaman, and James Fennemore.  The photographs include landscapes of the Western states and documentary photographs of Native Americans, especially the Paiute tribe.  Part of the Archive of Documentary Arts.  Look for more information on this album in the Biblio-file column in the January-February 2012 Duke Magazine.

  • Case book of Dr. Philip Turner. From the Philip Turner Papers.

    Philip Turner Papers: Documents from the life and career of Dr. Philip Turner (1740-1815), Surgeon General for the Eastern Department of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.  The manuscript collection contains correspondence, medical returns, printed materials, records from northeastern field and city hospitals, and ledgers documenting Turner’s career as a surgeon in private practice, in the Continental Army, and in the United States Army. Part of the History of Medicine Collections.  More information about this important collection of early American medical history is coming soon!

  • The Door in the Wall, And Other Stories, by H. G. Wells: This 1911 limited edition of Wells’s science fiction and fantasy stories features stunning photogravure illustrations by the vorticist photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn.

 

 

 

Archive of Documentary Arts, Digital Collections, Exhibits, Franklin Research Center, RL Wire, University Archives

From the Rubenstein Wire

Korean Man Reading, ca. 1917-19. From the Sidney D. Gamble Photographs.

Before we dive into another exhilarating semester, it’s high time we caught up on some recent articles about the Rubenstein Library and its collections.

In the Lens blog at the New York Times, David Gonzalez explores William Gedney’s photographs of the Myrtle Avenue El in New York.

University Archivist Valerie Gillispie was introduced to the Durham community in a Durham Herald-Sun article.

NPR featured an interview with Robert Korstad and Leslie Brown about Behind the Veil: Documenting African-American  Life in the Jim Crow South.  The interview includes selections from a few of the one hundred oral histories now available online.

Neil Offen wrote an article about the exhibit “From Campus to Cockpit: Duke University During World War II.”  (The exhibit will be on display until January 29!)

Gamers far and wide noticed the opening of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games with our first-ever Game Night, including the blogs Robot Viking and 88 Milhas por Hora (in Portuguese) as well as more local sources.

 

Events, News and Features, RL Photos

Snapshots from Game Night

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Our Game Night to celebrate the opening of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games was great fun!  Thanks to all who took a break from studying and the hectic holiday season to attend on Tuesday. Here are a few photos from a memorable night.

Students enjoy examining a sample of the thousands of games in the RPG collection.
L to R: Rubenstein Director Naomi Nelson talks with collection donors Terry and Edwin Murray.
Materials in the collection related to Dungeons and Dragons, the original role-playing game.
Kids of all ages enjoy a game of "Castle Panic."

Thanks to Nelda Webb for these photos.  For more on the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games and Game Night, check out our earlier post, the “Top 5 Role-Playing Games You Haven’t Heard Of” (via Duke Today), and this article by Neil Offen in the Durham Herald-Sun.  And check out this excellent bonus photo from Game Night, by Beth Doyle!

Archive of Documentary Arts, Digital Collections, From Our Collections

Chicago’s South Side

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The Archive of Documentary Arts monthly blog post highlights work in our holdings that has been digitized. This month, we remember the great Mississippi Delta Bluesman, Honeyboy Edwards (1915-2011), through the photography of Cedric Chatterley. Cedric traveled with Honeyboy extensively on the national and international concert circuit. He also visited Honeyboy in Chicago and photographed the South Side in winter. To see more of Cedric Chatterley’s photographs of Honeyboy Edwards, visit the library’s online exhibit site. To learn more about the photography of Cedric Chatterley take a look at the catalog record that describes his collection to date.  Eventually, Cedric Chatterley’s life’s work will be housed in the Archive of Documentary Arts.

Amtrak passing through the Southside heading north, Chicago, Illinois, winter, 1995.

 

Parking lot for a fish store on Chicago's Southside. Regular deliveries of live fish come from Mississippi and other states, winter, 1994.
Friends of Honeyboy Edwards jamming in a storefront on South 47th Street, Chicago, Illinois, winter, 1995.
Honeyboy Edwards at home on South Wells near 43rd Street, Chicago, Illinois, winter, 1994.

Post contributed by Karen Glynn, Photography Archivist, Archive of Documentary Arts.

Events

Game Night at the Rubenstein Library

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Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Time: 7pm-9pm
Location: Biddle Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Will Hansen, 919-660-5958 or william.hansen@duke.edu

Is studying for finals stressing you out?  Or do you need a break from hectic holiday shopping?  Please join the staff of the Rubenstein Library to for a night of fun and games to celebrate the opening for research of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games.  The collection, one of the first to be available at a research institution, contains thousands of boxed sets, game books, accessories, card games, and manuscript records from the 1970s to the present, documenting the history of a medium that has grown into a worldwide cultural phenomenon.   Rare and unique materials from the collection will be on display.

Come play a classic board or card game with friends old and new, enjoy refreshments, and learn more about the history of games.  We hope to see you there!

Bingham Center, News and Features

Gift Endows Directorship of Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture

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A $1 million pledge to endow the directorship of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University has been made by journalist, activist and women’s health care pioneer Merle Hoffman, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Thursday.

“The Bingham Center is one of the leading women’s history research centers in the U.S., documenting centuries of women’s public and private lives, including education, literature, art and activism,” Brodhead said. “We at Duke are grateful for this generous gift by Merle Hoffman, which will help further the Bingham Center’s mission to preserve and promote the intellectual and cultural legacy of women from all walks of American life.”

The center, part of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, is home to many of Hoffman’s papers.

After abortion laws were liberalized in New York state in 1970, Hoffman founded Choices Women’s Medical Center, one of the first ambulatory surgical centers for women, which has become one of the largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities in the U.S.

In 2000, the Bingham Center acquired both Hoffman’s papers and the records of Choices Women’s Medical Center. Since then, the center has collected the papers of numerous other providers, clinics and reproductive rights organizations that document the work of activists, health care workers, attorneys and others involved in reproductive health.

The center also has a large body of works that documents four centuries of political activity surrounding women’s reproductive rights, thanks in part to several generous gifts from Hoffman, said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo University Librarian and vice provost for library affairs.

“Associating Merle Hoffman’s name with the directorship creates an enduring connection between the Bingham Center’s leadership and Hoffman’s outstanding contributions to the health, safety and empowerment of women everywhere,” Jakubs said.

Hoffman is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of On the Issues Magazine, and her autobiography, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Board Room, is set to be published in January 2012.

Hoffman said she decided to endow the center’s directorship as a way “to continue to support the visionary efforts by Duke University to honor and document the many courageous women who have fought their own ‘intimate wars’ in the long struggle for reproductive justice. I hope that the Bingham Center will become the bridge between theory and practice that will catalyze future generations to joyfully go further and deeper in the continual battles for women’s equality.”

Center director Laura Micham said Hoffman’s latest gift “will enable us to expand our activities and impact, bringing us closer to our goal of building one of the premier research centers for women’s history and culture in the world.”

The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture was established in 1988 to acquire, preserve and provide access to published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women, past and present. It is named in honor of author, playwright, teacher and feminist activist Sallie Bingham.

For more information, contact Aaron Welborn or Laura Micham.