Post contributed by Soroush Marouzi, Research Scholar at the Center for the History of Political Economy.
In 1960, the political activist known throughout Japan by the pen name Reiji Himeoka sat in solitary confinement at Tokyo’s Sugamo Prison. By 1967, now publicly known by his birth name Masahiko Aoki, he had become an Assistant Professor of Economics at Stanford University. His life circumstances had changed drastically over those seven years, but not his desire to understand the world and change it for the better. Today, the Masahiko Aoki papers present rich resources for historians eager to delve deeper into his life and work.
Aoki (right) in conversation with his colleagues.
Aoki was born on April 1, 1938, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. He initially intended to become a historian, but his growing interest in Marxism led him to pursue economics at the University of Tokyo. As an undergraduate, he emerged as a leading ideologue, describing himself as an “information propaganda director” of left-wing organizations at the forefront of Japan’s student movement that aimed to discourage the ruling conservative government to sign the revised US-Japan Security Treaty—activities that culminated in his arrest in 1960. After his release, he earned his undergraduate degree in 1962 and his master’s in 1964. After reading the work of Kenneth Arrow and Leonid Hurwicz during his graduate studies, he started to distance himself from Marxism and became increasingly interested in “modern economics.” He left Japan to pursue his PhD in economics at the University of Minnesota under Hurwicz and John Chipman, graduating in 1967 then holding appointments at Stanford and Harvard University over the next two years. Returning to Japan in 1969, he continued his academic career at Kyoto University until coming back to Stanford in 1984 and retiring in 2005. He died in 2015, having dedicated his career to studying forms of economic organizations and making contributions in the theory of the firm, corporate governance, and East Asian economies.
This digital photo of Aoki during an interview comes from a set among the electronic records in the collection.
Aoki’s papers are the most recently processed collection in the Economists’ Papers Archive, which also houses the collections of Arrow, Hurwicz, and Chipman. A substantial portion of this collection highlights Aoki’s role in shaping the economics profession by establishing institutions, such as the Virtual Center for Advanced Studies in Institution, and by leading influential organizations, exemplified by his presidency of the International Economic Association (IEA) from 2008-2011. There are also collection materials that offer insights into Aoki’s graduate education through handwritten notebooks; the production of his scholarly works on game theory through drafts and referee reports; his contribution to the development of the field of comparative institutional analysis through Stanford University Economics Department records; and his relationships and collaborations with economists such as Arrow, Joseph Stiglitz, and János Kornai through correspondence.
Janos Kornai’s email to Aoki, dated Dec 18, 2004, asking for Aoki’s consent to be nominated for IEA’s presidency. He eventually won by one vote–a significant moment in his career.
In his memoir, Aoki described his life as “a transboundary game.” He lived in both the East and West, and he embraced an interdisciplinary approach to studying economics. Crossing boundaries—whether geographical or disciplinary—was a defining feature of the life he led. His transboundary game was marked by constant attempts to understand institutional arrangements in economic life, along with his desire to improve them through tireless professional service. This joint pursuit was perhaps the dominant theme of his life, from his time as the Marxist ‘Reiji Himeoka’ until he became a Stanford emeritus professor of economics.
This black and white portrait of Aoki is an example from an album reflective in tone.
Post contributed by Ani Karagianis, Centennial Archivist, Duke University Archives.
[A small exhibit related to this blog post can be viewed near the Perkins Library service desk for the next month.]
Recently, the Rubenstein Library put up a small exhibit about the Greensboro Woolworth Sit-ins in February 1960. Since I participated in the creation of the exhibit, naturally, I wanted to look more into the early sit-ins and other movements of the early 1960s. It is here where I can say that there is a Duke angle to some subsequent events after the sit-ins. Duke angle #1: Professor William Chafe of the history department. Bill Chafe, who wrote a great book that I was able to devour during the holidays (Civilities and Civil Rights) interviewed three of the four members of the Greensboro Four: Ezell Blair Jr. (known as Jibreel Khazan), Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. Rather than having me write about their interviews and their experiences of the sit-in, I have provided the readers with some snapshots of them speaking about their experiences in Greensboro, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the Woolworth sit-ins. These oral histories can be found in box two of the William Chafe Oral History collection.
Some good soundbites courtesy of these interviews:
Jibreel Khazan (labeled as “Jabriel Kajan”, 1974, speaking about his youth NAACP council and providing a little background of the idea behind the protest:
Joseph McNeill, 1978, reflecting on the movement the role of the Greensboro community:
David Richmond, 1972, providing a breakdown of the day’s plans:
Post contributed by Baylee Staufenbiel, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Florida State University.
During my recent research visit to the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, I had the opportunity to work with the Duke University’s extensive holdings on medieval and early modern medicine. The highlight of my trip was Latin MS 182, a copy of the Pantegni Practica, a foundational medical text traditionally attributed to Constantine the African. The Pantegni is particularly significant as it one of the most comprehensive and well-known texts to synthesize Greco-Roman and Arabic medical knowledge. The Practica is interesting as it was never completed by Constantine. Various copies appeared, but current scholarship is unsure of the provenance of the additional chapters. The Rubenstein’s copy has some of these chapters that may have been compiled or written by his pupil Joannes Afflacius, who’s attribution is given to the accompanying treatise Liber Aureus. Figure One shows the table of contents of the Rubenstein’s Practica (33r).
Figure One: Pantegni Practica, 33r, Latin MS 182, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
As I worked with the Pantegni Practica, I really began to think about the roles of translators, manuscripts, prints, and productions. Constantine’s contribution to the spread of Arabic texts is undeniable. I have begun to think locations like Monte Cassino and Salerno as more than places of translation and transmission of texts. They are nodes for the establishment of epistemic authority. The texts, knowledges, and individuals that came from these locations constructed what would become medical and anatomical practice throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
The reliance on authoritative voices continued with my exploration of early modern sources. For example, in “On the Liver” (Sec. A Box 183, 1654-1677, England), I saw a compelling look at how seventeenth-century physicians balanced classical authority with contemporary anatomical findings. A Latin paragraph detailing liver striation was followed by an extensive English letter discussing Hippocrates, Galen, and early modern physicians’ beliefs about the structure and function of the liver. Shown in Figure Two, this text demonstrates the enduring influence of ancient medical models, even as new anatomical observations complicated long-held theories. The discussion of Rufus of Ephesus (70-110 CE) and Schenckius (likely Johannes Schenck von Grafenberg, 1530-1598) reinforced how early modern practitioners continued to situate their work alongside pre-existing medical authorities. The letter references humoral theory mentioning the relative temperature of the liver as well as the questions about its role in conception (notably Galen saw the liver, heart, and brain as the seat of the natural, animal, and vital souls respectively). As my research is focused on perceptions of the uterus, reading a meditation on the function of a specific organ further suggests that understandings of the internal body were constantly in flux, even for a well discussed structure like the liver.
Figure Two: “On the Liver,” David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
My time at the Rubenstein Library was an incredible privilege. The collection provided invaluable access to texts that shaped medieval and premodern understandings of medicine and the body. Engaging with these manuscripts firsthand enriched my assessment and evaluation of these texts in my current research project. I am deeply grateful to the Rubenstein staff, curators, and archivists who made this trip possible.
Post contributed by Soroush Marouzi, Research Scholar at the Center for the History of Political Economy.
A loyal public servant of the U.S. government, a covert Soviet agent, the mastermind behind Colombia’s economic development, or the architect of policies that inflicted hardship on Colombian people? Lauchlin B. Currie (1902–1993) remains an enigmatic figure, with scholars and media outlets offering conflicting portrayals of his life and work. The majority of his professional papers were gifted by him to Duke and were one of the first economics collections acquired by the University, serving as a foundational piece of what would eventually become the Economists’ Papers Archive. Recently reprocessed with enhanced description, the Lauchlin B. Currie papers now offer new opportunities for historians seeking to deepen their understanding of his legacy.
Currie sitting outside with his family in Colombia in 1992.
Currie was born in Canada, studied at the London School of Economics, and earned a PhD from Harvard University in 1931 before working at the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. He was appointed as a special advisor on economic affairs to the White House in 1939 and stayed there until the end of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Throughout his prosperous career in the United States, Currie played a significant role in shaping and implementing fiscal, monetary, and foreign policies. Accusations of Soviet espionage later marred his career, but he was never charged with a crime and maintained his innocence. After his time in the U.S., Currie began a decades-long relationship with Colombia. He developed a deep affection for the country: he married and raised a family with a Colombian woman, tried his hand at cattle ranching, and obtained citizenship. He advised two Presidential administrations and held significant policy roles, including the head of the World Bank’s first mission to Colombia. He was honored with Colombia’s highest peacetime award, the Order of Boyacá, one day before his death in 1993.
A photograph from the collection of an urban scale model.
The Lauchlin B. Currie papers document Currie’s professional life through his correspondence, writings and speeches, published material and clippings (in English and Spanish), and subject files. It highlights his work on topics such as economic growth, development, urban housing, and fiscal and monetary policy, with the bulk underscoring his contributions as an economic advisor, particularly in Colombia and to a lesser extent in the United States. This collection also documents Currie’s work with institutions such as the Colombian National Planning Council, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the White House, and the Federal Reserve. It also includes a large set of printed material written by Currie and other scholars, his notes and annotations on writings by other economists, and correspondence with other economists and politicians.
Notable materials in the collection include documents related to Currie’s trips to and involvement with China during World War II on behalf of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, his economic plan for Colombia’s government (known as Operación Colombia), his creation of the Colombian housing finance system (known as UPAC), and rich correspondence with his biographer Roger Sandilands and prominent Colombian politicians like former Minister of the Interior Arenas Bonilla.
Certificate of Award to Currie, signed by Chiang Chung-Cheng, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China.
A distinctive feature of this collection is the extensive set of numbered folders, primarily focused on Currie’s work as an economic advisor in Colombia. They were meticulously indexed by Colombian economist Elba Cánfora Argandoña, who supposedly microfilmed them before they left the country. Unfortunately, no complete index or any microfilm was ever sent prior to her passing in 2023, and further investigation in 2024 by Nestor Lovera Nieto, a part-time Research Scholar for the Economists’ Papers Archive and Visiting Scholar at the Center for the History of Political Economy, did not yield any results beyond a small collection at the Colombian central bank. To aid researchers in navigating this challenging series, Nestor described the contents of each file—one of the many valuable contributions he made to the reprocessing of this collection.
An example of Argandoña’s index and notes on a small range of the numbered folders.
This collection not only enhances our understanding of Currie’s life and work, but also provides valuable insights into Colombian economic history, as seen through the lens of his work and experiences. New portrayals of Currie and the economies he engaged with will undoubtedly emerge from the work of scholars delving into this rich collection.
An archive like that at Duke University can be approached from numerous angles. Professors might partner with the Rubenstein Library to encourage student engagement with materials that are relevant to their courses. Students might flock to the reading room to fulfill requirements for a paper. Researchers from across the world might visit the Rubenstein’s collections to identify sources that pertain to their independent studies. There is also the possibility that people might visit the reading room out of pure curiosity, stumbling in search of rare books, letters, and artifacts that are simply “cool” to them. I found myself in this category while perusing the catalog for a topic that could be reflected well in an exhibit, and I was pleased to see how a streak of curiosity can lead down a rabbit hole of literary exploration.
Beginning my quest by analyzing works celebrating an anniversary year, I found myself in the middle of a pastoral tale full of drama, love, and a surprising amount of sheep, as known as Thomas Hardy’s fourth novel, Far from the Madding Crowd.
Far from the Madding Crowd as it appeared in January 1874 for Cornhill readers.
In January 1874, Thomas Hardy obliged Sir Leslie Stephen, editor of Cornhill Magazine, by publishing his novel serially for Cornhill readers to enjoy. Describing his work as a story involving “a young woman-farmer, a shepherd, and a sergeant of cavalry,” Hardy set forth on a yearlong adventure of watching the public and critics receive his novel before him (Hardy 1928, 125). Later that year on November 23, 1874, Hardy saw the publication of his work in its entire form. While reading the novel, which is an experience in and of itself, is where some people end their journey down this Victorian English path, the Rubenstein’s holdings allow for a much deeper dive of Hardy’s process to and through publication, from an exploration of his title to the aftermath of the story in his wake.
While we can give Hardy credit for the storyline and characters that emerge in his novel, the title must be attributed to another prominent figure in English poetry, Thomas Gray. Hardy’s use of Far from the Madding Crowd is a direct reference to Gray’s 1751 poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, where Gray writes:
“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray;
Along the cool sequester’d vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”
The Rubenstein is home to various versions of Gray’s poem, many of which include illustrations to accompany the famous line later used in Hardy’s title. An 1850 edition includes illustrations by R. S. Gilbert, depicting two adults and two children in their home, with one woman gazing into the distance while the other helps a child to read. An 1861 edition includes an image, created by E.V.B. and engraved by William Meason, depicting angels in their robes. An 1887 edition includes illustrations by Alfred Woodruff, centering the focus on a cemetery, with plants overtaking the emerging gravestones on the stanza’s partnering page. An 1899 edition pictures a cottage set off from a path, surrounded by the sky and vegetation. While Gray’s poem was published nearly a century before Hardy’s birth, the Rubenstein’s holdings create the space to imagine how Hardy may have seen the poem for the first time, and how its presentation led him to use one of Gray’s lines as the title for his work.
Illustrations from two editions of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, 1899 (left) and 1861 (right).
Jumping further down the rabbit hole of this investigation, I then pulled two books by Florence Emily Hardy, Hardy’s second wife, with the hope of learning more about the historical context surrounding Hardy’s process of creating and publishing Far from the Madding Crowd. The first of the two books, The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, which covers his life from 1840 to 1891, is where the drama began to unfold. While published under Florence Hardy’s name with an understanding that Hardy himself contributed much of the work, the reception of this book has been contested by some scholars in the field. Some believe that Florence altered much of the text from its original form, a topic covered thoroughly by Michael Millgate in The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy, which was published with Hardy’s name after Millgate edited the work to resemble Hardy’s final version. Other scholars in the field have responded to this controversy, such as Tim Dolin in the 2007 article, “The Early Life and Later Years of Thomas Hardy: An Argument for a New Edition,” calling for Florence Hardy’s text to be reinstated as a credible account. Regardless of the criticism for Florence Hardy’s Early Life, the work presents additional information on Hardy’s writing practices as his novel continued to be published serially in Cornhill.
“So Hardy went on writing Far from the Madding Crowd—sometimes indoors, sometimes out—when he would occasionally find himself without a scrap of paper at the very moment that he felt volumes. In such circumstances he would use large dead leaves, white chips left by the wood-cutters, or pieces of stone or slate that came to hand. He used to say that when he carried a pocket-book his mind was barren as the Sahara” (Hardy 1928, 127).
Florence Emily Hardy’s 1928 publications on the life of her husband, Thomas Hardy.
Duke University is also home to additional texts that provide understanding to the world that Hardy lived in and how it was brought to life on the page. One book in particular, Hardy’s Wessex by Hermann Lea, showcases the real places that served as inspiration for Hardy’s setting, including images to better understand the farmland and lifestyle in Far from the Madding Crowd.
Hermann Lea’s descriptive work on Thomas Hardy’s Wessex, published in 1913, reprinted in 1928.
The Rubenstein also houses a few of Hardy’s papers in their archive. While they do not speak directly to this novel’s anniversary, they include some of Hardy’s correspondence and an etching of him completed by William Strang, an artist and printmaker who worked with other notable figures like Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Now 150 years old, Far from the Madding Crowd is a story that continues to see itself adapted and discussed. You may have read it in an English course, watched it unfold on-screen, or never heard of the sheep-filled tale before now. No matter the case, Duke Libraries has just enough copies for you to join the fun of guessing who Bathsheba Everdene will marry in the end!
Interested in reading more on the topic of Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd? “Far from the Madding Crowd at 150: Seven Reflections” includes writings from a group of Victorian scholars, all focusing on a different aspect of the text and bringing forth their unique perspectives on Hardy’s work.
Works Cited
Gray, Thomas. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. London: Printed for the Guild of Women-Binders, 61 Charing Cross Road, W.C., 1899. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
Hardy, Florence E. The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1891. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1928. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
Last month in October we observed both American Archives Month and Informational Literacy Awareness Month. Within the proclamation, President Obama acknowledges the challenges that everyday citizens face as the amount of information we receive and process on a regular basis has increased exponentially over the years. He encourages us to “recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.”
Read President Obama’s National Information Literacy Awareness Month Proclamation Here [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-10-07/pdf/E9-24290.pdf]
And who better to highlight in this blog post than those who continually care for the information literacy of others than the librarians within the Behind the Veil Collection.
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When using the occupation filter, you will find that there are a total of thirty-four librarians within the collection. One of them an archivist [link to the last blog post], others are also classified as teachers, a lawyer, and even a school librarian. Most of the oral histories belonging to these chief information officers can be found under the North Carolina location tag, with Louisiana coming in as a close second. You may find when searching through these librarians (as well as other parts of the collection) that some of these librarians cannot be accessed, such as Joan Coco’s interview and Carnell Clay, but don’t worry! You can always submit a request to receive a digital copy of the file and if you need some help submitting the request you can contact rlrepro@duke.edu.
There is much to be learned from the librarians within the collection. Much like the archivists, there are not many people that know specifically what librarians do. We often imagine them within libraries, finding and placing books on a shelf, but the interviews within the collection tell us more. Listeners learn not only about the different task that librarians did a various job, the condition of public schools during the time of segregation, and their lives outside of librarianship.
For example, Georgia Sutton who was born in New Bern, North Carolina in 1929 became what was known as a teacher librarian. She attended North Carolina College in Durham (later known as North Carolina Central) because it was one of the only Black colleges that offered a degree in Library Science. This was also the case for Arabelle Bryant who grew up in a small neighborhood not far from Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Bullock explains that when she attended the school in the early 40s, that the Library Science degree was only offered as a minor and thus those who wanted to graduate with it had to choose another major.
Part 1 43:35 “…I majored in Mathematics and minored in Library Science, which was kind of an odd combination because usually it was English or Social Studies or something like that as a major, but I didn’t want either one of those. What I really wanted to do was—my sister was a Home Economics teacher and I wanted to major in Home Economics and minor Library Science, but you couldn’t do that. So, I had to choose. I chose Mathematics. So, my major was really in mathematics. And later they did eventually break up to a full library science program. So I had to go back summers and get my degree in Library Science” (Arabelle Bulluck Bryant)
Condescendingly, after graduating Bryant went to New Bern to work within the school system and Sutton landed her first job in Quitman, Georgia. Instead of going back home, Sutton decided to go to Georgia because they paid year-round, versus in North Carolina where they only paid 9 months out of the year.
Sutton and Bryant both speak about the conditions of public schools during their tenure as teacher librarians. Bryant in New Bern mentions that the newspapers were “all showing how bad the white schools were, old, run-down toilets and things… And so, you know if the whites were like that, imagine what the Black schools were like.” She began teaching at West Street, the only public school as a librarian and math teacher, teaching only math during her first year. She did not work in the library until the current librarian left the school a year later. This is because in North Carolina, as well as all over the south, many schools did not hire full time librarians. Sutton, who also taught math was working during the time of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. And while she could not remember her feelings toward the decision, she did look forward to Black students being “exposed to all the things that White children were exposed to because under segregation, especially in the South, there was a tremendous difference in how the schools were set up or the materials that were used or given.” Sutton would also teach world history and social studies, speaking to the challenges of being able to teach her children history that pertained to their own heritage. When Rhonda Mawhood, one of the interviewers asked Georgia Sutton whether she was able to teach her students Black history, Sutton answered bluntly:
Part 38:54 “The only way you were going to would do that, you’d have to sneak that in Now. It was just never included in textbooks. Some teachers did it. It was a part of their curriculum but not of the schools… I do know something about my cultural heritage and whatever. But the children today know very little. I will tell you why. For one thing, the White teachers are not knowledgeable of African-American history and they don’t want to be. The majority of them could care less about a Black child’s heritage and he’s being cheated. I feel very strongly about that.” (Georgia Sutton)
And while there are a lot of similarities between the two librarians, one component that sticks out from Sutton’s interview, that was not found in Bryant’s was her mentioning the reason she wanted to become a librarian.
Part 2 34:24: “You must remember there were not many avenues open to us. Teaching was one of them. In fact, it was the main one. As I told you, it was prestigious to be a teacher in the community. You were looked up to. Then too, to tell you the truth, I really liked children. I always have liked to read, and that’s why I went into library science. It was that book thing that got me involved in that, and I still read a great deal” (Georgia Sutton)
Similarly, Sandra Moye Wilson [Sandra Wilson interview record, 1994 June 09 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository, a Durham native born in 1945, spoke about her love for books and the joy that she found at the library. While she does not plainly state this is what led her into the librarianship, she does state that she knew she was an adult at the age of 10 because “I could take my other brothers and sister and walk them to the library by myself.” Wilson was listed as a librarian but does not talk much about her career. Yet, she does mention that she was active in the NAACP at an early age, helping with voter registration and protests.
Anne McKay Ducan [Anne Duncan interview recording, 1993 June 02 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] also has a shorter interview and mentions she too participated in organizations outside of her profession. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta and a part of the Hampton Alumni Association. She graduated from Hampton University in 1934, double majoring in English, after attending a high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina where she was born.
2:46 “Hampton was a beacon during that time. There seemed to be two choices among the young people who grew up in Fayetteville, Howard University and Hampton Institute. And if you didn’t make it to either one of those, then you were more than apt to remain at home and go Fayetteville State. It was called State Normal then. It’s now Fayetteville University.” (Anne Mackay Ducan)
Ducan would attend college at the age of fifteen, graduating at the age of nineteen. She worked as a teacher for about ten years and then obtained another bachelor’s degree, this time in Library Science from Atlanta. Within her career she would serve as a librarian at the Avery Institute in Charleston, SC and then receive her Master’s in Library Science from Catholic University in Washington. She would work at North Carolina Central’s law library for 25 years, where she enjoyed her occupation the most.
Sadie Hughley slides: On the steps of Stanford Warren Library (segregated), Durham, N.C.: Mrs. Hughley, left rear, Mrs. Merrick, right rear, 1940s [https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst007021001
She began working at the Standofrd Warren Library in the mid-40s and from her interview you can tell that she truly enjoyed her time there. She recalled that there was a public school that was down the block from library, but it was important that they as librarians reached the parents first in order to get to the children, a common sentiment within many of these interviews that involve education.
Part 2 22:40 “But the children would come from school and the parents who were interested in helping their children, they knew that the library was the first stopping place. And we did a library, very, very wonderful things with the children…: I would take them in and develop programs for the children there— Then we decided that we should give the Children’s Library a name. And I put on a contest of the children to come up with things that they would like for their library to be. And one little girl came up with Key Corner, which was perfect. And she won first prize. So, it’s still the children’s library there for the children’s room. It’s called Key Corner.”
A group of children gather around a librarian at the desk in the Key Korner. [https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/archive/sw252.php]
She would continue working at the Stanford Warren Library for eleven years and then transition over to North Carolina Central, gaining her master’s degree in Library Science at the institution and working there for twenty-one years. She would work at the library within administration but mentions that she really enjoyed working with the children at the public library.
Part 2 19:57 “I enjoyed working with children very much. I really did. But I liked books and it meant that getting into more academic part of it was good for me.”
Hughley would work at North Carolina Central for twenty-one years. In that time, she would serve as the President of the Durham Library Association, serve on the National Board of Women’s International, she was a member of the Democratic National Committee and an honorary board member of the United Nations board of directors for the Orange Counties.
These are just a few of the librarians whose impactful stories can be found within the Behind the Veil Collection. Their legacies have shaped the history of Black librarianship and also serve as inspiration for future and present-day librarians. Here at the John Hope Franklin Research Center, we encourage you to delve deeper into this rich collection, where each narrative reflects a journey of resilience and historical relevance!
Sadie Hughley, seated at her desk, assists a young boy in checking out books. [https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/archive/sw245.php]
Post contributed by Will Runyan, Ph.D., Meyer Human Rights Archive Intern
Pamphlet supporting the 1992 presidential bid of Bo Gritz and containing conspiratorial claims related to the status of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as members of Yale’s secret society, Skull and Bones
In the March 22, 1992 issue of the Detroit Free Press, political correspondent Hugh McDiarmid reported on “the biggest, most enthusiastic—and yes, wackiest—presidential rally that I have witnessed in Michigan this year,” which he went on to describe as “a passionately patriotic—if disconnected and, at times, historically inaccurate—journey through conspiracy land.” The candidate on stage was not Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush, Democratic challenger Bill Clinton, or even Ross Perot, the Texas businessman whose independent bid would attract 18.9% of the popular vote. Rather, it was Lt. Col. James “Bo” Gritz, a retired US Army Special Forces officer decorated for his service in Vietnam who ran as the 1992 presidential candidate for the right-wing Populist Party. As McDiarmid notes, Gritz’s candidacy represented a shift from the overtly racist and antisemitic rhetoric of the Populist Party’s 1988 presidential candidate, David Duke. Though Gritz’s two-and-a-half-hour speech in Michigan was not entirely free of slurs, his appeal to a packed community college auditorium rested on suspicions that the US government had been overrun by “unproved and unprovable plots (by international bankers, globalists, Tri-Lateral commission members, etc.) to take over the world,” as McDiarmid skeptically puts it.
Bo Gritz won just 0.1% of the 1992 popular vote, seemingly good evidence that his fringe campaign was precisely that. Yet in the context of the Parker Anderson collection of conspiracy theory research, Gritz’s campaign appears as one of many marginal forces driving the growth of a vibrant conspiratorial ecosystem. Throughout the 1990s, disparate figures, organizations, and fixations increasingly found alignment in a conspiracist worldview predicated on the rise of a tyrannical New World Order orchestrated by shadowy elites with the consent of top US officials. At the same time, this outlook gained increasing visibility and influence in the cultural and political discourse of the United States, spawning infinite variations in subsequent decades from 9/11 conspiracies to QAnon and falsehoods about the ongoing FEMA response to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Originally published in 1992 by retired Pheonix police officer Jack McLamb, an affiliate of Bo Gritz, this document encourages police officers and members of the armed forces to resist the implementation of New World Order plots by the federal government. Its message is akin to that of today’s Oath Keepers and related militias.
The idea that emergent forms of international cooperation or global governance could endanger the rights and freedoms of average US citizens has circulated in many forms since the end of World War I, often linked to antisemitic tropes, Red Scare fears, or pervasive beliefs about secret societies. The Parker Anderson collection includes small amounts of material dating from the 1960s and 1970s that point to antecedents of the New World Order discourse that exploded in the 1990s, as well as a larger set of materials that offer glimpses of its further evolution in the past two decades—some as recent as May 2024. But the collection’s center of gravity is the period from 1987 to 2001.
To the extent that Parker Anderson, a lifelong Arizona resident and author of works on local history, was an engaged reader of local and state news from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, exposure to conspiracist views may have been part and parcel of a morning routine—whether through reports on regional militia activity in TheArizona Republic or columns and letters to the editor expressing fears and suspicions about the New World Order in The Prescott Daily Courier. If the clippings from these and other newspapers included in the collection evoke the collector’s incidental brushes with conspiracism, a larger volume of newspaper articles obtained through electronic databases represents a concerted effort to document varied aspects of conspiracist discourse. These, in turn, provide essential context for the collection’s core, composed of conspiracist literature and promotional materials in varied formats: books, booklets, serials, pamphlets, audio and video recordings of speeches and interviews, documentary films, and mailers and catalogs from a variety of publishers and distributors of these materials.
Lecture on tape distributed by John Maffei’s Catholic Counterpoint, one of several extremist Catholic publishers represented in the Parker Anderson collection
Taken together, this body of publications represents a distinctive resource for thinking about conspiracy networks. In addition to highlighting an array of individuals and organizations involved in crafting and disseminating conspiracist content at varying scales, operating in over twenty states and Washington, DC, the collection calls attention to their variable deployment of shared vocabularies in the service of constitutionalist, libertarian, evangelical, Catholic, white supremacist, and antisemitic arguments. Clusters of materials focused on events that served as conspiracy catalysts (the Ruby Ridge standoff in 1992, the Waco siege in 1993, and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995) and on the prolific genre of conspiracy theories about Bill and Hillary Clinton richly document the evolution and convergence of ideas across distinct sources.
Antisemitic booklet from the early 1980s. Later New World Order conspiracy literature inherited the ideas boldly announced on the cover, expressed both in explicitly antisemitic terms and indirectly with references to international financial institutions.
Documentation focused on a range of organizations and individuals offers another valuable means of navigating a cacophony of New World Order conspiracies. The organization best represented in the collection is the right-wing political advocacy group Liberty Lobby, which played an outsized role in bringing conspiracist views into the mainstream through publication of the populist and anti-establishment weekly newspaper The Spotlight, sponsorship of the radio talk show Radio Free America, and distribution of books in the same vein. Among the best represented individuals is Bo Gritz, whose conspiracist trajectory extends well beyond the 1992 presidential race. Each entity draws elements of the larger collection together in a distinct way. In the case of Liberty Lobby, materials produced and distributed by the organization seamlessly integrate the most disparate conspiratorial strands, among them stolen elections, miracle cures for cancer, Holocaust denial, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the idea of FEMA as vehicle of authoritarianism. In the case of Bo Gritz, strands of conspiracism seem to grow together through an idiosyncratic life path progressing from private missions into Vietnam and Laos in the 1980s, motivated by the belief that abandoned POWs were held there, to attempts to mediate between federal authorities and white supremacist militia figures in the 1990s.
While the Parker Anderson collection captures only the early evolution of conspiracist discourse in the internet age through a variety of web publications, and subsequent developments linked to social media are largely absent, those unfamiliar with the “conspiracy land” of the 1990s may be surprised to find its degree of continuity with claims and perceptions surrounding the 2016, 2020, and 2024 US presidential elections. Anyone seeking to understand the roots of the conspiratorial present will find that the collection offers a wealth of strange, often unpleasant, but essential reading.
Article discussing Bo Gritz’s efforts to mediate between federal law enforcement and the Montana Freemen which also includes a sketch of his biography.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Outreach and Research Associate, John Hope Franklin Research Center
Behind the Veil: American Archives Month and the Celebration of Libraries
While the first thing that may come to people’s mind about the month of October is Halloween, pumpkin spice, and the beginning of the holiday season. But the month of October is also American Archives Month. Meant to remind and celebrate the importance of archives and those who protect them, American Archives Month is also the time to give a big thank you to those who work hard to protect, enhance, and make the archives accessible to everyone.
And since the Behind the Veil collection is considered a digital archive, its only right to highlight the only archivist within the collection. Florence Borders, born 1924 (in New Iberia, LA) is not just any oral history interview. Florence Edwards Borders was an influential black archivist that left a legacy not only through her papers but also through her recorded oral history which can be found here: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/f0174cbd-e7f1-418d-89dc-1134add4debc
Image of Florence Borders found at https://obits.nola.com/us/obituaries/nola/name/florence-borders-obituary?id=1741328
Born Florence Edwards, Borders oral history is rich with details about her family as they were living in New Orleans during a time of segregation. Har father, a teacher instilled a love for education within all of his children, regardless of the discrimination going on around them. After striving to obtain his own education, he began to focus on making sure his children received a decent education while learning to navigate through the period of Jim Crow segregation.
Part 1 8:30 “So, I had learned to read early. And as I would be going to Drive Street with my father…. I would spell out words. And one word that I kept seeing was C-O-L-O-R-E-D. And I was trying to sound out the word, and I said, “Colored. What is Colored?” He told me, “That’s Colored, and it means you.” And I was looking at things that were marked for my use that looked different from things that had W-H-I-T-E over them, and I always wanted to know why these things didn’t look as nice, why the lunch counter in the ten cent store that had Colored on it was at the back and were smaller and just less attractive in general…And so my father was trying to help me understand the kind of society in which I had to live. And he just told me that no matter what labels other people placed on me, I determined what I was. And so, I didn’t really fret a great deal about going to public schools that didn’t have enough textbooks and that did not want to let us have new ones at any rate. I got to think that the people who made these decisions were kind of stupid…”
Her love for reading and books would increase because of her father. He would collect books while he was in college and afterward begin to subscribe to Black papers and magazines. She mentions that while they did not have a library to hold all the materials, her father would continue to grow their collection. And while the materials and lessons that she received from the public school were not up to standard, her father would continue to make sure she had new books every school year. Perhaps it was during this time in her life that Borders was influenced the most to pursue a career in librarianship.
She would attend the historic McDonogh 35, the first and only four-year public high school for African Americans during that time, during her 10th and 11th grade years. After graduation she would start college at her father’s alma mater, Southern University in Baton Rouge. At the beginning of World War II, she would start her freshman year. She recalls listening to the radio to hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This would affect the college experience for many students as many of the young men begin to start preparing to leave for war. “A lot of the girls cried, sometimes because the young men involved were tehri boyfriends… This was a goodbye, and our paths might never cross again. So instead of all the joy that I had expected for my freshman year of college, within a few more weeks, the country was at war.” (Part 3 1:34)
Another effect of the war was the marriage of many of the female college grads to their male classmates as they returned from the war and re-enrolled in school under the G.I. Bill. An increase of students on college campuses also meant that that were a need for more staff. And so, after finishing library school, with a slew of jobs that needed filling in front of her, Borders, decided to work at Bethune Cookman College. It was here that she met and married her husband, James. B. Borders III, a G.I. that was returning to gain his education as well.
But Borders was not concerned about the returning G.I.s when it came to picking where she would work.
Part 3 13:15 “So I could have had my pick of jobs just about because librarians were very much in demand. And so, I chose to go to Bethune Cookman College because of Mrs. Bethune. I looked forward to meeting her, and I hoped that I was going to meet Zora Neale Hurston, who had once been employed on the campus. And I did not know that she was no longer employed there, so about the first thing I wanted to know when dawn came—I arrived in the middle of the night—where is Zora Neale Hurston?”
This would only be one of the many institutions that Borders would share her expertise with. She would serve as a catalog librarian at Tennessee State University and then a move to Grambling State University after the sudden death of her husband. The longest part of her career was spent at the Amistad Research Center where she was first considered an archivist. It was here that Borders would leave a lasting impression by constantly championing and uncovering the lives of Black women within the collection. She would retire from the Amistad in 1989.
Borders would publish papers and articles that would highlight the lives of Black women in Louisiana and their legacies. She would also create a group called the Chicory Society in 1983 that would continue to honor the contributions of African American in Louisiana. She would consult on documentaries and televisions programs. “She appeared in Liberty Street Blues, a documentary movie about the history of New Orleans jazz, and worked as a researcher for The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. The late filmmaker Marlon Riggs drew on her expertise for his documentary, Black Is, Black Ain’t, and she was consulted for the film House Divided…” (Source)
And even as she continuously worked within her passion as a researcher, writer and archivist, she was still dedicated to the people around her, wanting to bring more young black professionals into her field.
Part 4 9:39“Now I’m hoping that I can influence some of out students to become archivist because there are not that many African American archivists. We have a little what we call third world archivist within the Society of American archivist and I’d like to see more of our young people come into the pression. I’m hoping that Ill influence a couple of kids from SUNO to choose that as profession”
The Black Librarians Project [https://lhrt.news/honoring-black-women-librarians/]
“Florence E. Borders: Archivist, Librarian, and Scholar (1924-2018)” [https://lhrt.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/borders-florence-e.docx.pdf]
Neal, Kathryn M. “Borders on Excellence: Florence Borders Carves Out Career in Libraries and Archives.” Archives & Archivists of Color Newsletter 12, no. 1 (Spring 1998). [https://files.archivists.org/groups/aac/newsletter/AACv12n1.pdf]
Post contributed by Madeline Huh, Trent History of Medicine Intern, MSLS student at UNC Chapel Hill.
I’ve been working as the History of Medicine intern at the Rubenstein Library for a little over a month now, and in my short time working here, I’ve had the opportunity to look at some truly remarkable materials–from the gorgeous illustrations of Elizabeth Blackwell’s A curious herbal, to handwritten notebooks by nineteenth-century Japanese physicians, to an atlas of midwifery from 1926. And, of course, I’ve also had the chance to look at fascinating historical artifacts like the 16th century Scultetus bow saw, an 18th century trephination kit, and a very intriguing little box of pills labeled as “female pills.”
One of my favorite books I’ve encountered so far has been the Gynaeciorum, an encyclopedia of obstetrics and gynecology compiled in the 16th century by Conrad Gessner and Hans Kaspar Wolf. It is the first gynecological encyclopedia to be published, and I was surprised to discover that an entire book was dedicated to this topic in the 16th century. The Gynaeciorum combines the works of several different ancient and medieval medical authors who wrote about women’s health. A few of these include Trota, a twelfth-century female physician and medical writer; Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās al-Zahrāwī, one of the great surgeons of the Middle Ages; and Muscio, the author of a treatise on gynecology from ca. 500 CE.
The subject matter of the book often goes beyond what we generally think of as the realm of gynecology and obstetrics, exploring neonatal and pediatric inquiries as well. One section asks, “What should be the first food that we give to an infant?” The provided answer is, “Something like bread–that is, crumbs poured into honey-wine, preserved fruit, or milk, or perhaps a drink made of spelt, or porridge” (Gynaeciorum, 79–translation from Latin is my own). Other inquiries discuss menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum health.
I was also very intrigued to find the first printed edition of Muscio’s Gynaecia at the back of the book, printed in Greek no less, which struck me as unusual. In medieval Europe, it was more common for Greek works to be translated and disseminated in Latin, rather than the other way around. Literacy and interest in Greek in the west decreased during this period before a revival of interest in Hellenistic culture and language occurred during the Renaissance. I did a little research on the medieval manuscript transmission of Muscio, and what I discovered was a very convoluted story of translation, retranslation, and misattribution.
According to Monica Green, a historian of medieval medicine and women’s health, Muscio (who is also known as Mustio in some places–not to be confused with Moscion, who is another ancient medical writer entirely) originally wrote a treatise on gynecology in Latin around 500 CE known as the Gynaecia. This was probably a translation and paraphrase of the Greek Gynaikeia by the physician Soranus of Ephesus who was active around 100 CE. Muscio’s work was copied into several manuscripts in western Europe during the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, and his work was popularized later in the Middle Ages, eventually being translated into French, English, Dutch, and Spanish. But intriguingly, Muscio’s treatise on gynecology was also translated into Greek within the Byzantine Empire. Finally, in 1793, the Greek translation was retranslated back into Latin by Franz Oliver Dewez! I can only wonder how close (or far) Dewez was to Muscio’s original language and phrasing.
All of this was fascinating to learn. Looking at the edition of Muscio in the back of the Gynaeciorum, we see that Gessner and Wolf, who were working in the 16th century, have chosen to present it in its Greek form. I wonder, then, did Gessner and Wolf know about the manuscript transmission of this text and that it was originally written in Latin? I assume they did, based on the fact that we see a Latin preface to Muscio’s Gynaecia included at the very beginning of the Gynaeciorum. So did Gessner and Wolf include the Greek version in the book to appeal to contemporary interest in Greek language and literature, or for another reason? And what information about women’s health and childbirth has been lost or misinterpreted in the process of translation and retranslation? My deep dive into Gessner, Muscio, Soranus, and the transmission of gynecological texts has left me with even more questions than I started with.
School is back in session and we at the John Hope Franklin Research Center would like to welcome back all the students! For September, we want to focus on the place that so many students, academics, and residents call home, Durham, North Carolina.
You cannot talk about the history of black business without mentioning the legacy of Black Wall Streets. The collective effort of African Americans through business ownership and the growth of communities through increased financial means was a product of Jim Crow and segregation throughout the South. After the Civil War, while still barred from opportunities of their white counterparts, African Americans took advantage of their new status as citizens by taking matters into their own hands and creating the American dream for themselves.
In the late 19th, early 20th century places like the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Auburn Historic district in Atlanta, Georgia, Farish Street in Jackson Mississippi, and West Ninth Street in Little Rock, Arkansas were filled with insurance agencies, banks, barber shops and other black owned businesses. More importantly they served as cultural hubs that fostered community collectiveness through churches, clubs and organizations, and schools.
And because we are located in the beautiful and historic city of Durham, it is only right to discuss the history of Black Wall Street that prospered in the Hayti District, once located between Pettigrew and Fayetteville Streets. This area was filled with black business and neighborhoods that were the homes of many prominent African Americans figures. Some of the people found within the Behind the Veil Collection were a part of this historic time, and speak in detail about their lives and the lives of others around them. This week, we learn about these people.
“When Harlem in New York City became the Mecca of the “New Negro” and the center of the Negro Renaissance, the capital of the black bourgeoisie was Durham, North Carolina,” Black Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier
After W.E.B. DuBois visited Durham in 1912 he wrote “Three men began the economic building of black Durham: a minister with college training, a physician with professional training, and a barber who saved his money.”( The Legacy of Durham’s Black Wall Street | Discover Durham) The three men that DuBois was referencing was Aaron M. Moore, John H. Merrick, and Charles C. Spaulding. Also known as “Triumvirate,” together they grew the first black business that would create the bridge for the creation of other businesses: the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Started in 1898 (and moving to Parish Street in 1904) NC Mutual, as it is commonly known, would provide investment opportunities, small business loans, and life insurance. It was the first black owned insurance company in the state and the largest in the country, servicing African Americans in not only North Carolina, but later states throughout the south.
An ad for the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, from the Seeman’s Durham North Carolina Directory, 1911-1912. Photo Source: https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25144?ln=en
We learn this by listening to the oral history of William (Bill) Alexander Clement [William Clement interview recording, 1993 May 28 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository]. While Clement was born in South Carolina, his father, Arthur was a North Carolina native. And after Arthur graduated from Johnson C. Smith in 1905, he began working for NC Mutual, establishing an office in Charleston. While in college, Bill knew that he wanted to go into business, and as soon as he graduated, he began working at NC Mutual. He was invited by the agency director to come to Durham and after training for six weeks, he was sent to Memphis to start working for $12.50 a week.
Part 1 31:02 “Things were pretty rough. But $12.50 a week was more than what the teachers were getting. The teachers in South Carolina and Tennessee and mostly Georgia were earning about $37.50 a month. $37.50 a month. And to ger $12.50 a week, that was the equivalent of almost $50 a month.”
NC Mutual was the only job that Clement held in his entire life. Working in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, Clement would get to know CC Spaulding, Ed Merrick (the son of John Merrick) and Mr. John Hervey Wheeler. He would serve as the region supervisor, assisting director and agency director before named executive vice president in 1975 and retiring in 1978.
Photo of William Clement from his obituary. Photo Source: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/aarl_afpc_clementwilliamalexander20010401
Joseph C. Hargett. https://www.hargettfuneralserviceinc.com/who-we-are
Bynum’s interview is filled with Durham’s black business history as she details businesses and their locations. And because of where she lived and her parent’s involvement within the community, she grew up knowing some of the most influential leaders of Black Wall Street like “Triumvirate”, because “Most of them lived right up Fayetteville Street.”
Part 1 11:36 “As I said, the library was on the corner of Pedigree Street and Fayetteville Street across from it was Mr. John Merrick’s house. Then you had another house next to that, then was the street where White Rock Baptist Church set on the corner. That was on the right-hand side of the street coming down on the other side of the street. Dr. Moore’s home. And then you had businesses, drug store, Pearson’s Drug Store. Ed Green’s grocery store…Then there was cafeteria. Then on the corner was St. Joseph’s Church and next to St. Joseph’s church was the parsonage. Next to that was WG Pearson…FK Watkins, who was your first Black movie house. And coming down on this side of the street from up there, [indistinct 00:15:52] library. Then there were homes until you got those section you called—That’s what’s what you call Haiti. When they talk about Hayti. And that in there was where you had a theater on this side the street, the Southern Fidelity started on that side the street and coming.”
Along with the history of Durham’s Black Wall Street, listeners also learn about Bynum’s strong opinions about working at the funeral home. She states multiple times that she did not want to have a career in funeral services, regardless of her family legacy. But her loyalty to her father was stronger and she became the first Black women embalmer in the state and the first women president for the Funeral Directors & Morticians Association of North Carolina. She would also end up working at North Carolina Mutual and then at the Merrick Moore School and Lincoln Hospital.
Photo of Scarborough Family members https://www.scarboroughhargettcelebration.com/who-we-are/history-and-staff
These two oral histories are just a tip of the iceberg. Within the collection you can also learn about Nathaniel White [Nathaniel White interview recording, 1995 February 17 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository}, printing service owner whose business also sat on Parrish Street, Alexander Rivera [Alexander Rivera interview recording, 1995 June 02 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository ] a journalist approached by Dr. James E. Shepard to start and organize a news bureau at North Carolina College (later North Carolina Central) because his father was his dentist, and many others. With fifty oral histories categorized under the Durham location tag and over one hundred within North Carolina, who knows the stories that one may find that mention Durham’s Black Wall Street!
We hope you’ve enjoyed “Digging Through the Tapes: Welcome Back to Durham” and that you continue to take the time to learn more about the history and legacy of the city you can call home!
Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University
