It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time! (Click the photo to see it on our Flickr photostream, Duke Yearlook.)
As much as we love this photo, we know very little about it (other than that it’s from page 141 of the 1974 Chanticleer). If you know the story behind this photo, share it in a comment below or contact us!
It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time! (Click the photo to see it on our Flickr photostream, Duke Yearlook.)
So, ladies and gentlemen, now it’s time to get all dolled up in your best duds for a performance by the Duke Ambassadors!
Spring is in the air! It’s time to shake the remnants of winter off the ol’ Uggs and turn your thoughts towards the latest trends in fashion . . . or at least the latest trends in fashion from the 1930s-1940s. We recently found 40 hand-drawn, hand-colored dress designs by Maison Paquin, a Paris fashion house known for its evening dresses and tailored day dresses, in the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Historical Archives (featured in our recent exhibit).
Jeanne Paquin (1869-1936), a French fashion designer, was known for deep, rich colors, luxurious fabrics, and modern and innovative designs. She tended to use materials that hugged the body on top and flowed on the bottom.
We don’t know if Paquin designed these dresses specifically for Doris Duke, but, considering there is a patron number and specific fabrics attached to the designs, it is highly likely that these were designs only available to serious couture customers. A further clue into Doris Duke’s patronage is a receipt from 1938 in which she purchased 26 items from Paquin for 81.650 francs.
Looking through (and ooh-ing and aah-ing over) all these amazing designs made us wonder how they would have stacked up in a show like Project Runway. We have narrowed down the 40 Paquin designs to 10, and will be showcasing them here on The Devil’s Tale in two runway challenges. Today’s runway show is evening wear. Click below to see the designs and vote for your favorite look. You get to decide which is in and which is out!
It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time! (Click the photo to see it on our Flickr photostream, Duke Yearlook.)
Who wants to study when you can play badminton? Here, international students unwind with their new American friends as part of the Institute for International Education’s summer orientation program. Duke University served as a host institution for this U.S. State Department initiative from 1950 to 1957.
It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time! (Click the photo to see it on our Flickr photostream, Duke Yearlook.)
Think these 1940s co-eds are just relaxing with some bon-bons at the end of a tough day of classes? Not at all: this is actually a high-level meeting to plan a holiday dance!
It’s been a long and fun year. We’re counting down to LDOC with Duke University Archives photos of Duke students having a good time!
The photo above comes from Trinity College student Charles Bagley’s scrapbook, which documents school life from 1907 to 1913. You’ll find a digitized version of the scrapbook on the Duke University Archives’ Flickr photostream.
(Thanks to University Archives student assistant Crystal Reinhardt for helping with photo selection!)
Date: 6 April-18 July 2011 Location and Time: Perkins Library Gallery during library hours Contact Information: Meg Brown, 919-681-2071 or meg.brown(at)duke.edu
Physicians' Anatomical Aid, ca. 1880-1890
Animated Anatomies explores the visually stunning and technically complex genre of printed texts and illustrations known as anatomical flap books.
This exhibit traces the flap book genre beginning with early examples from the sixteenth century, to the colorful “golden age” of complex flaps of the nineteenth century, and finally to the common children’s pop-up anatomy books of today. The display—which includes materials from the RBMSCL, the Duke Medical Center Library & Archives’ History of Medicine Collections, and from the private collections of the curators of the exhibit—highlights the history of science, medical instruction, and the intricate art of bookmaking.
The exhibit is curated by Professor Valeria Finucci, Department of Romance Studies, and Maurizio Rippa-Bonati, Department of History of Medicine at the University of Padua, with the assistance of Meg Brown, Duke University Libraries exhibits coordinator, and Rachel Ingold, Curator of the History of Medicine Collections. Items will be exhibited in both the gallery of Perkins Library on Duke’s main campus as well as outside the History of Medicine Reading Room at Duke’s Medical Center Library.
In addition to the exhibit, an opening reception will be held Monday, 18 April, at 10 AM at the History of Medicine Collections, followed by a symposium of renowned scholars in history, medicine, and medical history in Perkins Library. The exhibit and the symposium, both free and open to the public, aim to address a diverse public including those interested in the medical field, history, cultural studies, visual studies, and material studies.
To learn more about the symposium, exhibit, see photos of anatomical flap books, and watch videos of them in action, visit the exhibit website.
Post contributed by Rachel Ingold, Curator of the History of Medicine Collections.
When I first began investigating the Robert Boyd Family Papers at Duke’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, I expected to find something that would appeal to genealogists of this family and those researching the history of Abbeville County, South Carolina. I didn’t know that I would discover a rich story about the triumphs of love and the tragedies of war. I would not have believed that two years later their story would be available to the world in The Boys of Diamond Hill: The Lives and Civil War Letters of the Boyd Family of Abbeville County, South Carolina. With the guidance of the staff at RBMSCL and my editors at McFarland Publishers, that is exactly what has happened.
The backbone of this work can be found in the 86 letters of the five Boyd brothers and the husband of their eldest sister lovingly preserved in the RBMSCL. With the additional research of this family and the units they served in, their full story slowly emerged. In April 1861, brothers Daniel and Pressley Boyd joined the Confederate army. Soon the war would sweep the other three Boyd brothers—William, Thomas and Andrew—as well as their brother-in-law Fenton Hall, away from their farm in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Researching this collection uncovered warmth, humor, horror and loss of four long years of war.
I understand from descendants of Fenton Hall that a number of letters from this family had been lost in a house fire. They were thrilled to learn that those destroyed did not constitute the entire body of the brothers’ letters. It is so wonderful that Duke has preserved these surviving letters so the fascinating lives of these young men would not be lost to history. The helpful staff and wonderful facilities made the marathon sessions with this collection a joy and their support through the preparation for the publication process was invaluable.
To learn more about the book, as well as Keith’s other research projects, visit his website!
P.S. We’re still collecting responses for our reader feedback poll. Please click the orange button at the right to tell us your thoughts about The Devil’s Tale. Thanks!
Date: Thursday, 31 March 2011 Time: 3:30 PM Location: Rare Book Room Contact Information: Karen Glynn, 919-660-5968 or karen.glynn(at)duke.edu
Graeme Williams, Cape Town, 2005.
Karen Glynn, the RBMSCL’s Visual Materials Archivist, will give an historical overview of the South African Documentary Photography collections in the Archive of Documentary Arts from 1986 until today. Paul Weinberg, photographer and Senior Curator of Visual Archives in the Manuscripts and Archives Library at the University of Cape Town, will pick up the thread and describe the process of building a documentary photography archive in South Africa today.
Twenty of Weinberg’s photos are available online at the website for Then and Now, an exhibit on South African documentary photography that he curated for the Archive of Documentary Arts in 2008.
Weinberg’s photographs are archived at the RBMSCL. You can view the finding aid for his collection here.
Today, March 26, 2011, would be the hundredth birthday of Tennessee Williams, one of America’s great playwrights. The Carson McCullers Papers here at Duke contain many letters between McCullers and Williams, most from the late 1940s, shortly after Williams had written McCullers a fan letter and the two had immediately become close friends. The letters are full of passionate discussion of their work, travels, and deep affection for each other.
On behalf of McCullers and all lovers of American theatre and literature: Happy birthday, “10 Darling.”
Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.
P.S. If you haven’t yet, please take our survey by clicking on the orange button on the right. We are collecting information from our readers so that we can make our blogs better and more informative. It won’t take long—just five easy questions. Thanks!
Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University
