If you’ve wandered through the libraries lately, you’ve probably noticed the beautiful mobiles advertising Lilly Library’s Mobile Madness contest. As part of an initiative to bring art into our libraries, and in partnership with the Nasher Gallery’s new exhibit, Alexander Calder and Contemporary Art: Form, Balance, Joy, Lilly Library sponsored a Duke-wide contest encouraging people to create their own mobiles. Entries were judged by a panel of experts within the categories of most humorous, most Duke, and most creative.
Archivist's Toolkit, balancing on our conference room coat rack
We in Rubenstein Technical Services are fairly competitive, and we also love what we do and are proud to show it off. Our entry, Archivist’s Toolkit, sought to highlight the wide range of formats and materials held by the Rubenstein, from manuscripts to rare books to audiovisual to electronic records. The department collected rusty paperclips, made little white gloves, and created tiny manuscripts tumbling from an archival box. We then included a mobile version of our finding aids and catalog records, complete with EAD tags and card catalog cards. The trickiest part was balancing everything (and also transporting it across campus to Lilly!), but it was very fun to work as a team and build our masterpiece. And then, last night, we won! Go TS!
Archivist's Toolkit hanging in Lilly Library
Part of the winning Technical Services team, with our blue ribbon and jazz hands
Check out all the entries and our fellow winners at Lilly Library (through April 27) or on the Lilly Library Flickr page, and be sure to visit the Nasher exhibit to see the wonderful Calder mobiles displayed there.
On March 30, 1984, he was a Trinity senior, premiering his and classmate Jeff Bennett’s feature-length film, Darkmoor, at the Bryan Center. Supported by Freewater Films, the film was his senior thesis and ended up requiring a budget of $60,000, owing in part to the fact that three-quarters of the film had to be re-shot after the lead actor graduated and wasn’t able to complete his final scenes.
Jared Harris and Jeff Bennett (and dog), The Chronicle, September 23, 1982
In interviews, Mr. Harris describes the film only as a “psychological thriller.” There’s an orphaned boy who shows up just at the right moment and a father who doesn’t. There’s a Bryan Center art show with a painting by Picasso and a psychiatric ward somewhere in Duke Hospital. There are references to Carl Jung’s theories and T. S. Eliot’s poetry (Harris’ Program II curriculum included English literature classes), as well as so many hints at the power of advertising and subliminal messages that we wonder if Harris knew where he’d end up 28 years later.
There’s also former Duke President Terry Sanford in a cameo as a jaded psychology professor.
Reviews from The Chronicle and the Durham Sun suggest that Sanford proved quite the capable actor, but we can’t offer our own opinion, because the Duke University Archives doesn’t have a copy of the film. The records of the Duke University Union contain only a not-quite-final draft of the script that suggests that Darkmoor Shaw, the film’s main character, started out as Darkmoor Kilgore.
Here’s the scene, early in the film, where Darkmoor acquires his first name.
SCENE
EXT. A HOUSE WITH A LAWN. DAY.
Alex is on the lawn with her child, who is crawling around in front of her. She picks the child up, sets him on the ground in front of her, and gives him a little push. The child waddles off away from the mother. Alexandra starts to call names after him.
ALEX
“William, Richard, Joseph, Randy—no wait, I take that back, Philip, Arthur, Nicholas, Archibald (she winces) Robert, Jeff. . . (she stops) Martin, Perrygwyne, Darkmoor. . .”
The child turns around and looks inquiringly at his mother.
ALEX
“Darkmoor?”
The child starts to crawl to his mother. She goes over to him and picks him up.
ALEX
“What a strange name to choose for yourself, you funny little fellow, but I like it. Alright, then, Darkmoor it is.”
According to Mr. Harris, the idea for this scene came from his (late) father, Richard Harris, the venerated British actor. With such an impressive pedigree, we’re relieved that a copy of the script exists in the Duke University Archives. And Mr. Harris, if you still have a copy of the film, could we please borrow it?
Invitation to Darkmoor premiere, March 30, 1984.
And, for those of you who can’t get enough Mad Men, watch The Devil’s Tale over the next few weeks for news about the next event in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History’s 25th Anniversary Lecture Series. On April 10th, the center will be welcoming Charlotte Beers, former Chairman/CEO of Ogilvy & Mather and Under Secretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs. Find more information on the Hartman Center’s homepage!
First page from the Thomas F. Perry music collection, 1833, which features many Irish melodies.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the Rubenstein! Here are the “Irish Quick Step” and “St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning” to enhance your celebrations. These dances and more can be found in the Thomas F. Perry Music Collection, dating from about 1833.
Post contributed by Alice Poffinberger, Archivist/Original Cataloger in the Technical Services Dept.
Oreo celebrates its 100th birthday today, marking the anniversary of its introduction on March 6, 1912, by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). It went on to become the best-selling cookie in the United States during the 20th century. To commemorate the occasion, Nabisco, now owned by Kraft, has launched a new birthday-cake flavored Oreo and a website where you can share Oreo moments or send Oreo-grams.
1952 advertisement for Oreos
A hundred years of twisting and dipping the black and white cookie also means a hundred years of advertising Oreos to potential consumers. The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History has a number of historic Oreo advertisements in its collections. The earliest print ads show Oreos alongside other Nabisco products, such as the Uneeda Biscuit and Lorna Doone Shortbread. These advertisements typically featured a young boy in a yellow raincoat. This character was developed by Philadelphia-based advertising agency N.W. Ayer & Son to highlight the effectiveness of Nabisco’s innovative moisture-proof packaging (called In-er-seal) in an era when other biscuits were packed by grocers in paper bags. Ads urged consumers to “look for the red seal.”
1923 advertisement for Oreos
Oreo has had several name variations during its long life. It entered the world as “Oreo Biscuit,” changed to “Oreo Sandwich” in 1921 and then to “Oreo Creme Sandwich” in 1948. Now it’s just “Oreo” and billed as “Milk’s Favorite Cookie.” Nabisco introduced Double Stuf Oreos in 1975 and the Fudge Covered Oreos (pictured, below right) in 1987, just in time for the cookie’s 75thbirthday. Now the brand is sold worldwide – you can even get Green Tea Oreos in China and Japan!
Post contributed by Liz Shesko, Reference Intern, Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History.
1988 advertisement for Fudge-Covered OreosGrocer's promotional display for Oreos, ca. 1900-1930
For those of you who are just tuning in, the Duke University Archives has entered into a friendly competition with our colleagues at the UNC University Archives. The challenge: whose Facebook page can get the most new “likes” by tip-off (7:00 PM) of the March 3rd UNC vs. Duke game. That’s Saturday night!
Our standings, as of noon today:
Duke University Archives: 371 new “likes” (446 total “likes”)
UNC University Archives: 749 new “likes” (794 total “likes”)
Uh-oh.
So ask your friends and your friends’ friends and your friends’ friends’ great-grandparents to “like” us on Facebook! The stakes are huge: the loser has to post a photo of the winner’s choosing (and from the winner’s collection) as their Facebook profile photo for one week. Do you really want to see a photo of Dean Smith (happy belated birthday, by the way!) on the Duke University Archives’ Facebook page?
We’re staying positive here at the Duke University Archives, though. We’d like to ask you, our stalwart and loyal fans, to help us pick the photo we’ll send over to the UNC University Archives Facebook page on Saturday. Below, you’ll find the contenders and a poll.
#1
Duke’s Blue Devil and UNC’s Ramses play nicely at a 1957 football game.
An Adorable Rivalry, 1957
#2
Duke president Terry Sanford (speaking at the podium) doesn’t look too pleased. Perhaps that’s because he received his bachelor’s degree from UNC?
Duke University Commencement, 1979
#3
Duke guard Steve Vacendak rises above his UNC rivals.
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Move and Obsess About Book Trucks.
When I started as Collections Move Coordinator, I knew it would be a challenging task involving inventories, spreadsheets, and endless logistics, as well as coordinating the work of students, colleagues, and staff in other departments. What I had not counted on was the number of supplies we would need to gather to complete the move. I spent my first two months on the job compiling opinions on carts, boxes, barcode scanners, shipping bins, and even post-it note color preferences (this was a particularly long discussion and search). I have become particularly obsessed with carts. There are so many different designs — so many ways to get your rare and unique materials from here to there and back again. But of course it takes more than just carts to move the Rubenstein Library. Below, please find a gallery of some of my favorite move supplies.
Code Name: “The Biscuit.” (Seriously, that’s what the manufacturer calls it.)
This height-adjustable table is truly the caddy of carts. It is ideal for reviewing collections in the stacks: narrow enough to fit between ranges of material and big enough to fit a laptop, barcode scanner, dust mask and measuring tape (I carry these with me at all times). The height-adjustable feature is amazing and keeps my colleagues and me from getting sore necks as a result of bending over our laptops.
Code Name: “Bubbles.”
It’s bubble wrap, people: lots and lots of bubble wrap.
Code Name: “Ol’ Reliable.”
These sturdy wooden carts are the friends of everyone in the library, and we treat them sort of like cattle. Each department brands them, protects them fiercely, and works hard to rustle them up when one gets separated from the herd. Also, it’s fun to think about librarians and archivists as cowboys and girls on the frontier, wrangling up books and historical materials.
Code Name: “Fuchsia.”
When a manuscript box has been checked and is ready to move, we put a pink post-it note on it. This way everyone easily knows what collections have already been prepped and which need work. Plus, who doesn’t love a little extra color in the stacks!
Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collections Move Coordinator.
Now a celebration to honor the office of the president of the United States, President’s Day was originally a celebration of George Washington’s birthday; Washington, the hero of the War for Independence and our nascent republic’s first president. An equally familiar image of Washington is the boy who could not tell his father a lie. Familiar to all, but what are the origins of this universally known presidential anecdote?
Weems' Life of George Washington
In the Early American Republic no public figure was more universally revered than George Washington. Shortly after his death in 1799 M.L.(Parson) Weems wrote a small, single-volume biography of Washington, The Life of George Washington: with curious anecdotes, equally honorable to himself, and exemplary to his young countryman. Focused primarily on the young Washington, the book was an effort to humanize a public man for mass consumption and provide an instructive model of virtuous behavior.
Portrait from Weems' Life of George Washington
Among the many colorful vignettes from Weems’s Life is the story of a young Washington, hatchet in hand, unable to lie when confronted by his father over a felled cherry tree. Weems attributed the story to an “aged lady” who spent time on the Washington family farm.
Parson Weems' Fable, by Grant Wood
Despite criticism from contemporary gentlemen such as John Adams and Chief Justice John Marshall (who, perhaps not coincidentally, wrote his own 5-volume biography of Washington) the book was immensely popular. A New York Times best-seller of its day, it went through 29 editions in its first 25 years of publication.
Live virtuously this President’s Day!
Post contributed by Joshua Larkin Rowley, Research Services Coordinator.
While this Valentine’s Day might result in many short love notes being traded via smartphones and Facebook walls, sweethearts sometimes used a different method in the early 20th century: the telegram. Ella Fountain Keesler Pratt, a Duke employee for almost thirty years (1956-1984), was the recipient of several sugar-coated missives delivered by Western Union in the 1930s. These are a few of the loveliest love letters, found while processing Ella’s papers.
Duke begged, "Please give me a few dates ... Don't leave town if you do I'm coming after you.""Want date Sunday night No answer means Yes Love, Frank."A secret admirer rhymed, "Than my skeeter none is sweeter if she'd only write.""Incidentally I Love You," signs Lanny.
Ms. Pratt eventually married Lanier “Lanny” Pratt in 1938; he attended graduate classes and then taught at Duke University until his death in 1956. He must have said something right!
Post contributed by Rosemary K. J. Davis, Drill Intern, University Archives.
On April 17, 1909, Frederick Augustus Grant Cowper married Mary Octavine Thompson. Frederick became Professor of Romance Languages at Trinity College (now Duke University), while Mary (who earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago) became a suffragette, helping to organize the North Carolina League of Women Voters in 1920. Both Frederick’s and Mary’s papers reside in the Rubenstein Library.
The Cowpers' honeymoon scrapbook, with flowers picked by Mary
While on their honeymoon in New Hampshire, the Cowpers took many photographs they placed in an album they titled “Photographs of their Wedding Journey.” In honor of Valentine’s Day, here is my favorite photograph and caption:
The Cowpers' honeymoon scrapbook, asking "How'd you like to spoon with me on Mt. Gardner?"
Post contributed by Kim Sims, Technical Services Archivist for Duke University Archives.
The fighting spirit of Blue Devil competitiveness doesn’t apply to only basketball and other sports—we’re staging a little (Facebook) battle royale of our own:
The rules are very simple. Whichever institution gets the most NEW “Likes” for their Facebook page between today and tipoff (7:00 PM) for the March 3rd Duke vs. UNC basketball game wins! The winner will bask in electronic glory, while the loser will be required to change their Facebook profile to an image of their opponent’s choice. Big stakes, indeed.
So if you haven’t already, pop over to Facebook and “Like” the Duke University Archives page. Share the word with your friends so we can defeat our powder blue foes! Of course, you’ll also get the pleasure of learning more about Duke history while you’re at it—seems like a win/win all around.
Go Duke University Archives!
Historical Blue Devil vs. Historical Ramses, 1957. From the 1958 Chanticleer.
Post contributed by Rosemary K. J. Davis, Duke University Archives Drill Intern.
Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University
