Category Archives: Hartman Center

Meet our Interns

Every fall the Rubenstein Library welcomes a new group of graduate student interns from Duke and other area universities.  Maybe I just have a soft spot for our interns since I was once one, but I think anyone at the Rubenstein would tell you that our interns are an integral part of the work we do, helping us with processing collections, creating finding aids, answering reference questions, coordinating events, and much more. I’d like to introduce you to some of the interns who are working with the Research Services department this year:

Dominique Dery, Research Services Intern

What she’s studying: I’m currently a PhD student studying Political Theory and Religion and Politics in the Political Science department at Duke. My dissertation links historical accounts of civic friendship with contemporary theoretical and ethnographic work on civic engagement and community service.
What’s she’s been working on at the Rubenstein Library: As the Research Services intern, I serve patrons at the front desk of the Rubenstein, and I also respond to queries from researchers who can’t make it in to the library themselves. So far I’ve searched through and ordered reproductions of letters, sheet music, and pamphlets.
What she likes to do when she’s not with us: When I’m not writing or at the Rubenstein, I love to help out at a friend’s farm in Rougemont and hike along the Eno.
Most interesting thing she’s come across in our collections:  The most interesting thing I’ve come across so far has been the correspondence between Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams while on the hunt for mention of another writer in McCullers’ papers; I love McCullers’ fiction and it was fascinating to get to see some of her letters to her dear friend Tennessee (also known as ’10’ in some of the letters).

Williams to McCullers Letter
Letter from Tennessee Williams to Carson McCullers

 

Danielle Lupton, Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History Intern

What she’s studying: I am a sixth year graduate student in Political Science at Duke University. I focus on international relations, and my work looks at how leaders interact during international crises.
What’s she’s been working on at the Rubenstein Library: In doing research for patrons, I have come across some really neat old advertisements, including some fascinating ads from the turn of the century. I am also doing research for the Hartman Center on Pan American Airlines. Both my parents are pilots, and my father flew for Delta Airlines, who bought out Pan Am. I really feel a connection to the material.
What she likes to do when she’s not with us: In my free time, I am an avid tennis player.
Most interesting thing she’s come across in our collections: I came across this beautiful advertisement from 1896 for Liberty Bicycles on the back of a Kodak ad I was searching for. I think as a political scientist the tag line really resonates with me, and the artwork is a beautiful example of Art Nouveau in advertising.

pan am
1987 Pan Am Billboard

 

Mary Mellon, University Archives William King Intern

What she’s studying: I’m a library and information science student at UNC-Chapel Hill.
What’s she’s working on at the Rubenstein Library: Various projects for the University Archives, including the Chapel sermon recordings digitization project (some of the recordings are being used in the Great Black Preachers of Duke Chapel series on iTunes U), and creating information pages about members of the Duke family.
What she likes to do when she’s not with us: Outside of work and school, I love knitting, baking, and Duke basketball!
Most interesting thing she’s come across in our collections: A 1958 Duke Law School banquet program signed by “Dick Nixon.”

Richard Nixon Signature
Signature of Dick Nixon, Sometime President of the Duke Bar Association

 

Claire Radcliffe, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture Public Services Intern

What she’s studying: I’m working on a dual masters degree; I just finished my MA in Public History at NC State, and I’m working on my MSLS from Chapel Hill.
What she’s working on at the Rubenstein Library: I’ve been working on a range of things: migrating the website to Drupal, migrating subject guides to LibGuides (and revamping some of them), assisting with remote reference and reproduction, assisting with preparation for classes, helping out with 25th anniversary events, and processing zines.
What she likes to do when she’s not with us: Outside of school and work, I’m interested in photography, old movies, traveling, baking, dance fitness classes, and used bookshops. Although there is distressingly little time outside of school and work.
Most interesting thing she’s come across in our collections: Two of the most interesting things I’ve come across were the pink corset book  and a picture of Kathy Acker with the Spice Girls.

Kathy Acker and Spice Girls
Kathy Acker, third from left, with the Spice Girls

New Acquisitions: Advertising Aucas

Auca for a Barcelona bookstore, 1937.
Auca for a Barcelona bookstore, 1937.

In June and July we’re celebrating the beginning of a new fiscal year by highlighting new acquisitions from the past year. All of these amazing resources will be available for today’s scholars, and for future generations of researchers in the Rubenstein Library! Today’s post features a new collection in the Library’s Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. Check out additional posts in the series here.

Since being banned as a tool for gambling in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the auca has become one of the cultural touchstones of the Catalonia region of Spain.  Aucas are a kind of comic strip with a standardized format of panels (often 48, or another multiple of four) accompanied by rhyming verse.  The Hartman Center recently acquired a collection of more than fifty of these original broadsides, all produced and distributed for the purposes of advertising products or communicating a service. Aucas were traditionally used for communication of religious, literary, or civic information, but advertisers saw the value in taking the broadside format and using it for commercial purposes.

Auca for an insecticide containing D.D.T., Tarragona, ca. 1960.
Auca for an insecticide containing D.D.T., Tarragona, ca. 1960.

The numerous examples here of aucas published in Barcelona or nearby cities in the Catalan language during the 1940s and 1950s, run counter to the accepted belief that the Franco regime had completely suppressed the Catalan language. As these aucas show, the language still had a public presence (and perhaps the Regime tolerated its use in this particular fashion because the aucas were intended to generate commerce, which Spain desperately needed).

Mad Men Monday – The “Outtakes” Blog, Take 2

Mad Men Mondays logo

Mad Men brought us many great moments this season, and so did our weekly search for vintage ads to accompany the episodes each Monday morning.  In the process, we discovered more interesting ads than we could post.  We decided to share some of those in two final blogs that were calling our Mad Men Monday Outtakes.

This week we give you ads that almost made the cut for our earlier blogs.  For instance, on April 22, we chose a more traditional picture of Avon than we offer here in an ad we really liked for bath products.  Others we chose in anticipation of possible themes or references on future episodes, but as always, Mad Men kept us guessing. If the season had extended to December, 1968, we were certain there would be some reference to the Elvis comeback concert.  And we found Seagram’s warning about hunting accidents one week too late.

We hope you’ve enjoyed Mad Men Mondays as much as we have.  Don’t forget that you can still find all of our Mad Men Mondays picks on Pinterest and Flickr.

 

Avon Beauty Bath

 

ZaleJewlery

 

Whirlpool

 

Suzy Homemaker

 

Seagrams

 

Elvis

 

Election Option

 

ClubAluminum

 

Mad Men Monday Friday: The “Outtakes” Blog

Mad Men Mondays logo

Mad Men brought us many great moments this season, and so did our weekly search for vintage ads to accompany the episode each Monday morning. In the process, we discovered many visually and thematically interesting advertisements in the 1968 archives that did not fit with the current episode’s themes. We decided to share some of those in two final blogs that were calling our Mad Men Monday Outtakes.

This week’s themes: Fashion and Food! The late 1960s had a distinctive style. We’ve included men’s formal wear and outer wear, women’s fashion and work-a-day outfits, and neon hued slips and bras. The food photography was almost as distinctive, showing processed convenience foods, frozen vegetable, party nibbles, and, of course, the ubiquitous gelatin mold.

After Six no black tie - Flickr

Breast o chicken tuna - Flickr

Cling Peaches, Blue Diamond Almonds - Flickr

Country Cousins - Flickr

Dacron - Flickr

Great Great Coat - Flickr

Lotte - Flickr

Maidenform - Flickr

Miracle Whip - Flickr

Spam bake - Flickr

Stouffers spinach - Flickr

Swift - Flickr

Happy 4th of July!

Nothing says Fourth of July like friends and family, outdoor barbeques and, for the adults of course, a cooler of refreshing canned beer.

Check out these examples of vintage beer cans found in the corporate archive of the JWT Advertising Agency in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Marketing and Advertising History in the Rubenstein Library. The Hamm Brewing Co. was a client of the agency in the 1960s and early 1970s.  The agency collected the beer cans of their competitor’s accounts as part of their market research. And just like clothing and automobiles, there’s something here for everyone.

For the conscientious buyer that appreciates brute honesty in advertising, there’s Gablinger’s Beer, “Not Diatetic or Theraputic.” If an element of regal refinement is more your speed why not try a Duke Beer, “The Prince of Pilsner,” or perhaps a Stite, “Pale and Dry as Champagne.”

Beer Collage

If you’re not easily wooed by fanciful slogans and colorful graphics then there’s the subtle simplicity of “Cold-Aged!” Genese. If you like a beer can that looks like it’s constructed of wood paneling  (and who doesn’t?), then Meister Brau is the beer for you.

PicMonkey Collage1

For all of you classicists, there’s the iconic Leinenkugel’s of Chippewa Falls, WI, and the “Original” Pabst Blue Ribbon.”

PicMonkey Collage3Whatever your choice, we at the Rubenstein wish you a wonderful holiday!

Post contributed by Joshua Larkin Rowley, Research Services Dept.

Mad Men Mondays: Episode 13 “In Care Of”

Mad Men Mondays logo

The season finale delivered many memorable moments that will keep us guessing until next year. Stan tells Don that he wants to be the one that goes to Los Angeles to open a satellite office that will service the Sunkist account. After a bad phone conversation with Sally, Don gets drunk at a bar when he is supposed to be at work. Later he wakes up in jail. Pete is horrified to find out that his mother is lost at sea. She married Manolo on a cruise and it is presumed that he threw her overboard in order to inherit her money. When Don comes home the next morning he pours out all of the liquor bottles and tells Megan that he wants them to go to Los Angeles so he can start the new SC&P office. She is thrilled and resigns her soap opera job. Peggy changes into a revealing dress and tells Ted, Jim, and Harry that she is leaving early because she has plans. In Detroit, Bob encourages Pete to test drive a stick shift Camaro Z28. Pete knocks over a GM sign in the process and is subsequently taken off the Chevy account. Peggy comes home after her date and finds Ted at her door. He says that he loves her and will leave his wife. They sleep together and make plans for the future. Betty calls Don in the middle of the night to say that Sally bought beer and got drunk with some classmates and is suspended from Miss Porter’s. Ted tells Don that he wants to go to Los Angeles so he can start over with his family. Don makes a great campaign pitch to Hershey’s, but then ruins it by telling them his true story of growing up in a whorehouse and stealing money from the johns to get Hershey’s chocolate. That night Don tells Megan that they are not going to Los Angeles after all. She is upset and talks about leaving him since she already set up meetings in Hollywood to further her acting career. Pete and his brother decide not to pursue an investigation into their mother’s disappearance. They clean out her house and Pete brings some furniture over to Trudy’s house.  He tells her and Tammy goodbye, as he is going to California. Ted tells Peggy that he will stay with his wife to protect his kids. She is upset and tells him to get out. Don attends a partners meeting and they confront him about his questionable behavior. They tell him to take some time off and regroup, but refuse to give him a return date. On his way out he sees Duck Phillips bring Lou Avery in, presumably as a replacement. The episode ends when Don picks up his kids for Thanksgiving and shows them the dilapidated house where he grew up.

Episode thirteen referred to Chanel #5, Camaros, Thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, and cruises, among other things. Here is a selection of ads and images that illustrate some of the products and cultural references mentioned in last night’s Mad Men. A gallery of our highlighted images may also be found on Pinterest and Flickr.

cruise - blog

Chanel No 5 - Blog

camaro - blog

Canadian club - blog

turkey - blog

cranberry - blog

cardigan - blog

bill blass - blog       plaid suit - blog

Mad Men Monday, Episode 12

Mad Men Mondays logo

Don stays home from work feigning illness and drinking too much, as he mourns what happened with Sally. Ken goes hunting with two Chevy executives and accidentally gets shot in the face. Betty tells Don that Sally doesn’t want to visit him anymore and that she wants to go to boarding school. Ted and Peggy’s fondness for each other becomes apparent to others in the office. Harry calls Don to tell him that Sunkist has approved a large media budget. Megan and Don go to the movies to see Rosemary’s Baby and run into Ted and Peggy.

Ken steps down from the Chevy account and Pete offers to take his place in Detroit. All of the partners except Ted are excited about the Sunkist news, but agree they need to start working more coherently on new business. Ted is angry that Ocean Spray will be resigned, but is conflicted since Sunkist is a bigger account. Pete is thwarted when he tries to move Bob off of the Chevy account. Duck Phillips tells Pete that Bob has lied about his education and work history.

Sally stays overnight at Miss Porter’s Boarding School and her student hosts demand alcohol and cigarettes. She calls her friend Glen, who arrives with liquor and a friend, Rolo, who has marijuana. Glen fights with Rolo when Sally accuses him of trying to force her to get physical, which makes her smile. The next day, a pleased Betty offers Sally a cigarette during the drive home from the boarding school visit.

Don tells a St Joseph’s aspirin executive that their expensive commercial was Frank Gleason’s last idea, which gets the client to approve a budget increase, but undermines Ted and Peggy. Later Don tells Ted that his feelings for Peggy are impairing Ted’s judgement. Pete confronts Bob about his identity fraud, but offers a truce so they can work together, as long as Pete is “off limits.” Peggy yells at Don for ruining the St. Joseph’s situation for her and Ted.

Episode twelve referred to vodka and orange juice, hunting, Nixon’s campaign, Cranprune juice, travelers checks, and Rosemary’s Baby, among other things. Here is a selection of ads and images that illustrate some of the products and cultural references mentioned in last night’s Mad Men. A gallery of our highlighted images may also be found on Pinterest and Flickr.

Smirnoff - Blog

shot guns - master - Blog

New England life - hunting - Blog

AAA2126 cropped - Blog

travelers checks - Blog

cranprune juice - Blog

St Joseph childrens asprin - 2

 

Congratulations to this year’s travel grant recipients!

The Rubenstein Library’s three research center annually award travel grants to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars through a competitive application process. Congratulations to this year’s recipients, we look forward to working with all of you!

 

John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture Travel Grant Recipients

Dr. Richard Bell, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, College Park; Project: “Slavery’s Market: A Microhistory.”

Dr. Frederick Carroll, Instructor, Department of History, Norfolk State University; Project: “Race News: How Black Reporters and Readers Shaped the Fight for Racial Injustice, 1910-1978.”

Ms. Mandy Jolly, Undergraduate, Department of History, Lenoir-Ryhne University; Project: “Journalistic Racism from Early Travel/Exploration Logs from the 19th and 20th Century.”

Dr. Phillip Misevich, Assistant Professor of History, St. John’s University; Project: “On the Frontier of Freedom: Abolition and the Growth of Atlantic Commerce in Southern Sierra Leone, c1790s to 1880s.”

Ms. Marie Stango, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Michigan; Project: “Antislavery and Colonization: African American Women in Nineteenth Century West Africa.”

Dr. Shirley Thompson, Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin; Project: “No More Auction Block for Me: African Americans and the Problem of Property.”

Dr. Charlotte Walker-Said, Theodore W. Lentz Fellow in Peace Studies and Human Rights, Webster University; Project: “Traditional Marriage for the Modern Nation: Family Formation and the Politics of Religion in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa.”

Mr. James Wall, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Georgia; Project: “Redefining Success: The Strule for Freedom Rights in Southwest Georgia, 1945-1985”

 

John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History Fellowship and Travel Grant Recipients

Zoe Sherman, a Hartman Center grantee, uses the Outdoor Advertising Association of America Records
Zoe Sherman uses the Outdoor Advertising Association of America Records

FOARE Fellowships for Outdoor Advertising Research:

Elizabeth Semler: History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Minnesota, “’Got Milk?’: Dairy Advertising and Scientific Authority in the late 20th Century”

Zoe Sherman: Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, “The Commodification of Audience Attention in the US, 1865-1920”

 

John Furr Fellowships for JWT Research:

Ai Hisano: History, University of Delaware, “A History of Food Color in the United States, 1880s-1970s”

Cristina Sánchez-Blanco: Media Management, University of Navarra (Spain), “Advertising Account Planning in JWT”

Hartman Center Travel Grants:

Francesca Russello Ammon: American Academy of Arts & Sciences, “Culture of Clearance: Waging War on the Landscape in Postwar America”

Leslie Anderson: University of California – Merced, “The Politics of Domesticity” (Senior Thesis)

Mary Bridges: International Studies, Yale University, “Global Infrastructure of US Business Activities in the Interwar and World War II Periods”

Jessica Burch: History Department, Vanderbilt University, “Soap and Hope: culture, Capitalism, and Direct Sales in World War II America”

Dr. Andrew Case: Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison, “Dear Friend: Direct Mail Marketing and the Transformation of Buying and Selling in Postwar America”

Kristi Whitfield Johnson: Baton Rouge, LA, “Canning Foods and Selling Modernity: The Canned Food Industry and Consumer Culture, 1898-1945”

Dr. Richard K. Popp: Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, “Direct Marketing, Communication Networks, and the Remaking of consumer Culture, 1960-2000”

 

Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture Travel Grant Recipients

Valerie Behrer, English, University of Minnesota, for dissertation research on the connections between girls’ subjectivities, autobiographical practices, and the development of American radical feminism from the late 1960s to the 1970s.

Erin Leigh Durban-Albrecht, Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, for a set of related projects—including a film and her dissertation—that use Kathy Acker’s Kathy Goes to Haiti to explore racialized gender and sexuality, cultural production, and U.S.‐Haiti relations in the 20th and early 21st century.

Dr. Lauren Gutterman, Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, Columbia Law School, for a book that will examine the personal experiences and public representation of American wives who desired women, 1945 to 1979.

Monica Miller, English and Women’s & Gender Studies, Louisiana State University, for dissertation research on the use of ugly women as characters that defy the stereotype of the beautiful belle in the work of 20th century Southern women writers.

Michelle Pronovost, Fashion Institute of Technology, for research on the confrontational fashion of riot grrrls in zines from the 1990s.

Dr. Andrea Walton, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, for research supporting an article and book chapter on philanthropist Eleanor Thomas Elliott.

Kelly Weber, History, Rice University, for dissertation research related to the politics of daughterhood in the New South, 1880 to 1920.

Stacy J. Williams, Sociology, University of California, San Diego, for dissertation research on how social movements have affected feminist discourse about cooking, 1874 to 2013.

Dr. Mary Ziegler, St. Louis University, for a book about how abortion providers helped define lay understandings of the constitutional, statutory, and common law concerning abortion in the United States.

 

Eleanore and Harold Jantz Fellowship

The first recipient of the Eleanore and Harold Jantz Fellowship is Chunjie Zhang, Assistant Professor of German at the University of California, Davis.  Dr. Zhang is a graduate of Duke (PhD 2010). Her project is “Representations of non-European cultures in the German discourse in the eighteenth century.”

Mad Men Monday – Episode 11 “Favors”

Mad Men Mondays logo

The title of last night’s show accurately sums up a major theme seen in the episode.  Many characters need or give favors, though not without consequences.  The SC&P staff realizes that they are competing for two similar clients, Sunkist and Ocean Spray, so one will have to be resigned. While talking to Peggy, Pete’s mother claims she is in love with her nurse Manolo, and implies that their relationship is sexual. Sylvia and Arnold are afraid because their son Mitchell is reclassified 1A by the draft after dropping out of school and sending back his draft card in protest. Peggy tells Pete what his mother said to her over a friendly post client meeting dinner.  Later Pete argues with his mother about Manolo. Don awkwardly brings up Mitchell’s draft status at a client dinner with Chevy. Peggy calls Stan to remove a dying rat from her apartment but he refuses to help. Sally and her friend Julie stay at Don and Megan’s apartment while attending the Model UN. They meet Mitchell in the lobby and swoon over him.  Ted gets mad at Don for the uncomfortable moment during the Chevy dinner.  He offers to help get Mitchell into the Air National Guard if Don will agree to drop Sunkist in favor of Ocean Spray.  Don agrees and calls Sylvia to tell her the good news. Julie signs Sally’s name on a love note slipped under Mitchell’s door.  Sally returns to retrieve the note from the Rosen’s apartment, only to find Sylvia and Don about to have sex. She runs away and Don tries to follow. Bob tries to reassure Pete about Manolo and touches his knee to Pete’s suggestively. Pete rebuffs Bob and fires Manolo. Don comes home drunk and Megan tells him that he is the “sweetest man” for helping Mitchell. Sally shouts “you make me sick!” and runs off to her room.  Don tries to talk to Sally but makes up a weak excuse.

Episode nine’s plot referred to Post cereals, whiskey sours, rat traps, tea, and Ocean Spray, among other things.  Here is a selection of ads that illustrate some of the products and cultural references mentioned in Sunday night’s Mad Men.  A gallery of our highlighted images may also be found on Pinterest and Flickr.

Bigelow tea-1968 - Blog
whiskey sour1968 - Blog
d-Con-1968 - Blog
Post cereals-1968 - Blog

Prell and earrings1967 - Blog

50 Drinks and Toasts, Manhattan-1968 - BlogGet a Haircut-1967 - Blog

Purina1968 - Blog

New Acquisition: Adventures in Negro History

This year, Duke commemorates the 50th anniversary of racial integration at the university, when in 1963 five African American students matriculated into the undergraduate program. Also in 1963, Pepsi sponsored the production of a record album, “Adventures in Negro History,” recently acquired by the John W. Hartman Center as part of the Douglass Alligood Papers. Alligood was one of the first black executives in the advertising industry, and is currently a Senior Vice President at BBDO agency. Long a champion for minority inclusion in the advertising business, Alligood chairs the BBDO’s Diversity Council, which advises management on diversity policies. He has also worked at RCA and for the minority-owned agency UniWorld Group. The record album contains dramatic readings by Detroit-based actors, including Jerry Blocker, Burniece Avery and Jiam Desjardins, which depicts the contributions of people of color to American history. Included are both the famous (Crispus Attucks, Phyllis Wheatley, Ralphe Bunche) and lesser known figures: Christopher Columbus’s pilot, Pedro Nino; Revolutionary War hero Salem Poor; and philanthropist Paul Cuffe.

adventures in negro history in alligoodPost contributed by Rick Collier, Technical Services Archivist.