Category Archives: News and Features

Bingham Center, Digital Collections, Do Your Research, Franklin Research Center, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, Human Rights Archive, Manuscripts, News and Features, Research Tips, Technical Stuff

E-Records in the Reading Room

Special Collections Library reading rooms often require special equipment to view non-traditional record formats such as VHS players, cassette players, microfilm readers, etc. The Rubenstein Library recently welcomed a new piece to the set: a desktop computer.

Rubenstein Library Research Services staff check out the reading room's new e-records computer work station.
Rubenstein Library Research Services staff check out the reading room's new e-records computer work station.

Though public computers have been available in our reference room for a long time to assist in finding and requesting physical materials in the reading room this new machine has been designed to support providing local access to electronic records and audio/video materials.

Some of the materials you can explore on the computer include:

Visit the reading room today and start that e-research!

Post contributed by Seth Shaw, Electronic Records Archivist.

Do Your Research, News and Features, Students and Interns

Student Writing Prizes! $1,000!

Enter to win one of the Duke Library's research & writing prizes!

The Robert F. Durden Prize and Chester P. Middlesworth Award were established at the Duke Library to reward excellence in research and writing. If you’re a Duke student, consider submitting a paper for one of these prizes!

The Robert F. Durden Prize recognizes undergraduates’ excellence in research, including their analysis, evaluation and synthesis of sources, and encourages students to make use of the general library collections and services at Duke University. Funding for the awards has been provided by Stuart (W.C.,1964) and Bill Buice (L, 1964) and named in honor of Robert “Bob” F. Durden, professor emeritus of history.

The Middlesworth Awards have been established to encourage and recognize excellence of research, analysis, and writing by Duke University students in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Funding for the awards has been provided by Chester P. Middlesworth (A.B., 1949) of Statesville, North Carolina.

Deadlines are May 15!

Visit our website for more information.

Rare Books, Renovation, Technical Stuff

Renovation Prep: Fascinating Finds in the Stacks

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My part in the preparation for the Rubenstein’s upcoming renovation is to assist in making sure that all of our beloved materials have accurate records before the move. Imagine when you have moved to a new house or dorm room and realized you just can’t find that book from that library that’s overdue. Now multiply that scenario by thousands of volumes and the importance of our task becomes clear!

Rows of books checked by the Holdings Mgmt Team
Rows of books checked by the Holdings Management Team

Our Holdings Management Team members are going through the stacks systematically, checking records and barcodes on periodicals, reference items, pamphlets, and many, many sets of books. Out of the 13,000 volumes I personally have checked, over 2,000 needed to be fixed in some way. Our way of keeping track of various interdepartmental progress? Multi-colored post-it notes line the ends of shelf rows (ours are blue).

Roald Dahl's signature inside one of our books
Roald Dahl's signature inside one of our books

It is always interesting to open a book and see the owner’s signature or personal bookplate. Today, I found a Roald Dahl book that was signed by the author in 1988. Once, I found a book on proper housekeeping that was signed to a friend on my birthday (except 200 years before I was born).  I’m excited for the next 13,000 volumes!

Cullen Cornett is a Holdings Management Assistant in the Rubenstein Technical Services Dept.

Events, From Our Collections, Hartman Center, News and Features, Readings and Talks

Mad Men Madness, Part II

Hartman Center 20th Anniversary LogoDate: Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Time: 5:00 PM reception, 6:00 PM talk
Location: Gothic Reading Room, Perkins Library
Contact information: Jacqueline Reid Wachholz, 919-660-5836 or j.reid@duke.edu.

The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History at Duke University celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2012 with a lecture series of advertising luminaries.

Please join us next Tuesday for the second talk in the series. Charlotte Beers, former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs will talk about women, leadership and advertising. She will also sign copies of her new book, I’d Rather Be in Charge, which will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public.

Cover of "I'd Rather Be in Charge" by Charlotte BeersFor more information, visit the lecture series website.

The 20th Anniversary Lecture Series is sponsored by the Duke University Office of the Provost, Fuqua School of Business, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Markets & Management Studies, Duke Marketing Club, Alpha Kappa Psi, American Advertising Federation-Raleigh Durham, Association of Women in Business, Baldwin Scholars, and the Duke Administrative Women’s Network.

Post contributed by Jacqueline Reid Wachholz, Director of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History.

Do Your Research, From Our Collections, Jazz Archive, News and Features, RL Photos, University Archives

Kenny Dennard, University Archives Researcher

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Former Duke men’s basketball team captain Kenny Dennard came to visit the Duke University Archives today. We gave him a refresher on his Duke basketball career (1977/78-1980/81), with the help of the Sports Information Office’s Basketball Records.

Kenny Dennard Reads the 1981 Chanticleer, 2012
Photo by Angela Mace.

Here’s Kenny reading the 1981 Chanticleer. Check out Kenny’s reflections on his time at Duke (brought to you courtesy of the digitized edition of the 1981 volume).

Lynn Eaton and Kenny Dennard, 2012
Photo by Angela Mace.

Here’s Kenny and Lynn Eaton, the Hartman Center’s research services archivist. She’s 5′ 6″, by way of comparison.

Thanks for visiting, Kenny, and come back soon!

(By the way, Kenny is a fan of the Duke University Archives on Facebook. Are you? We have only 29 hours left in our Facebook competition with the UNC Archives!)

Just for Fun, Renovation, Technical Stuff

Rubenstein Move Supplies

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.”

Stacks prepped to moveWhen 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.

Do Your Research, From Our Collections, History of Medicine, RL Scholars

Representing Bodies: Ivory Manikins

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In researching changes in the representation of female bodies in Northern Europe, I noticed that ivory manikins (meaning “little men,” though usually female) portray  a changing trend away from the easily available prints of the female anatomy in the  sixteenth century toward more formal depictions, displayed only for demonstration. Little is known about the manikins themselves in terms of their origins, but stylistic and material differences may provide much needed information in terms of who made these models and the ways in which they were used by others.

In my travels, I found that the History of Medicine Trent Collection’s set of anatomical ivories is one of Duke’s—and America’s—great treasures. Normally they are stored in a glass viewing case in the Trent Room, but looking closely at them, they hold much more than one might expect.

An ivory anatomical model carved into the lid of a hinged box
An ivory anatomical model carved into the lid of a hinged box

One object in particular caught me by surprise. It is a manikin carved meticulously into the lid of an ivory box. It is not a unique example, as it is quite similar to other objects—one in the Trent Collection and the other in Dusseldorf. Opening the box is precarious because, as with the other manikins, the torso is easily removed (though, luckily, the individually carved organs have been glued down).

The model open, showing individually carved ivory pieces inside.
The model open, showing individually carved ivory pieces inside.

The manikin itself, however, is only one of the object’s curious features. When the lid is lifted, an exquisitely small painting is revealed on its underside.

The underside of the box’s lid, showing an image. The paint is chipped in the corner and around two wooden pieces that act as sockets for the ivory pegs securing the torso.

In this strange scene a nude woman and a well-clothed gentleman dine unabashedly before an open plaza where others go about their normal errands. The presumed courtesan shares many similarities with her counterpart on the box, who is likewise unclothed and recumbent, clutching a sheet with her left hand. Figures of this kind are often seen in artisanal ivory works, but this particular object invokes intriguing questions as to how the fine arts relate to the anatomical sciences and historical representations of women.

Post contributed by Cali Buckley, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Art History, Penn State University

Just for Fun, News and Features, Students and Interns, University Archives

Beat UNC (Archives)!

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Football Game Program Cover, Duke vs. UNC, 1967The 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:

DUKE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

vs.

UNC UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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
Historical Blue Devil vs. Historical Ramses, 1957. From the 1958 Chanticleer.

Post contributed by Rosemary K. J. Davis, Duke University Archives Drill Intern.

From Our Collections, In the Conservation Lab, University Archives

The Mystery of Emily Johnson’s Headstone

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Close-Up of Emily Johnson's HeadstoneAccording to oral tradition, Emily Johnson’s headstone was discovered in the 1960s at the construction site of the Divinity School addition.  It remained in a closet there until 1993, when it was transferred to the custody of the Duke University Archives.   How the headstone ended up on campus and where it originally resided remain a mystery to this day.

Over the years, several attempts were made by William King, University Archivist Emeritus, to locate information about Johnson and or her descendants in an effort to relocate the headstone to its appropriate resting place.   He found no record of any real estate transaction between the University and the Johnson family, indicating that it’s likely the headstone did not originally reside on West Campus land, most of which had been family farmsteads.

There are also no listings for Emily Johnson in nearby Durham cemeteries, such as Maplewood.  While death certificates usually provide burial location for the decedent, they were not regularly issued in North Carolina until 1913, eighteen years after Johnson’s death.

Duke University Archives staff would love to know where Emily Johnson’s headstone belongs.  If any blog readers would like to help take up the cause, your efforts would be most appreciated (contact us!).  Until such time as the headstone can be returned to its rightful place, Duke University Archives will continue to serve as its custodian.

Emily Johnson's Headstone in its Box

Special thanks to Jennifer Blomberg, Senior Conservation Technician in the Conservation Services Department, for making a custom box for the headstone.  To read more about the construction of the box, please check out Preservation Underground’s related blog post.

Post contributed by Kim Sims, Technical Services Archivist for the Duke University Archives.

Bingham Center, Events, News and Features, Readings and Talks

Merle Hoffman Reads from Intimate Wars

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Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Biddle Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

Merle HoffmanNext Tuesday, Merle Hoffman reads from her new memoir, Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Boardroom.

Hoffman is a pioneer in developing and providing women’s health services; an award-winning writer; and a fearless advocate for women who has been in the forefront of cutting edge issues for over 40 years.

This past fall, Hoffman pledged $1 million to endow the directorship of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at the Rubenstein Library. Her papers are part of the Bingham Center’s collections.

The reading is co-sponsored by the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture and Duke’s Program in Women’s Studies as part of this spring’s “Future of the Feminist 70s” series of events.