From Our Collections, History of Medicine, RL Photos

Decorating the RBMSCL

Along with print items, manuscripts, and artifacts, the History of Medicine Collections include works of art. On Friday, thanks to Peter Geoffrion, three pieces of artwork were hung in the RBMSCL.

In the RBMSCL’s reading room, we now have a portrait of Hans Horst Meyer, a German physician and pioneer in anesthesia. The portrait was a gift from his grandson, Professor J. Horst Meyer, Fritz London Professor Emeritus of Physics here at Duke University.

In the Trent Room (part of the Mary Duke Biddle Rare Book Room), a portrait of Valentine Mott and a framed ivory skeleton sculpture, or Memento Mori, were hung.

The Memento Mori piece is one of the most exquisite items in the History of Medicine Collections. A gift of Mrs. Mary D. B. T. Semans from the collection of her late husband, Dr. Josiah Charles Trent, this sculpture is carved from a single piece of ivory. Reminiscent of the illustrations from the famed Vesalius anatomical work, De Fabrica (1543), Memento Mori displays a variety of material goods splayed at the feet of the skeleton. Looking at this, one is reminded, that in the end, we’re all mere mortals.

Post contributed by Rachel Ingold, Curator for the History of Medicine Collections.

Archive of Documentary Arts, From Our Collections

A Love Supreme

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This is the second of a summer series highlighting a few film shorts from the Full Frame Archive, a collection within the Archive of Documentary Arts, with the goal of preserving masters all past winners of Durham’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The Full Frame Archive has grown to 75 films since 2007 and continues to grow; DVD use copies of these films can be viewed in the RBMSCL’s reading room. A complete list with descriptions, as well as titles of award-winners not yet acquired, can be found in the finding aid.

“Virtuosity and improvisation.” That’s what connects Nilesh Patel’s 2001 film short that documents his mother’s hands making samosas with John Coltrane’s jazz masterpiece, its namesake. “I wanted to refer to both of these ideas, which I believe can be ascribed to a mother’s cooking. A mother feeds you before you emerge into the world, and would even go hungry if necessary, just to ensure that her children can eat.”

A ten-minute, black-and-white film, A Love Supreme won the 2002 Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short and is, in my opinion, one of the more consciously artistic films in the Full Frame Archive. The film shows Patel’s mother, whose face is never shown, making the popular deep-fried Indian pastry stuffed with potatoes, peas and spices. Completely wordless, it presents the preparation process in ten stages, each set to its own tempo, images seamlessly edited in time with a musical or ambient soundtrack.

Click the image to view the film on the BBC's website.
Click the image to view the film on BBC's website.

Continue reading A Love Supreme →

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, Events, Readings and Talks, Travel Grants

Unnatural Intimacies

Date: Friday, August 12, 2011
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

Join the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture for a discussion, titled “Unnatural Intimacies: Deviance, Sexuality, and the Historical Relationships of Lesbians and Prostitutes, 1935-1965,” with Marika L. Cifor, the recipient of a Mary Lily Research Grant.

Ms. Cifor is a candidate for a Masters of Arts in History and a Masters of Science in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in Archives Management, at Simmons College. During her research visit, she will be studying the Bingham Center’s lesbian pulp fiction collection. Light refreshments will be served.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Just for Fun, News and Features

Another Wednesday at the RBMSCL

So, you ask, what did your friends at the RBMSCL do on Wednesday? Well, we helped some researchers and we added some new materials to our collections and we encoded a few finding aids.

And then there was this.

Bake-Off Treats!

Yes, on Wednesday afternoon, Team Smith and Team Perkins matched baking skills in the First Annual All-RBMSCL Bake-Off.

Our three esteemed judges sampled 37 desserts from four categories (cakes, pies, cookies and bars, and “other”) and assigned scores for presentation, taste, and creativity.

Cleansing Their Palates

They were a little overwhelmed.

Feeding Frenzy

While the scores were being totaled, we got down to some serious eating (note our serious eating faces).

Our Winners:

  • Pies Category: Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist
  • Cakes Category: Mary Samouelian, Doris Duke Collection Archivist
  • Cookies and Bars Category: Elizabeth Dunn, Research Services Librarian
  • “Other” Category: Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, Senior Processing Archivist (for tiramisu!)

Elizabeth Dunn won “Best in Show” for her Heart-Shaped Dark Chocolate Brownies.

Best in Show

Although Team Smith won the categories 3 to 1, Team Perkins scored the higher average of points per entry. We’re calling it a draw. For now, the trophy—the Golden Recipe Box—will reside at Perkins in the RBMSCL’s reading room. Comparisons to the Stanley Cup are, we think, inevitable:

The Golden Recipe Box

We haven’t tried drinking champagne out of it, though.

For more Bake-Off photos, visit the “2011 RBMSCL Bake-Off” set on our Flickr photostream.

From Our Collections, Jazz Archive

A Tribute to a Jazz Legend

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Frank FosterLast Tuesday, legendary jazz saxophonist, arranger, and composer Frank Foster died at the age of 82. The RBMSCL’s Jazz Archive holds Dr. Foster’s papers, which include handwritten scores of many of his compositions (including “Shiny Stockings,” written for the Count Basie Orchestra) and audio recordings of concerts. Several of our staff members had the good fortune to work closely with both Dr. Foster and his papers, and they have offered their thoughts on his passing and his legacy:

“When the Jazz Archive at Duke was first getting started, we were trying to build Duke’s holdings of manuscript big band arrangements—compositions that otherwise wouldn’t be widely available for study or performance.  Frank Foster was an obvious person to reach out to, as he was one of the most significant composers and arrangers in the entire history of jazz. Through John Brown, I was able to reach out to Dr. Foster, and he generously donated the vast collection of materials that now comprise the Frank Foster Papers.  Manuscript arrangements, audio and moving image recordings, photographs, and a large collection of personal papers—including drafts of his autobiography and other of Dr. Foster’s many prose writings—are now available for study and research. Although jazz has lost a phenomenal musician and a genuinely kind human being, I’m proud to know that the Frank Foster Papers at Duke University will help to ensure that his music and his legacy live on into the future.”

—Jeremy Smith, former Jazz Archivist for the RBMSCL

“My experience with the Frank Foster Papers involved listening to and digitizing cassette and open reel tapes of live concerts, interviews and lessons.  These audio documents paint a picture of a man deeply committed to furthering America’s unique art form through performance, composition, and education.  His legacy will be felt through his teaching of jazz improvisation and arrangement, and will be carried on by those he has touched.”

—Zeke Graves, Perkins Library Research Services Assistant

“The Duke community was enriched by its relationship with Frank Foster.  The collection of his papers in the Jazz Archive will ensure that his presence continues to be felt here in the Triangle and that scholars and students in future generations will be able to study and learn from his work.”

—Naomi Nelson, Director of the RBMSCL

Additional Resources:

Just for Fun, RL Photos

A Well-Traveled Padlock

The Returned Padlock and its Envelope

Here at the RBMSCL, we ask our researchers to put everything they won’t need for their research in lockers, and we present them with their very own padlock to use during their visit. (Other special collections libraries do this, too, as it helps to keep our unique materials safe and secure.)

Occasionally, a padlock doesn’t make it back to us at the end of a research visit—and we have extras, so we don’t fret. But a very kind and conscientious patron discovered one of our padlocks at the bottom of her bag upon her return to the United Kingdom and sent it all the way back to us here in Durham. Thanks, lovely patron, and come visit us again soon!

Thanks to Josh Larkin-Rowley, Research Services Assistant, and Rachel Ingold, Curator for the History of Medicine Collections, for suggesting this post and to Beth Doyle, Head of Conservation Services and editor of Preservation Underground, for taking the photograph!

From Our Collections, History of Medicine, News and Features

Medical Move Mondays: Home, Sweet Home

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It’s the fifth and final week of our series on the History of Medicine Collections‘ move from the Medical Center Library on Duke’s medical campus to the RBMSCL on West Campus.

And the move, we are pleased to announce, is complete. Through a true team effort, including staff from the Medical Center Library & Archives, RBMSCL, and Perkins Library, the move happened smoothly. Professional movers handled most of the items from the collections, and transferred them with extreme care from the Medical Center Library to their new location.

History of Medicine Books in Their New Home

With this relocation come expanded hours as RBMSCL has weekend and evening hours. Researchers will find opportunities to discover overlapping collections within RBMSCL as well. There are many collections that complement the History of Medicine’s holdings from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, and the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. Topics such as women’s health, minority health, medical advertising, and innovations in health care are represented in the collections held at RBMSCL.

No appointment is necessary and all are welcome, so please be sure to visit the History of Medicine Collections in its new home.

Post contributed by Rachel Ingold, Curator for the History of Medicine Collections.

From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, Rare Books

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Ten

Today, we’re wrapping up our celebration of the beginning of a new fiscal year with our last feature on one of the notable items that arrived here at the RBMSCL in the past year. Get ready for announcements of many more exciting acquisitions in 2011-2012! We’d like to thank Mark Zupan, the Libraries’ graphic designer, and everyone in the Digital Production Center for their help with the images for these posts.

Le Premier [Second] Volume des Plus Excellents Bastiments de France by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, 1576 and 1579.

A major document of Renaissance Europe, Androuet du Cerceau’s survey of French buildings includes nearly 150 engraved plates.  In two volumes, 36 palaces, castles, and other major buildings are beautifully illustrated by detailed plans and views.  In some cases, the buildings no longer stand or are now vastly different than they appeared in 16th-century France.

For more photos of our new acquisitions (and other materials from the RBMSCL’s collections), check out the “From the RBMSCL’s Collections” set on the Duke University Libraries’ Flickr photostream.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

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Bingham Center, From Our Collections, Instruction

Today is Zine Library Day!

Making Zines at Girls Rock CampAnd we’ve been celebrating by making zines!

Future rock stars at NC Girls Rock Camp made zine pages in a workshops led by Kelly Wooten, Tali Beesley, and Alex Krensky of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture; Erin Hammeke, conservator for Special Collections; and Rosemary Davis of the Duke University Archives. This is the fifth year our librarians have led zine workshops for NC Girls Rock Camp!

A Completed Zine PageYou can celebrate our anniversary and Zine Library Day by downloading the Bingham Center’s fun new mini-zine and making your own!

You’ll find more pictures from this year’s workshops—and past ones, too—at the Bingham Center’s Flickr photostream.

Learn more about Zine Library Day on this wiki.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Archive of Documentary Arts, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, Rare Books

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Nine

We’re celebrating the beginning of a new fiscal year by reviewing some notable items and collections that arrived here at the RBMSCL in the past year. Get ready for announcements of many more exciting acquisitions in 2011-2012!

Photo of Gaza from Photographs of the Holy Land

Photographs of the Holy Land: Sinai and Palestine; Lower Egypt, Thebes, and the Pyramids; Upper Egypt and Ethiopia by Francis Frith, 1863.

In 1856-57, when the science and art of photography were still young and developing (pun intended), the Englishman Francis Frith traveled to the Middle East to photograph the great sites of antiquity.  A work of monumental proportions and importance to the early history of documentary photography, Francis Frith’s Photographs of the Holy Land includes some of the earliest published photographic images of Jerusalem, as well as iconic views of Egypt’s monuments and ruins, some now lost or much more decayed. The 111 albumen photographs are mounted in three folio volumes, and the set acquired by Duke this year is notable for the fine condition of the photographs.

From the Archive of Documentary Arts.

For more photos of our new acquisitions (and other materials from the RBMSCL’s collections), check out the “From the RBMSCL’s Collections” set on the Duke University Libraries’ Flickr photostream.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

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Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University