Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Films

Triangle Home Movie Day

Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011
Time: 1:00-4:00 PM
Location: First floor auditorium, North Carolina State Archives (maps and parking information)
Contact Information: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963 or kirston.johnson(at)duke.edu

What hidden treasures lie in those old home movies that you have in the closet? Come to the Triangle Home Movie Day and find out the value of these unique cultural and historical documents and how to save them for future generations. Spend the day watching old films and playing Home Movie Day bingo. Go home with prizes and a free DVD transfer of your film!

WHAT IS HOME MOVIE DAY?

Home Movie Day was started in 2002 as a worldwide celebration of amateur home movies, during which people in cities and towns all over would get to meet local film archivists, find out about the long-term benefits of film versus video and digital media, and—most importantly—get to watch those old family films! Because they will happen in communities across the globe, Home Movie Day events and screenings can focus on local and family histories, taking us back to a time when Main Street was bustling and the beehive hair-do was all the rage, with images of people we may know or resemble. Home movies are an essential record of our past, and they are among the most authoritative documents of times gone by.

HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?

film projectorIt’s simple: rifle through your attics, dig through your closets, call up Grandma, and search out your family’s home movies (8mm, Super8mm, or 16mm) and bring them to the Triangle Home Movie Day event to see them projected.  Or just show up and watch the films of others. It’s not just historically significant—it’s fun!

The Triangle Home Movie Day is co-sponsored by A/V Geeks, North Carolina State University’s Film Studies Program, Duke’s Archive of Documentary Arts, and the North Carolina State Archives.

Events, History of Medicine, Readings and Talks

Gangrene and Erysipelas

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Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM dinner, 6:00 PM lecture
Location: Rare Book Room
Contact Information: Rachel Ingold, 919-684-8549 or rachel.ingold(at)duke.edu

Gangrene patient, ca. 1860s. From the National Library of Medicine.

Join the staff of the History of Medicine Collections for the next Trent History of Medicine/Bullitt History of Medicine Club lecture series. Shauna Devine, Ph.D. will present Science, Disease and Experimental Medicine: Gangrene and Erysipelas during the American Civil War, 1861-1865.

Dr. Devine is a historian of science and medicine and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Duke’s Department of History and Managing Editor of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. She has won awards for her work on Civil War medicine including the H. N. Segall Award and the E. M. Wightman Thesis Award. Her forthcoming book, Civil War Medicine: The Transformation of American Medical Science in the Nineteenth Century, examines the development of scientific medicine during the American Civil War, and the impact of the War’s events on American medicine. She is currently researching projects on the Civil War South and human experimentation in the Civil War hospitals.

(Note: this image was used as a teaching aid in medical schools. Hence the hand-drawn arrow, indicating where this patient was wounded.)

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Just for Fun, Manuscripts

Long, Beautiful, Archivally-Preserved Hair

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Just a few more days to see hair on display!

The current Perkins Gallery exhibit, “The Life of Memorials: Manifestations of Memory at the Intersection of Public and Private,” explores the tradition of commemorating events and remembering people. Memorials can be large-scale statues and museums but can also include more personal items, such as mementos and souvenirs.

One very common practice has been to retain the hair of our loved ones—and some of these locks, from the Rubenstein Library’s collections, are on display as part of this exhibit through October 16. (Or, visit the online exhibit!)

Many of our collections contain locks of hair—some are the typical parental memory of youth, like the young blonde curls of Sallie Bingham; some are the desire to connect to our literary heroes, like a nice lock of the poet William Cullen Bryant or a few strands tied together from Walt Whitman; and some are from other kinds of heroes, like envelopes full of hair from Jefferson Davis (the envelope reads: ” . . . hair from Jefferson Davis at Fort Monroe. . . “).

Jefferson Davis' Hair
Jefferson Davis' Hair

Our collection also contains “one strand” of hair, with certification, from Abraham Lincoln; a few very small hairs allegedly from John Wesley; and some hair from our own Reynolds Price. Come by and visit the hair on display through October 16 in the Perkins Gallery, or come by the Rubenstein Library’s reading room and ask to see the hair in person!

Tomorrow, in conjunction with their exhibit, Team Kenan will be presenting a a moderated panel discussion that will examine the ways people live with traumatic experiences in different political and cultural contexts.

Living with Memory: A Moderated Panel Discussion of Memorials
Date: Thursday, October 6th
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room

Panelists Jehanne Gheith, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, and Stephanie Seiburth, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies will take part in a student-moderated discussion and offer multimedia presentations on their work on collective memory in Russia and Spain.

For more information, visit http://kenan.ethics.duke.edu/team-kenan-curates-memorials-exhibit/.

Post contributed by Meg Brown, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Exhibits Librarian and Conservator for Special Collections.

Events, From Our Collections, Manuscripts, New at the Rubenstein Library, Readings and Talks

Ariel Dorfman: Feeding on Dreams

Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Gothic Reading Room, Perkins Library
Contact Information: Aaron Welborn, 919-660-5816 or aaron.welborn@duke.edu, or Will Hansen, 919-660-5958 or william.hansen@duke.edu

Draft of Feeding on Dreams in English, annotated by Dorfman and editor Deanne Urmy. From the Ariel Dorfman Papers.

What better way to celebrate the arrival of an acclaimed author’s papers than by having him read from his newly-published work?  On Wednesday, Ariel Dorfman will read from his new memoir, Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile. The reading is free and open to the public.

Dorfman placed his papers with the Rubenstein Library earlier this month, and we are just starting to inventory the many fascinating materials therein.  Drafts of Feeding on Dreams in both English and Spanish are included in the papers, revealing the process by which Dorfman crafted the language and themes of his memoir out of the “earthquake of language” of bilingualism.  Indeed, the papers are a rich trove of information for students and scholars of translation, containing Dorfman’s own translations of his works as well as his notes, suggestions, and corrections for translations by others.  Here are a few additional previews of the papers’ contents:

  • An astounding collection of ephemeral and clandestine Chilean resistance literature from the era of Pinochet’s regime
  • Scripts and notes for Dorfman’s innovative plays, including Widows, Speak Truth to Power, and Purgatorio
  • Annotated books from Dorfman’s personal library, and books inscribed to him by many notables (including Nelson Mandela!)

We look forward to seeing you in the Gothic Reading Room on October 5!

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

Archive of Documentary Arts, From Our Collections

No Umbrella

This is the third of a 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 acquired 75 films since 2007 and continues to grow; DVD use copies of these films can be viewed in the Rubenstein Libraryreading room. A complete list with descriptions, as well as titles of award-winners not yet acquired, can be found in the Full Frame Archive finding aid.

After highlighting an animated short and an aesthetic one,  we’re showcasing a purely observational documentary.  Laura Paglin’s No Umbrella: Election in the City, winner of the 2006 Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short, documents election day 2004 at one polling site in a poor, black, Cleveland neighborhood.  Its fly-on-the-wall approach reveals voters’ frustration as they wait long hours in the rain for voting machines and ballots to arrive.

 

Though she could not have predicted what would happen, Cleveland filmmaker Paglin knew there might be something to record. After the voting controversies surrounding the 2000 presidential election, concerns were high in 2004 over potential fraud at the polls, especially in large swing states like Ohio. “I had heard that Ohio could be the next Florida fiasco. Though I didn’t totally believe it, I thought I’d go to the inner city where they were anticipating problems—just in case,” Paglin wrote in her email interview with me last month.

“I felt a bit foolish at first—driving around looking for trouble—but then I found some. . . . When I got to the polling location, the scene was chaotic—a long line that wasn’t moving, tempers flaring. A young woman who invited me to come document the trouble was trying to reach someone on her cell phone. About ten minutes later, a tiny woman in her eighties covered in a yellow slicker showed up on the scene—and that was the first time I met Fannie Lewis.”

The indomitable Lewis, city councilwoman for the ward in question, becomes a central figure in the drama, a rock of competence amidst the confusion, holding a cellphone to each ear as she hounds election officials around the city and eventually persuades the mayor herself to make an appearance. Paglin’s favorite aspect of film in retrospect “is really the character of Fannie herself. You couldn’t make up a character like that!”  Lewis passed away in 2008.

No Umbrella won honors at several film festivals in the U.S. and Australia in 2006, and later aired on Cinemax.  “I think the film less was less shocking to locals who are used to decades of incompetence and corruption in Cleveland. But outside, people were really shocked I think. I don’t know if the film by itself has made and impact, but I think together with other documentaries, press attention, reports, a lot more attention and scrutiny is being paid to the whole voting process.”

Ultimately, for Paglin it is about the individual people.  “While I’m interested in social issues, I’m much more interested in the characters who are affected by them. If these films help others to improve social policies, all the better. But I just want to make the films.”

Just this year, Paglin has completed her first feature length documentary, Facing Forward (http://www.facingforwardfilm.com/), following a charismatic but troubled teenager as he navigates a new, strict school in inner-city Cleveland.  The central character “reminds me a bit of Fannie Lewis—of course very different—but temperamental, charming and not afraid to speak his mind.”

Post contributed by Tanya Lee, Full Frame Archive Intern.

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Human Rights Archive

“I Have No Right To Be Silent”

Date: October 3-December 18, 2011
Location: York Room, Duke University Divinity School (map and directions)
Contact Information: Patrick Stawski, 919-660-5823 or patrick.stawski(at)duke.edu

Marshall Meyer Exhibit“I have no right to be silent in the face of injustice!” Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer said in a sermon delivered at his alma mater, Dartmouth University, in 1991. “I cannot dare to hide in my garden when people scream in pain! Nor can you, whether you are conservative or liberal, rightist or leftist or centrist. . . . That’s one of the reasons to be an activist.”

An ordinary American whose extraordinary convictions, faith, and impetuous personality impelled him to become a leading human rights activist during Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-1983), Meyer (who passed away in 1993) left not only a legacy of faith and teachings to his students and congregations, but also a compelling model of how a person of faith can embrace activism as a central part of their religious life.

The exhibit consists of 12 stunning banners, each of which incorporates materials culled from Meyer’s personal papers, held by the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Library, including intimate family photos, moving letters from prisoners, original artwork, internal government memos, and rare human rights publications.

The exhibit has been on display at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., as well as B’nai Jeshurun and the Jewish Theological Seminary, both in New York City—all places where Meyer studied or worked. Wherever the exhibit has traveled, it has inspired not only an admiration of Meyer’s work but also community dialogue about faith, activism, and human rights.

The exhibit text was prepared by Katharine French Fuller, a graduate student in Duke’s History Department, under the supervision of Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist. The design was executed by Pam Chastain and James Jarvis of Pam Chastain Design. The exhibit is funded by the generosity of an anonymous donor and is a joint project of the Human Rights Archive at the Rubenstein Library, the Duke Human Rights Center, and Duke’s Center for Jewish Studies.

An on-line version of the exhibit is also available.

Opening Celebration for “I Have No Right to Be Silent”

Date: Monday, October 3, 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Goodson Chapel, Duke University Divinity School (map and directions)
Contact Information: Patrick Stawski, 919-660-5823 or patrick.stawski(at)duke.edu

The exhibit opening will include comments by Gabriel Meyer, social activist and Marshall Meyer’s son, as well as a performance of sacred Ladino music by the Jewish Chorale of the Triangle. Among the singers is Meyer’s nephew, Professor Eric Meyers, Bernice & Morton Lerner Professor of Center for Jewish Studies and Religion and the Director of the Center for Jewish Studies. A reception will follow outside the Goodson Chapel.

From Our Collections, Just for Fun, Manuscripts, News and Features, Renovation

What’s in a Name?

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It’s official! Yesterday, Duke University’s Board of Trustees approved our name change. The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library is now the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. We’re so excited!

Appleton Oaksmith, ca. 1865. From the Oaksmith Family Photograph Album.
Appleton Oaksmith, ca. 1865. From the Oaksmith Family Photograph Album.

Over the course of the day, we’ll be rolling out changes to our website, finding aids, library catalog records, and, of course, The Devil’s Tale. Look at our new banner! (Incidentally, The Devil’s Tale has a new URL— http://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/—so you may need to update your feed readers.)

Since we’re reflecting on names, we thought it might be fun to share some of the cool names we’ve come across in our collections. Believe us, this is nowhere near an exhaustive list:

So now we want to ask you: which name is your favorite? Or, if your favorite name isn’t represented here, share it with us in a comment. Or, even better, come visit and help us find some more cool names!

Bingham Center, Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Readings and Talks

Celebrating the Dorothy Allison Papers

Dorothy AllisonLast September, several years of work happily came to fruition, as the Dorothy Allison Papers arrived at the RBMSCL. Now, the papers have been processed and are open for research–and Dorothy Allison herself is returning to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture for a series of celebratory events.

Two or Three Things: Readings from the Works of Dorothy Allison
Date: Thursday, September 22, 2011
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Rare Book Room

This afternoon of readings from Dorothy Allison’s works includes a performance of selections from her memoir, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, by Duke undergraduate Jennifer Sherman. Light refreshments will be served. This event is co-sponsored by the Program in Women’s Studies.

Out in the South: Writers in Conversation
Date: Friday, September 23, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: White Lecture Hall (map and directions)

Please join us for a fantastic opportunity to hear four distinguished Southern authors—Dorothy Allison, Shirlette Ammons, Jim Grimsley and Minnie Bruce Pratt—discuss their lives and work. Each author will read selections from his or her writings, followed by a panel discussion. A book-signing and reception will follow. This program is co-sponsored by Carolina Wren Press and the Program in Women’s Studies.

The papers of Allison, Grimsley, Pratt, and Carolina Wren Press are held by the RBMSCL.

Author biographies:

Dorothy Allison describes herself as “a feminist, a working class story teller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet and a happily born-again Californian.” She is perhaps best known as author of Bastard out of Carolina among other works and as a renowned activist in the LGBTQ community.

Shirlette Ammons is a poet, writer, musician and director of an arts program for children. Her second collection of poetry, entitled Matching Skin, was published by Carolina Wren Press in June 2008.

Jim Grimsley is a playwright and novelist, and currently director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University. Jim’s second novel Dream Boy won the American Library Association GLBT Award for Literature (the Stonewall Prize) and was a Lambda finalist, and his gay-themed fantasy novels Kirith Kirin and The Ordinary both won Lambda awards, just to name a few of his many literary honors.

Minnie Bruce Pratt is an award-winning poet who began teaching and grass roots organizing in North Carolina in the 1970s, and has continued her work as a professor, writer, and activist through today. Her latest book, Inside the Money Machine, was recently published by Carolina Wren Press.

If you’re unable to make these events, stop by the Duke University Libraries and check out “Language, Power, Stories, Words: An Exhibit from the Dorothy Allison Papers,” which will be on display in the Rare Book Room cases through October 25, 2011. (Or, view the online exhibit.)

For more details on the events and the exhibit, contact Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Bingham Center,  at 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu.

 

From Our Collections, Just for Fun, University Archives

Clue: Visit the Duke University Archives

This year, the Duke University Archives participated in the Duke University Union’s 2nd Annual Homecoming Scavenger Hunt. The hunt was a great opportunity to bring new students into the RBMSCL and share a part of their university’s history with them.

The clue: “Take a picture with the first issue of the Chronicle.”

Answer: Vol. 1, no. 1 of The Trinity Chronicle was published on December 19, 1905, and is one of the highlights of the University Archives’ collection. It’s only recently returned to us from the Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab, where it underwent a little conservation work and acquired a new box.

Here’s our photo album of scavenger hunters!

Good luck to all of the teams and we can’t wait for next year’s hunt! E-mail additional photos of your team and The Trinity Chronicle to amy.mcdonald(at)duke.edu and we’ll share them on our Facebook page.

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