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

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Five

July 17, 2011 Amy McDonald

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!

Unsterblicher Tugend-Schatz durch gute Handelschafft erworben von der weyland durchleuchtigsten Chur-Fürstin … Elisabetha Amalia Magdalena verwittibten Pfaltz-Gräfin bey Rhein, und Chur-Fürstin in Bayrn …bey drey-tägiger Leich-Begängnus in einer Lob-Rede by Nicolaus Staudacher, 1710

A memorial volume produced in Augsburg, Germany, after the death of the Countess of Pfalz-Neuburg (1635-1709), showing engraved versions of the 25 giant emblematic paintings created for the funerary ceremonies by the Countess’s court painter, Franz Haagen. A very rare book, it complements the outstanding collection of German emblem books in the RBMSCL.

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

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Four

July 16, 2011 Amy McDonald 2 Comments

The Penny Pickwick by Thomas Peckett Prest. Edited by Bos, ca. 1837-42

Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers (1836-37) was so popular that it almost immediately generated a flurry of piracies, travesties, and plagiarisms. One of the first of these was the Penny Pickwick, so called for its being issued weekly in 112 parts, each costing one English penny. The set now at the RBMSCL contains 108 of the 112 original parts, now very hard to find in their original state (since most sets were read and discarded or bound together). While its claims to artistic merit are few and far between, Prest’s work nevertheless provides a fascinating glimpse of London’s popular culture at the dawn of the Victorian era and the workings of its publishers, hack writers, and illustrators. The Penny Pickwick is also an early example of the “penny dreadfuls” that swept through England in the nineteenth century: cheap, sensational fiction aimed at lower-class audiences, and important works in the development of genres such as mystery, science, and horror fiction.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

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From Our Collections, Hartman Center, New at the Rubenstein Library

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Three

July 15, 2011 Amy McDonald

The Story of Bunny Cortex, 1915

2010-2011 saw the beginning of a “Literature as Advertising” collection in the Hartman Center: a group of stories, poems, and similar literary works whose primary purpose is the promotion of a product or service. The collection includes examples from the 1880s to 1950s, featuring such characters as Santa Claus (for the Golden Rule Bazaar of San Francisco), Lewis Carroll’s Alice (selling dairy products), the “Toastie Elfins” (for Post Toasties cereal), and the Pied Piper (for Pied Piper shoes).

From the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History.

Through July 25th, find more examples from the Hartman Center’s “Literature as Advertising” collection in their exhibit, “Look Boys and Girls! Advertising to Children in the 20th Century.”

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

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

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day Two

July 14, 2011 Amy McDonald

Metropolis by Thea van Harbou, 1st and 2nd editions, 1926 and 1927

The first (at right) and second editions of Thea van Harbou’s Metropolis are notable additions to the Glenn Negley Collection of Utopian Literature. Iconic as the basis for the 1927 expressionist film by Fritz Lang (von Harbou’s husband), the early editions are also notable for the striking graphic design of their covers. The second “photoplay” edition also features stills from the film. The editions were acquired as part of a large collection of German science fiction and fantasy from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

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Day One

Bingham Center, From Our Collections, New at the Rubenstein Library, New Finding Aids, Technical Stuff

10 Days, 10 New Acquisitions: Day One

July 13, 2011 Amy McDonald

Girl Germs Posters, 1996-1999

A collection of nine 18 x 24″ posters created and distributed as part of The Coalition for Positive Sexuality‘s Girl Germs campaign in the late 1990s. These posters were created by artist Jeanette May, who was also a founding member of the CPS. The posters were aimed at young women, addressing the issues of safe sex, sexual health, sexuality, pregnancy, and birth control.

From the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, RL Scholars, Travel Grants

What She Wore

July 13, 2011 Amy McDonald

Mary Lily Travel Grant recipient Julie R. Enszer recently completed her second visit to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture to conduct research for her dissertation project, which investigates the production of lesbian-feminist print culture in the United States between 1969 and 1989.

While Julie was here, she used materials from these collections:

Minnie Bruce Pratt at the Academy of American Poets awards ceremony, May 16, 1989. From the Minnie Bruce Pratt Papers. Photo by Dorothy Alexander.

Reflecting on her research experience, Enszer writes that the Minnie Bruce Pratt Papers were “one of the most exciting collections that I worked with. This may be in part because I have been a fan of Pratt’s poetry and writing since the late 1980s, but it is also certainly due to the fact that this is an extensive and thorough collection.”

She continues, “One aspect of my dissertation focuses on the literary appraisals of lesbian writing and a significant portion of the chapter discusses the Lamont Prize [given by the Academy of American Poets] in 1989 given to Minnie Bruce Pratt for Crime Against Nature. There are extensive documents on this event in the archive, but my favorite archival item is the outfit that Pratt wore to the award ceremony at the Guggenheim: a two-piece, cotton Batik. The shirt is light green with a lavender smock on the front edged by pink. It is both festive and feminine while distinctly conveying ‘lesbian.’”

Thanks to Dorothy Alexander for letting us use her photo of Minnie Bruce Pratt at the 1989 Academy of American Poets awards ceremony in this post. You can see more of her work on her website.

Post contributed by Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian for the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture , with thanks to Julie R. Enszer.

From Our Collections, History of Medicine, In the Conservation Lab

Medical Move Mondays: Conserving the Collections

July 11, 2011 Amy McDonald 1 Comment

It’s week three 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.

Last week, I mentioned that Jessica found the occasional book with the cover falling off of it. Enter Conservation! The staff of the Duke University Libraries’ Conservation Services Department (all six of them!) have been spending a good deal of time with the History of Medicine Collections assessing materials and making protective enclosures for items that are too damaged to move in their current state. They have been quite busy placing items in protective envelopes, measuring books for protective enclosures, and creating lots of custom-made enclosures.

The Conservation Services Department has provided over 2,217 enclosures in five weeks for the History of Medicine Collections. Along with protective envelopes, Conservation has custom-made tuxedo boxes, blue clamshell enclosures, phase boxes, and even a cloth-covered clamshell box for an extremely brittle, unique Sanskrit book. This is quite a feat—considering they did not have much time and made the enclosures at a different location than the books!

Measurements were made at the History of Medicine Collections’ former space, located in the Medical Center Library. Boxes were then constructed in Conservation’s beautiful lab space in Perkins Library. Once enclosures were complete, the boxes were brought to the books at the History of Medicine for their fitting. Their hard work and dedication have ensured that the damaged and fragile items in this collection will withstand the move. Thank you, Conservation!

For photos of the move from start to finish, visit the “HOM Collections Move” set on the Duke University Libraries’ Flickr photostream.

Next week: Shipping and Receiving moves some very carefully-packed book trucks.

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

From Our Collections, Rare Books

A Revolutionary North Carolinian’s Reading List

July 4, 2011 Amy McDonald 5 Comments

On a quest for some Fourth of July inspiration, I began browsing the thousands of volumes that comprise our rare book collection when I found a copy of Thomas Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America, his lesser known indictment of British transgressions of colonial rights written in 1774—a time when Jefferson, among other future revolutionaries, still felt possible “fraternal love and harmony throughout the whole [British] empire.”

Bound with A Summary View are several other political tracts from the revolutionary era, The Justice and Necessity of Taxing the American Colonies, Demonstrated, 1766; An Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress, a British response to the American Declaration of Independence; and, finally, Letters from General Washington to Several of his Friends in the Year 1776, published in 1777.

My interest in this modest volume was piqued by the gilt-stamped initials “J. G.” found on the cover and the name “J. Gillespie” scrawled on the title page. Could this J. Gillespie be North Carolina’s own revolutionary, James Gillespie? James Gillespie was born in 1747, owned a plantation in Kenansville, North Carolina, and, during the American Revolution, fought with a N.C. militia regiment. He later served in the state senate, attended the state’s constitutional conventions, and later sat in the U.S. House as a Federalist.

If you are also in need of a dose of revolutionary spirit come to the RBMSCL (tomorrow—we’re closed today!) and explore the ideological origins of the American Revolution through these tracts, the same ones that were perhaps perused by a revolutionary North Carolinian.

Post contributed by Josh Larkin-Rowley, Research Services Assistant.

From Our Collections, History of Medicine

Medical Move Mondays: Technically Speaking

July 4, 2011 Amy McDonald 1 Comment

It’s week two 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. This week, we take a look at how we keep track of all of our books and collection materials and ensure that our researchers can find them when they need them.

Since March, Collection Development Assistant Jessica Janecki has been scanning barcodes for each and every book in the locked stacks collection. She’s also spent a lot of time working on problems and finding solutions, like pointing out books that have covers falling off. Working with a variety of staff and student workers from Perkins Technical Services, Jessica and others will change the collection codes so that when students, researchers, and others look for an item in the catalog, it will show an RBMSCL location rather than a Medical Center Library location.

Before:

After:

Jessica said one of the most interesting aspects of this has been finding items like the report related to the Cocoanut Grove Burns. The Cocoanut Grove was a nightclub in Boston that burned in 1942, killing hundreds of people. A book titled Management of the Cocoanut Grove Burns at the Massachusetts General Hospital came across her barcode wand: a detailed report on how to deal with a disaster. Jessica was really taken with the level of detail and thought on how to manage a crisis. The book provides introductions from hospital administrators, case studies of the patients, and graphic color photographs of burn victims.

For photos of the move from start to finish, visit the “HOM Collections Move” set on the Duke University Libraries’ Flickr photostream.

Next week: Conservation steps in!

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

Archive of Documentary Arts, From Our Collections

The Luckiest Nut in the World

June 30, 2011 Amy McDonald

This is the first 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 74 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.

“This is a film about nuts,” a chorus of animated nuts declares to a bouncy, vaudevillian tune in the opening frames of Emily James 2002 short The Luckiest Nut in the World, winner of the 2003 Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short. More specifically, it’s a film about globalization and the nut industry. The luckiest nut himself, a tariff-protected, guitar-playing American peanut in a ten-gallon hat, segues into a country tune to explain the economic injustices faced by the nut industries in Mozambique, Bolivia and Senegal under policies of trade liberalization.

“We’re gonna tell you some stories that’ll make it clear
Why these problems won’t disappear
By making trade free indiscriminately
It’s only makin’ things worse,
It’s not a blessing, but a curse
And it’s happening more every year. . . . “

Continue reading The Luckiest Nut in the World →

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