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

An Anonymous Author Unveiled, 125 Years Later

Title Page of The Fall of the Great Republic
Title Page of The Fall of the Great Republic.

It’s not often that we acquire two copies of the same work at the Library.  Sometimes, however, a second copy can have unique characteristics that make it nearly irresistible—as in the case of a copy of The Fall of the Great Republic recently acquired for the Glenn R. Negley Collection of Utopian Literature, which may have solved the 125-year-old mystery of its author’s identity.

A well-known anti-socialist and xenophobic dystopian work published in 1885 and foretelling the demise of the United States, the book was published under the pseudonym Henry Standish Coverdale.   The copy now at Duke seems to establish the author as New Lebanon, N.Y. newspaperman Abner Hitchcock (1851-1936).  The volume comes from his library, bears the ownership signature “Hitchcock,” and includes a penciled note in the rear, dated from August 1924, stating that “Authorship [was] kept a complete secret.”

The specially-bound volume contains clippings and reviews of the work from across East and parts of the Midwest, including a suspiciously positive review from the Boston Journal, a paper for which Hitchcock wrote.   Of the various reviews, the owner has written in the volume: “The most striking thing about it is in the illustration the pasted-in comments give of the impression it made on different readers. – One sees in me an ass, and one a prophet. I suspect there is some basis for both judgements.”

Clippings pasted into The Fall of the Great Republic
Clippings pasted into The Fall of the Great Republic.

The volume was discovered by a bookseller cleaning out of the attic of the Hitchcock House in New Lebanon, now a bed-and-breakfast inn.  It has now found its permanent home at Duke, where it will remain a one-of-a-kind resource for future generations of scholars.

Special thanks to Garrett Scott for permission to quote from his description of this item.

Post contributed by Will Hansen, Assistant Curator of Collections.

From Our Collections, Just for Fun, Manuscripts

The King’s Letter

2 Comments

The King’s Speech, the film dramatizing King George VI’s efforts to conquer his stutter, is thrilling cinephiles, history buffs, and Colin Firth admirers. On Sunday, the film received four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Firth), Best Directing (Tom Hooper), and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler). It was nominated for an additional eight Oscars, making it the most-nominated film this year.

Our Herbert Henry Asquith Papers contain letters written to this former Prime Minister and his second wife, Emma, by George VI’s father, King George V (played in the film by Michael Gambon), and brother, Prince George, the Duke of Kent. We’d like to share a letter from King George V to Emma Asquith, written from perhaps one of the more recognizable home addresses in the RBMSCL’s collections.

George V Letter, page one

George V Letter, page two

Post contributed by Elizabeth Dunn, Research Services Librarian. With special thanks to Sam Hammond, Original Cataloger of Rare Materials.

Bingham Center, Events, Human Rights Archive, Readings and Talks

Daughters of the American Revolution

Date: Thursday, 3 March 2011
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Richard White Lecture Hall
Contact Information: Laura Micham, 919-660-5828 or laura.m(at)duke.edu

Dorothy Q. ThomasDorothy Q. Thomas will speak about recovering  a legacy of progressive Americanism for contemporary women’s rights activists, drawing on her on-going research for a book that chronicles the lives of some of her female ancestors, including descendants of former presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and mother of the American Revolution Dorothy Quincy Hancock. Thomas is currently a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She was previously a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and was founding director for the Human Rights Watch Women’s Division.

The lecture is cosponsored by the Archive for Human Rights, the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, the Duke Human Rights Center, Women’s Studies, the Program in the Study of Sexualities, and the Franklin Humanities Institute. Generous support was also provided by the Trent Foundation.

Do Your Research, From Our Collections, University Archives

You Can’t Take It with You

Wallace Fowlie in 1968.
Wallace Fowlie in 1968. From the University Archives Photograph Collection.

“Cleaning my apartment,” wrote Wallace Fowlie (1908-1998) in his memoir Aubade, “means discarding each week an object, a book, and even a notebook that has served its purpose.” In other words, the influential Duke faculty member destroyed many of his own manuscripts.

Still, something of Fowlie’s archive was recovered from his Durham home at Valley Terrace Apartments and survives in the Wallace Fowlie Papers, a modest collection of his correspondence and later manuscripts.

Fowlie arrived in Durham in 1964 and taught French literature at Duke until his death in 1998; he was named the James B. Duke Professor of French in 1968. Fowlie is best known for his critical readings and translations of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Cocteau, and other French writers.

The Wallace Fowlie Papers include highlights from his correspondence, such as letters from Jean Cocteau, Anaïs Nin, and other important literary figures.

Letter from Jean Cocteau to Wallace Fowlie, 1957. From the Wallace Fowlie Papers.
Letter from Jean Cocteau to Wallace Fowlie, 1957. From the Wallace Fowlie Papers.

Two spiral notebooks—apparently the only notebooks not discarded by the self-described “eccentric” scholar—contain Fowlie’s notes on Marcel Proust, Dante, and other writers. Most notable, perhaps, is Fowlie’s personal reminiscence of his relationship with the novelist Henry Miller.

For further details about the Wallace Fowlie Papers, consult the collection’s finding aid or contact RBMSCL staff.

Post contributed by David Pavelich, Head of Research Services.

Events, From Our Collections, Hartman Center

Mad Library

2 Comments

Are you a Mad Men fan? Do you like ’60s themed parties? Then come on out to the Mad Men & Mad Women library party on February 25th from 9PM-12AM!

Mad Men & Mad Women Party LogoThe party will highlight the best of the Duke Marketing Club and the Perkins-Bostock library, with special emphasis on the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History. It’s open to the whole Duke community and faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

I’m Tammy Leung, a junior at Duke and decorations chair for the upcoming party, and I am delighted to have used the Competitive Ads Collection provided by the Hartman Center for a majority of the party’s decorations.

Gilbey's Gin Ad
Gilbey's Gin Advertisement. From the Competitive Ads Collection.

In the past few months, I frequented the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library searching for vintage ads to use as decorations for the party. Going through dozens of boxes of newspaper and magazine ads arranged by product category, I discovered a plethora of ads for the occasion. The ads ranged from funny, classy, unique, and sometimes strange (some of the things they made with Jell-O back in the day are downright disgusting) and gave me unexpectedly great insight into life during the ’60s. The ads I picked out for the party ultimately gives guests a similar glimpse of the ’60s, touching upon sexism, dietary habits, fashion, technology, and mindset during the time.

Without the Hartman Center, the content for our party would’ve been extremely lackluster and I would’ve never been aware of such a rich resource here on campus. I hope that other students will also take advantage of this resource after seeing all of the vintage ads at the party.

Bingham Center, Events, Readings and Talks

Mind the Pay Gap

Date: Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Time: 4:30 PM
Location: Perkins Library 217
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu

Lilly LedbetterLearn more about the equal pay debate from one of the nation’s leading advocates. Lilly Ledbetter was the plaintiff in the employment discrimination case, Ledbetter v Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Her historic experience resulted in the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, President Barack Obama’s first piece of legislation, which restored workers’ rights to challenge wage discrimination.

Professor Nancy Zisk of the Charleston School of Law will offer opening and closing remarks about the current landscape of pay equity reform and moderate a question-and-answer session with Ms. Ledbetter.

This event is sponsored by the Duke University Women’s Center and co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional Equity, Baldwin Scholars, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

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

Events, Franklin Research Center, News and Features, Symposia and Conferences

Atelier@Duke

2 Comments

Date: Friday-Saturday, 25-26 February 2011
Time: please see schedule
Location: Gothic Reading Room, Perkins Library
Contact Information: Jennifer Thompson, 919-660-5922 or jennifer2.thompson(at)duke.edu

As part of the 15th anniversary celebration of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, Duke University Libraries and the Office of the Provost present the first Atelier@Duke: “The Idea of Archive—Producing and Performing Race.”

The event will be a “series of conversations that reproduce what might happen in a workshop—an ‘atelier’—of ideas. Our panelists’ conversations will engage the moments before ideas become text, fixed images, documented policies or remembered spectacle,” said Atelier@Duke organizer Karla F C Holloway, the James B. Duke Professor of English and a professor of law at Duke. The series of panel discussions will also consider what and how histories are saved and shared.

This occasion also marks the inaugural John Hope Franklin Research Center Book Award, which will be presented to author Paula J. Giddings for her critically-acclaimed biography, Ida: A Sword Among Lions (2008). For more information about the award, please see the Duke University Libraries’ announcement.

The Atelier@Duke panel discussions are free and open to the public. Please visit the conference’s website for registration and schedule information.

Post contributed by Jennifer Thompson, John Hope Franklin Research Center Librarian.

Archive of Documentary Arts, Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Human Rights Archive

Opening Reception for “al margen”

Date: 24 Feburary 2011
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Frederic Jameson Gallery, Friedl Building
Contact Information: Karen Glynn, 919-660-5968 or karen.glynn(at)duke.edu, or Patrick Stawski, 919-660-5823 or patrick.stawski(at)duke.edu

Patagonia, Argentina, April 2010
Patagonia, Argentina, April 2010

Join photographer Petra Barth, the Archive of Documentary Arts, and the Archive for Human Rights for an opening reception celebrating “al margen.”

The reception will include a panel discussion on issues of poverty, marginalization, environmental degradation, and responses to disaster and crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean. Panelists will include Dennis Clements, Erika Weinthal, and Sandy Smith-Nonini.

Following the discussion, Barth will lead a gallery tour.

“al margen” was organized by the Archive of Documentary Arts and the Archive for Human Rights. The exhibit is sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South, the Department of Cultural Anthropology, International Comparative Studies, and the Duke Human Rights Center.

Do Your Research, From Our Collections, Manuscripts, News and Features

Mystery Solved!

A few months ago, UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student Adam Domby spent a morning at the RBMSCL studying several of our manuscripts collections, including a heretofore unidentified North Carolina farm woman’s diary. “You know,” he said as he prepared to leave, “I think I could figure out who wrote that diary.”

Read the full story in the most recent issue of the Duke University Libraries Magazine!

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