Bingham Center, From Our Collections

Re-installing The Trial of Sylvia Likens

The Trial of Sylvia Likens by Kate Millett, 1978. Photo by Mark Zupan.

For the first time since its initial exhibition in 1978, Kate Millett’s chilling installation, The Trial of Sylvia Likens, has been reassembled. On Monday, the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture and Art History instructor Laurel Fredrickson joined with filmmakers Sophie Keir-Thompson and Mary Beth Ross to film the piece for a documentary about Millett’s life. The installation forms part of the Kate Millett Papers, which are held by the Bingham Center.

The installation marks Millett’s response to the horrific 1965 torture and murder of sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens by the Baniszewski family and their neighborhood friends. Called “the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana,” the story of the murder and subsequent trial transformed Millett, laying the groundwork for her revolutionary work, Sexual Politics. Fredrickson writes, “For Kate, the case of Sylvia Likens exemplified in a very potent way how women are taught to accept punishment for real and imagined digressions from the cultural and social roles imposed upon them by patriarchal societies.”

In the photo essay below, Kelly Wooten, the Bingham Center’s Research Services and Collection Development Librarian, narrates Monday’s recreation.

The first step in reconstructing The Trial of Sylvia Likens was locating all the various mannequin parts, clothing, and panels, and then loading everything onto book trucks to convey to Room 217 in Perkins Library.

Once we delivered all the materials to Room 217 and the filmmakers set up their equipment, it was time to assemble the five defendants and get them dressed for court. Technical Services Archivist Megan Lewis and Art History instructor Laurel Fredrickson are putting on Johnnie’s jacket.

After all of the characters were ready, filmmakers Mary Beth Ross and Sophie Keir took shots of each mannequin in front of a green screen. This is Gertrude Baniszewski.

Filmmaker Mary Beth Ross prepares to capture images of the mannequins seated at the table.

For the original installation, Kate Millett created a death mask of her own face and dressed a mannequin in her own clothing to be arranged on a mattress as an embodiment of empathy for the victim, Sylvia Likens, who was found on a mattress in the family’s basement.

The trickiest part of this re-creation was hanging the panels that formed the backdrop in the original courtroom scene without damaging the library walls. Fortunately, Laurel Fredickson’s partner, Brad Johnson, is the Chief Preparator at the Nasher Museum of Art and had the time and the tools to hang the large newspaper reproductions.

For more photos, visit the RBMSCL’s Flickr photostream!

Thanks to the Bingham Center staff and Laurel Fredrickson for helping with this post!

Do Your Research, Hartman Center, News and Features, Travel Grants

2010 Hartman Center Travel Grants Awarded

The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Hartman Center Travel Grants. These grants allow scholars to travel to Durham to conduct research using the Hartman Center’s collections.

JWT Fellows:

  • Ferdinando Fasce: Department of Modern and Contemporary History, University of Genoa
    “JWT Italy between Reconstruction and the First Oil Shock, from the late 1940s through the 1970s”
  • Eva von Wyl: Social and Economic History, University of Zurich
    “Rationalization, Self-Service and American Way of Life: American Eating Habits in Postwar Switzerland (1950-1970)”

Faculty Recipients:

  • Shannan Clark: Department of History, Montclair State University
    “The Creative Class: White-Collar Workers and the Making of America’s Culture of Consumer Capitalism”
  • Liza Featherstone: Journalism School, New York University; School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
    “Behind The Mirror: Focus Groups and What They Reveal, 1930s to present”
  • Michelle Ferranti: Division of Fine and Performing Arts, Marymont Manhattan College
    “History of Women’s Motivations for Douching following the Medicalization of Birth Control in the U.S.”
  • Ann McDonald: Department of Art Design, Northeastern University
    “The Role of Publically Displayed Information Visualization in Eliciting Individual and Communal Action”
  • Ari Martin Samsky: Global Health Studies Program, University of Iowa
    “Working Through Responsibility: Advertising, Medicine and The Social Good, World War II-the Present”

Student Recipients:

  • Abby Bartholomew: College of Journalism and Mass Communications, Advertising Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    “JWT’s Application of Psychological Principles to Advertising, the Work of John B. Watson and his Behaviorist Theories”
  • Rebecca Burditt: Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, Department of Art and Art History, University of Rochester
    “Seeing Difference: Postwar Hollywood and the Commercial Delay”
  • Berti Kolbow: Institute for Economic and Social History, Georgia Augusta University Goettingen
    “Transatlantic Transfers of Marketing Concepts between Eastman Kodak and Agfa, 1880-1945”
  • Shawn Moura: Department of History, University of Maryland
    “Target Market Brazil: Postwar Advertising and Consumer Culture in the Country of the Future”
  • Cory Pillen: Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    “WPA Posters: A New Deal for Design, 1936-1943”
  • Elizabeth Spies: Department of English, University of California, Riverside
    “Advertising Stigmatas: The Evolution of Poetic Advertising throughout the Twentieth Century, 1890-1980”

Watch The Devil’s Tale for news about upcoming discussions with several of the travel grant recipients from the Hartman, Bingham, and Franklin Research Centers.

Do Your Research, From Our Collections, Manuscripts, New Finding Aids, Technical Stuff

April Showers Bring New Finding Aids!

Our technical services archivists have created a veritable deluge of new finding aids for some of our older collections. All of the following collections are open for research. Please contact the Special Collections Library at special-collections(at)duke.edu with any questions.

Japanese Matchbox Label Collection, circa 1910

400 vividly-colored Japanese matchbox labels are mounted in a contemporary paper album and housed in a custom-made cloth box. Unfortunately, the name of the person who created this marvelous collection is unknown.

Ann Atwater Interviews, 2006

Master and use copies of Jeff Storer’s oral interviews with Ann Atwater, an African-American civil rights activist based in Durham regarding her friendship with Ku Klux Klan leader C. P. Ellis.

Montrose Jonas Moses Papers, 1789-1960

The papers of this drama critic, journalist, and author of works on American and European drama and on children’s literature includes correspondence with giants of the turn-of-the-20th-century theater, including Eugene O’Neill, Percival Wilde, David Belasco, and Margaret Anglin.

Thomas Lee Settle Papers, 1795-1949

The papers of this Virginia surgeon, said to have pronounced the death of abolitionist John Brown, shed light on the practice of medicine in the 19th century. Of particular interest are documents detailing Settle’s own medical service for the 11th Virginia Cavalry.

Digital Collections, News and Features, RL Photos

RBMSCL Photos: The Scribe is Here!

Above, Abigail, who is on loan to us from the Internet Archive, begins our Scribe scanning project. Over the next few months, we’ll be digitizing our collections of Utopian Literature and Confederate imprints—and so much more! Remember to visit The Devil’s Tale often for more news about the Scribe.

And have a look at Beth Doyle’s post about the Scribe installation over at Preservation Underground. We’re glad they finally got the Scribe through the doorway.

Photo by Mark Zupan.

Bingham Center, Events, Symposia and Conferences

Women’s Education Symposium Redux: Pedagogy Panel

Date: Friday, 23 April 2010
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: Perkins Library Room 118
Contact Information: Kelly Wooten, 919-660-5967 or kelly.wooten(at)duke.edu


Next Friday, join the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture to watch videos from their 30 October 2009 symposium, “What Does It Mean to Be an Educated Woman?”

This month, we’ll be watching the “Pedagogy Panel.” The full list of speakers, which include RBMSCL Research Services Librarian Elizabeth Dunn, is available on the online symposium schedule. Desserts will be provided!

We’ll miss you if you can’t attend, but—just in case—videos for all three panels are also available online.

Events, Exhibits, From Our Collections, Hartman Center

“You’ve Got . . . Personality: Testimonial and Celebrity Endorsement Advertisements”

1 Comment

Date: 8 April-30 June 2010
Location and Time: Rare Book Room cases during library hours
Contact Information: Jackie Reid, 919-660 5836 or j.reid(at)duke.edu

Testimonial advertisements, today seemingly reserved for fading actors, retired politicians, and late-night cable infomercials, were once a mark of innovation and prestige in advertising. This exhibit, a complement to “The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond’s, 1920s-1950s,” highlights some examples of this style of advertising, as documented in the collections of the Hartman Center.

In 1923, JWT created a new advertising campaign for Pond’s creams, based on the testimonials of leading American society women and European titled nobility. That campaign lasted for over thirty years and is the focus of half of the exhibit. Newsletters, internal memos, publications, ads and other items allow the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at bringing a concept to fruition in a long-standing advertising campaign.

Taking a broader view, the other half of the exhibit documents an overview of the use of testimonials and celebrity endorsements in advertising for a range of products. From an 1893 endorsement by arctic explorer Lieutenant Peary for Kodak, to Count Basie for Camel cigarettes, to Coach K for American Express, a wide variety of well-known celebrities are shown endorsing products. Advertisements, reports, and memos illustrate advertisers’ belief that celebrity testimonials could lend products a feeling of familiarity and credibility, while also creating the illusion that to purchase a given product was to belong to an elite cast.

Post contributed by Jackie Reid, Director of the Hartman Center, and Lynn Eaton, Hartman Center Reference Archivist

Bingham Center, Do Your Research, News and Features, Travel Grants

2010-2011 Mary Lily Research Grants Awarded

Duke University cheerleaderThe Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Mary Lily Research Grants. These grants allow scholars to travel to Durham to conduct research using the Bingham Center’s collections.

  • Katie Anania, Art History, University of Texas-Austin, for dissertation research on the rise of feminism as a framework for evaluating contemporary art.
  • Lori A. Brown, Architecture, Syracuse University, for research for a book examining the relationships between space, abortion, and issues of access.
  • Kate Eichhorn, Culture and Media Studies, The New School, for research comparing zines and scrapbooks as archival collections of ephemera.
  • Julie Enszer, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, for an examination of lesbian-feminist print culture in Durham, NC, 1969-1989 as part of a historical narrative of lesbian-feminist publishing.
  • Karen Garner, Historical Studies, SUNY Empire State College, for an examination of U.S. global gender policy in the 1990s.
  • Rebecca N. Mitchell, English, University of Texas – Pan American, for research for an article examining the proto-feminist aspects and eroticism of Victorian mourning attire.
  • Michelle Moravec, History and Women’s Studies, Rosemont College, for research on feminist art activism as a U.S. social movement, 1967-1991.
  • Whitney Strub, Women’s Studies and American Studies, Temple University, for research for a book examining the relationships between queer sexuality, LGBT activism, and antigay activity in post-WWII United States.

Watch The Devil’s Tale for news about upcoming discussions with several of the travel grant recipients from the Bingham, Hartman, and Franklin Research Centers.

From Our Collections, Human Rights Archive, Manuscripts, New at the Rubenstein Library, News and Features

Patricia Derian Papers Coming to Duke

The Archive for Human Rights has signed an agreement with Patricia Murphy Derian to serve as the repository for her papers, which document her long career in human rights.

Patt, as she is known to friends and family, was involved in the civil rights struggles in Mississippi prior to being tapped by President Jimmy Carter to head the newly-minted Bureau for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. In 1977, she became the nation’s very first assistant secretary for human rights.

Her papers consist of country files, general files, correspondence, and a collection of audio and video interviews. Processing of the collection will begin immediately and should be complete by summer of 2010. If you’d like to arrange a visit to view the collection, or if you have any questions, please e-mail us at special-collections(at)duke.edu.

Post contributed by Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist.

Events, Franklin Research Center, Symposia and Conferences

Freedom Politics: From Jim Crow through Civil Rights and Black Power

Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Time: 1:30 PM (please see schedule)
Location: Room 240, John Hope Franklin Center (directions)
Contact Information: fhi(at)duke.edu

"After a cross is burned in front of a freedom house, it is turned into a freedom sign." Photographed by Tamio Wakayama.

2009-2010 Mellon HBCU Fellows Rhonda Jones and Dirk Philipsen will bring together leading African American Studies scholars for the Franklin Humanities Institute‘s 2nd Annual HBCU Fellowship Program Symposium. The symposium will explore the relationship between education and democracy, from the history of student-led social movements like SNCC to the use of African American oral histories in civic education today.

The symposium is co-sponsored by John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

Please register by e-mailing fhi(at)duke.edu by Friday, 9 April. A light dinner will be provided for participants in the 5:30 PM workshop, so please indicate in your e-mail if you plan to attend that session. Registration is free.

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