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The Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University has acquired the papers of Ophelia DeVore Mitchell, a model, businesswoman and pioneer in the “black is beautiful” movement.

DeVore exemplified power, pride, presence and beauty in African American women. A former model and longtime business executive, she started one of the first modeling agencies for black models, which helped launch the early careers of actresses Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson, among other celebrities.

DeVore also opened a charm school for young black women to learn etiquette, self-presentation and confidence; launched a cosmetics company catering to African American women, and took over the Columbus Times, a daily newspaper for the African American community in Columbus, Ga., which she still owns today. She was appointed by President Reagan to the John F. Kennedy Center Committee on the Arts in 1985 and has been involved in many community programs throughout her career.

Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections at MARBL, says the collection represents black pride for women. DeVore’s charm school taught women how to present themselves confidently, allowing them to set and achieve higher goals for themselves and expect equal treatment and opportunities. The school counts as its alumni entrepreneurs, businesswomen, actresses, models, news correspondents, judges, doctors, and a New York City chef and restaurant owner, among others.

“What she was communicating, through all of her enterprises, is that you have to see yourself as a beautiful person, as a person of authority and confidence,” Burkett says.

One of the first mixed-race models in the U.S., DeVore was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, in 1922, to parents of German, French, Native American and African American heritage. In 1933, DeVore was sent to New York City to live with her aunt and complete her education. She graduated from Hunter College High School and attended New York University.

DeVore began modeling in 1938 at the age of 16, working primarily for Ebony magazine. In 1946, she and four friends co-founded Grace del Marco Models; in addition to Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson, the agency represented such notable figures as Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”), Gail Fisher (“Mannix”); Trudy Haynes, one of the first African American female TV reporters; and Helen Williams, one of the first successful African American models. The agency sought to encourage the media to portray African Americans in non-stereotypical ways.

DeVore took on mainstream publications, advertisers and other agencies who avoided hiring African American models, and she was a tough businesswoman proud of her accomplishments. She once sued Life Magazine after it published a story in 1969 on black models for which she was interviewed; the resulting article cited white-owned agencies instead.

The Ophelia DeVore School of Charm, which opened in 1948, offered social training for African American young women. It provided lessons in etiquette, poise and posture, ballet, speech, and self-presentation (including grooming lessons in hair styling, applying makeup, and dressing in flattering clothes). Hip-hop artist Faith Evans, widow of the Notorious B.I.G., is one of many notable graduates.

The school, which closed in 2006, reached its peak between the 1960s and the 1990s, and at times graduated about 100 students in a class, says James D. Carter, DeVore’s son, who took over the charm school for a number of years and ran other aspects of various DeVore businesses.

“In the early years, when my mother started the cosmetics line and she was grooming students for modeling and handling black talent as models, she was pretty much the only one doing it,” Carter says.  “It wasn’t until the early ’70s that people started getting a sense of how marketable black talent was and how to sell to the black population, and that other agencies started managing black models and handling talent.”

MaryLouise Patterson, a retired pediatrician, recalls attending the charm school around 1956, when she was a young teen. She says jokingly that her mother probably sent her to get her out of the house on a Saturday, but also to learn poise, correct posture and elegant movement. (Her mother is the late Louise Thompson Patterson, friend of several Harlem Renaissance literary figures, social activist and member of the American Communist Party, whose papers are also held by MARBL.) Actress Beah Richards, who lived with them while she performed in plays at the time, also taught ballet at the charm school, so young Patterson tagged along with her for about a year.

“It was learning how to move your body through space, how to control it and use it – you don’t just plop down on a seat,” Patterson recalls of her time at DeVore’s charm school. “We learned how to walk, how to turn around, how to sit, how to fold your skirt down.”

More than 50 years later, Patterson, who took additional dance classes aside from those at the charm school, still gets compliments on her posture. “It wasn’t like we were being taught how to set a table or serve tea the way British ladies were – that wasn’t what Ms. DeVore was teaching,” she says. “It was really more about movement and presentation.”

After the death of her first husband, Harold Carter, DeVore married Columbus Times publisher Vernon Mitchell in 1968. When he passed away in 1972, she took the helm of the newspaper and continues today as its owner, with her daughter, Carol Gertjegerdes, as co-publisher and executive editor. DeVore lives in New York City.

The Ophelia DeVore Mitchell papers are unprocessed but open to researchers and the public. The collection includes correspondence, professional papers, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, audiovisual material and printed matter relating to her various businesses and community programs in which she was involved.

To make arrangements to work with the collection, send an email to marbl@emory.edu.

Ophelia DeVore Mitchell collection: MARBL Finding Aid

MARBL African American Collections

Ophelia DeVore School of Charm website

Media contacts:
Holly Crenshaw: holly.crenshaw@emory.edu, 404-727-0211
Elaine Justice: elaine.justice@emory.edu, 404-727-0643

5/2/2013

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Spines of the three volumes of Théâtre by Maurice Maeterlinck

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A remarkable and unique work from MARBL's Paul Bernard Seydel Memorial Collection of works relating to Belgium is Théâtre, a collection of plays by the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck. The three volume set was published in Brussels in 1901-1902 in an edition of 110 copies. While it's an attractive publication there was nothing particularly special about it when it was first issued. What's notable about MARBL's copy is what was done subsequent to its publication.

 

Interior Decorated Pages of Théâtre    

The book was completely transformed inside and out. All three volumes were taken apart and almost every page was hand-illustrated with decorate borders, small and full page pictures reflecting events in the text. The illustrations are apparently all by an A. Holzbeeck who signed his or her name at the beginning of the first volume. Sadly nothing is known about this artist. Once the pages had been illustrated they were beautifully bound by the Belgian bookbinder Jacques Weckesser in full morocco with gilt and colored decorations.

We have no history for this work before it came to MARBL so the early history of the work has been lost. We would love to know why this special set of books was so lavishly created. Perhaps it was commissioned as a gift or perhaps it was created to be sold for profit. Sadly, we will probably never know.

Interior Decorated Pages of Théâtre

Authored By: 

David Faulds, Rare Book Librarian, MARBL

“Medical Treasures at Emory,” an exhibition of fascinating historical medical books and artifacts, is now open at Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library (WHSCL) – a reminder of the days when doctors had a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy, performed surgery without antiseptic and used primitive forms of anesthesia for operations and dental work.

An opening reception will be held at 5 pm on Friday, May 17, when the American Association for the History of Medicine, in town for a conference at the Emory Conference Center, will visit the exhibition.

“Medical Treasures,” on display through October 2013, features materials from the WHSCL’s historical collections, which include 18th- and 19th-century works on human anatomy, pathology, surgery, midwifery and alternative medical practices.

Dr. Robert Gaynes, professor of infectious disease at the Emory School of Medicine and author of the book “Germ Theory: Medical Pioneers in Infectious Diseases,” is the exhibition curator with Matt Miller, a resources management senior specialist at the WHSCL who earned his PhD in American Studies from Emory’s Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts.

“Emory has some really remarkable books and artifacts on the history of medicine, especially from the 1800s, when modern medicine got its start,” Gaynes says.

This is the first major exhibition for WHSCL, says Sandra Franklin, the library’s director. “It’s really exciting for us to give visibility to our treasures,” she says. “Among the materials in our historical collections, we didn’t realize the importance of what have. The rareness of some of the pieces is amazing.”

Notable artifacts in the exhibition include one of the earliest stethoscopes from the 19th century, and a kit of Civil War surgeon’s instruments, primarily used for amputation. “They’re pretty grisly-looking, especially when you realize this was the last great military conflict prior to the use of antiseptic,” Gaynes says. “Surgeries were performed in terribly unclean conditions. Many soldiers died not in battle but from infection.”

Materials related to the discovery of anesthesia are also part of the exhibition, including the notes of Crawford W. Long, the Georgia physician for whom Emory University Hospital Midtown was originally named. The notes, from the collection of Emory’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library(MARBL), provide proof that Long had already introduced ether anesthesia before its first documented use at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846.

“That’s rather exciting. These are important historical notes on the first use of ether anesthesia,” Gaynes says. “There was a great deal of debate in the 19th century that lasted over 20 years, and these documents helped to settle that debate.”

Most of the materials on display are historical medical books. Among these volumes: books about Civil War field surgery practices, an 1881 book that incorporates early medical photography to show the ravages of syphilis, a copy of “Notes on Nursing: What It is, and What It Is Not” (1865) by Florence Nightingale, and an 1849 obstetrics book by Charles D. Meigs, an obstetrician and professor of obstetrics who opposed obstetrical anesthesia and the introduction of sanitary practices during childbirth on the theory that “doctors are gentlemen and a gentleman’s hands are clean.”

The last exhibition case is dedicated to a significant medical book: “de humani corporis fabrica” (On the structure of the human body), first published by Andreas Vesalius in 1543. It is considered the first accurate book on human anatomy; until its debut, changes in medical discoveries moved incredibly slowly and closely followed the second-century writings of Galen, Gaynes says. This version, part of the WHSCL’s historical collection, is the oldest book housed in MARBL. The Emory volume is thought to be a variation published between the first edition (1543) and the second (1551), and one of only 60 copies in existence. The book, printed on linen pages, has 11 full-page plates of figures that are “astonishing in their details,” Gaynes says. An article on display describes how Emory librarian Myrtle Tye managed to purchase the book in 1930 with donations she raised during the Great Depression.

“It’s one of the most important books in the history of medicine,” Gaynes says. “It corrected errors in Galen’s theories and brought about changes in modern medicine. It’s a privilege to see it and to display it.”

Some of the rare books on display have been scanned through the Emory Libraries’ digitization program, and visitors will be able to “page through” these treasures, physically kept under glass, via a kiosk in the exhibition.

Franklin says the library staff is pleased to share materials from its small historical collection with the Emory community and the general public. Most of the materials were acquired over the years through donations.

“We’re proud of our historical collection and happy that we were able to maintain and secure the items all these years until we could display them properly,” Franklin says.

WHSCL is located at 1462 Clifton Rd. The library’s webpage provides links to directions, parking, hours and maps.

Related links:

Robert Gaynes discusses “de humani corporis fabrica” (Emory’s YouTube page)

Explore books from the exhibition via the kiosk

Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library website

Media contacts:
Holly Crenshaw: holly.crenshaw@emory.edu, 404-727-0211
Elaine Justice: elaine.justice@emory.edu, 404-727-0643

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Posted 4-24-13

The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

The Reed Family was an African American family who lived in southeast Texas from Reconstruction to the oil boom. The Reeds owned over 50 acres of land which was often referred to as the Berry Beasley Place. Included in the family papers are handwritten herbal remedies for common ailments such as sore throat, sore mouth, rheumatism, erectile dysfunction, piles, diarrhea, dropsy, and nausea. Other detailed prescriptions offered help to those with "mind and body trouble" or "women in the family way." Due to the sensitive nature of these remedies and concoctions, the formulas were rarely written down.

by Gabrielle M. Dudley, Research Library Fellow, MARBL

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Safari  Books Online: Basic Tech Library 

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The library now has a subscription to over 5000 e-books from Safari Books Online, which is a recognized leader in providing technology how-to books. We opted for the most current package aka the Basic Tech Library package, so the titles and editions change regularly in the collection. Each book we subscribe to is listed in DiscoverE or you can browse the complete package online. (Note Safari has over 20,000 books online, so if you browse online you may run across titles we don’t own such as older titles or one of their subject-specific packages).

Database Title: Safari  Books Online: Basic Tech Library  http://pid.emory.edu/dzfb2
 
Dates of Coverage: most recent 2 years; current file only
 
Emory’s subscription to Safari Books Online covers technology-related books about programming languages, IT management, digital media, desktop applications, project management, and more. Publishers include O'Reilly Media, Addison-Wesley, Peachpit Press, Cisco Press, New Riders, Microsoft Press, Wrox, Adobe Press. The "Category Map" http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/categories is help you browse all the titles available to Emory

Authored By: 

Kristan Majors, Science Librarian, Emory University

The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

Street signs from Resurrection City, Washington, DC, 1968

In May 1968, thousands of demonstrators, led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, poured into Washington, D.C. for the Poor People's Campaign. The protestors took up residence on the National Mall in a tent encampment called Resurrection City. The community was intended to be the embodiment of SCLC's vision for the nation: a peaceful and loving community, fully integrated, free from greed, envy and want. It was also meant to be a stark example of the plight of the poor in America. Pictured above are original street signs from the encampment, currently on display in Woodruff Library as part of the exhibition, "And the Struggle Continues: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Fight for Social Change."

by Sarah Quigley, Manuscript Archivist, MARBL

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The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

Framed in MARBL is a brown paper bag on which is written a letter from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ralph McGill to his friends, some of the greatest journalists covering the south during the Civil Rights Movement. McGill starts off with a parenthetical stating that he is writing "In the manner of the Arkansan who always wrote on a brown paper sack." He then goes on to address his friends as "Dearly Beloved" and signs it "Affectionately, Ralph." Added later to the frame is a note listing the recipients as Bill Baggs, Harry Ashmore, Harold Fleming, Bill Emerson, John Popham, Claude Sitton, and John Griffin as well as a date of April, 1964 and a location of Tallahassee, Florida. Come up to MARBL to further investigate the contents of this interesting form of correspondence.

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Sisyphus, Titian [Vecellio di Gregorio Tiziano], 1548-1549, Museo del Prado

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Sisyphus: The Patron Saint of the Stacks Team

     King Sisyphus of Ephyra was punished by the gods for his hubris. His sentence was to push a huge boulder up a hill and when he almost achieves the top, the boulder rolls to the bottom whereupon he is forced to begin again. This myth illustrates the idea that there is no greater punishment than to do physically intense repetitious work that has no value. So, why would the Stacks team name Sisyphus as our patron saint? Simply put, it’s because his plight has so much to teach us about how to survive and flourish.

     So how is the punishment of Sisyphus like stacks work? Basically, replace, “boulder” with “book”. The work is physically hard. Not because the books are heavy or the carts are difficult to push, but because half the shelves we are using are below your waist height forcing you to squat down to see the call numbers 4 inches from the floor, whereupon, you stand up, take a few more steps bend down, stand up, reach up, squat down etc…. for hours at a time. The next way the punishment is similar is that the work never stops. As soon as you finish shelving on a floor, more books are delivered, when you finish shelf-reading a floor, there is always another, and when one floor really starts looking straight and tidy, users come along and the shelves are messy again. Moreover, each day books are being added to the collection and books are being moved out to storage, changing the shelf densities and compelling us to shift the collection. There is never a time when the work is finished. But the most devastating similarity to the punishment of Sisyphus is that all the work we do is destroyed. The more successful we are, that is, the more the collection is used the faster our work is undone.

     So, how do we cope? Well, in my observations, this is how I see it.  As we attempt to fulfill our basic needs, we need to feel the protection that comes with being a valued member of the community. As an individual and a team we project what value, by showing that we are the powerful enough to be successful in our endeavors. As the stacks team, our mission to defines how we know we are successful. The mission of the stacks team reads: we serve the Emory community by providing an accessible and well maintained print collection. The operative words in this mission are “team”, “accessible”, and “serve”.

     Sisyphus worked in isolation where his spirit is continually crushed. In stacks we work as a team. The foundation of being a member of a team is acceptance. First, I need to accept the responsibility to do the work. Even more so, I need to accept that when I no longer want to do the work it is ok to stop. Each day it’s important to be able to say “yes, this is something I am interested in doing.” Second, is that I need to need to be able to extend and receive the trust, respect and shared success that is needed to maintain the relationships that make up the team. It’s so important not just to succeed with the other members of the team, but to own and invest in the success of each of other members of the team, knowing that they are responsible for their work but when a bad day comes that you are there to help.  

    In stacks, when we think about a making the material accessible we think about it on three dimensions. First, we want the material to be in its proper collection and then in proper sequence. If the material is on the shelf where the catalog says, it allows the users to find the items and do so quickly. Searching for materials in the stacks always take more time than you think. The second dimension is that we want the materials to move through our work processes quickly. The more time an item is sitting in a book-drop, in a sorting area or on a cart, the less accessible the item is to our users. The third dimension around which we organize is the preservation of the material. A well-made book will last for hundreds and hundreds of years. If we take care of the collection, the books we own will be available far into the future. There are two ways that we address the preservation. We keep the books spine out, straight and gently standing next to each other and on the front edge of the shelves and by managing the shelf density. Managing shelf density includes both shifting and transferring material to storage. When the density of the tower increases, the more shelves and ranges of books become filled end to end. When this happens, inevitably, a lot more shelves get overfilled, compressing and crushing large numbers of books and many of which are irreplaceable.

Finally, I would like to address service in the light of our Sisyphean task. Service is the idea that allows us to transform the work from a soul crushing punishment to a valuable and uplifting endeavor. The work is physically difficult, repetitious, never ending, and all the work you do is quickly destroyed. The work has the added challenge that only the highest quality is acceptable. Each item has only one place in the call number sequence. If someone needs the information from a particular book, only that book will do. So, how can we perform this alchemy? I do this by taking the time to embrace the success of those who are using the materials. Not so much the success in finding a book, but the success in the incredible things that can come from reading it.

Authored By: 

Patrick Buckley, May 1, 2013

Homage to G. Seurat by Simon Cutts

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Preservation and Conservation
Research Guide

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Followers of The Extraordinary World of MARBL have discovered how much deeper the collection goes than traditional print structures such as the book and document (and their digital afterlives), and familiar materials like paper, ink, cloth, and leather.  MARBL’s holdings include chocolate, puppets, socks, sherry, and more.  Homage to G. Seurat (cake sprinkles on cardstock), Untitled [Basic Lights] (ink on cigarettes), The Onion as it is Cooked (poetry embossed on pasta), and The Poems of Dylan Thomas (altered text with rusty razor blades, matches, and other materials) are works that further demonstrate why MARBL has strict preservation protocols in place. Collections Conservation staff are responsible for environmental monitoring, integrated pest management, protective housing, and conservation treatment for all of MARBL’s holdings from the traditional to the extraordinary.

Multi-colored cake sprinkles are adhered to the front cover of Homage to G. Seurat by Simon Cutts in a pointillist style abstract image. This work comes in its original small, snug-fitting envelope. The piece was inherently unstable—subsequent editions were in the form of a 16 page pamphlet, which included both a cake sprinkle collage and pages of correspondence between the artist and the British Arts Council (which had commissioned the first edition), negotiating the replacement of the original, which had "melted". Further damage to MARBL's copy is physical in nature: the original envelope abraded off sprinkles. Once conservation treatment is complete, the work will be housed with—but not in—its envelope, in such a manner that the collage will be protected from abrasion, and the fugitive colors protected from further fading. Regulation of temperature and relative humidity, coupled with a strict no food and drink policy, will prevent any situation which might invite pests to sample the 40-plus-year-old cake sprinkles.

Untitled [Basic Lights] by Berwyn Hung

These preservation measures will also keep cigarette beetles, among other pests, away from Berwyn Hung’s Untitled [Basic Lights], an ironic and performative musing on addiction and the difficulty of breaking old habits. The work has been housed in a platform-style clam-shell box, so that the small, soft cigarette pack is not crushed and the box is just large enough to not be lost among other materials on the shelves.

The Onion as it is Cooked by Stephen Jesse Bernstein

Stephen Jesse Bernstein was an underground poet and performance artist often identified with Seattle's punk and grunge scene. His work on pasta, The Onion as it is Cooked came to Emory resembling a jigsaw puzzle—ask conservator, Kirsten Wehner—she painstakingly reconstructed the poem, matching letter fragment to fragment, and adhering the tiny pieces together with wheat starch paste. The repaired work is now protected by preservation protocols. Additionally, it must be stored flat, and transported carefully to requesting researchers.

The Poems of Dylan Thomas by Mar Goman

Mar Goman's altered text, The Poems of Dylan Thomas, is bursting with three-dimensional and moveable, interactive elements. She has said that she will incorporate almost any found material into her work, "as long as it doesn't move." The maintenance of an appropriate, stable relative humidity in MARBL's storage areas will keep the rusty, metal elements from further corrosion. A custom-fitted box not only protects the wedge-shaped book from abrasion, but protects adjacent volumes from potential damage by the razor blades and other sharp metal embellishments.

Excerpt from The Poems of Dylan Thomas by Mar Goman

Authored By: 

Julie Newton, Collections Conservation
Emory University Libraries
Preservation Office

Two exhibits inspired by Emory University undergraduate courses and co-curated by students are on display on Level 2 of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, with a group presentation and reception slated for April 30.

The exhibits, which examine racial and sexual identity, draw on original photographs, newspaper clippings, broadsides, yearbooks and other archival material housed in Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). Both courses focused on helping students develop research skills using primary evidence found in MARBL and then applying those skills toward public scholarship.

An opening reception with presentations and remarks by the student curators and their faculty collaborators is scheduled for 6 pm Tuesday, April 30 in the Research Commons, located on Level 3 of the Woodruff Library. The event is free and open to the public.

The first exhibit, “Let’s Talk About Sex: Sexual Identity, Sexual Health, and Sexual Violence at Emory,” grew out of a course entitled “From Archives to iPads: Investigating the Discourse on Sexuality at Emory,” taught in fall 2012 by Donna Troka, adjunct assistant professor in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts.

Half of the class time was spent in MARBL, where 15 students pored through copies of The Emory Wheel, The Emory Report, and Emory yearbooks from 1836-2013. Student curators Sumir Desai, Meredith Doherty, Kala Hurst, Tiken Savang, and Tanya Zamora then juxtaposed the articles and images the class had discovered — from bawdy poems in the 1920s to coverage of Take Back the Night marches in the 2000s — to create a complex historical portrait of sexual discourse at Emory.

“We see this exhibit as a conversation starter, as a dialogue about how we think and talk about sexual identity, sexual health, and sexual violence at Emory,” Troka says. “We also see it as an exciting example of how faculty and students can collaborate inside and outside the classroom to create public scholarship.”

The second exhibit, “A Time of Great Possibility: African American Identity Politics, Community Building, and Racial Destiny, 1900-1940,” is the result of collaboration between David John Williams, a junior at Emory, and Pellom McDaniels III, faculty curator of African American Collections and assistant professor of African American Studies, for the spring 2013 class “Looking at the Familiar: History, Memory, Race and Visual Culture.”

Drawing on several collections of primary sources housed in MARBL — including the Robert Langmuir African American photograph collection, the Frank and Helen Chisholm papers, and the African American photograph collection — the exhibit addresses the role of education, family, politics, religion and sports on the development of African American identity at the turn of the 20th century.

“We saw this as a time when African American citizens were beginning to gain ground for themselves in American society, slowly making something out of the opportunities set by those in the previous decades,” Williams says. “At the same time we are reminding our audience of the very real hardships black citizens faced on a daily basis, but trying to emphasize a view of strength, not animosity. . . . To try and discount the realities of past would be a disservice to all.”

The collaborative, course-based exhibits served as a learning opportunity for both the students and faculty involved, says McDaniels. “It’s not just about being exposed to the primary materials housed in MARBL” he says. “Unlike a conventional final paper, this project allows for information to spread beyond student to professor. All can share in the success of projects such as these.”

Related links:

YouTube interview with Tanya Zamora, Emory College Class of 2015 and student in the class “From Archives to iPads: Investigating the Discourse on Sexuality at Emory”

YouTube interview with Donna Troka on how her students use iPads and the university archives to investigate sexuality at Emory

Course blog for “From Archives to iPads: Investigating the Discourse on Sexuality at Emory”

Emory Report: MARBL has big plans for rare photos

Robert Langmuir African American photograph collection

Frank and Helen Chisholm papers

Posted 4-24-13

Media contacts:
Holly Crenshaw: holly.crenshaw@emory.edu, 404-727-0211
Elaine Justice: elaine.justice@emory.edu, 404-727-0643

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The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

Robert E. Lee's Socks

By the end of the U. S. Civil War, supplies were scarce in the South. Rumors of Confederate gold aside, the Confederacy was bankrupt, and soldiers were left to their own devices to gather whatever they could for the war effort. According to a note supplied with these socks, they were given to General Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) by his wife, Mary Anna Custis Lee (1808-1873). They were then donated to the war effort through a gift to the sons of "G. Preston" by Mrs. Lee. If you'd like to visit these socks in MARBL, you'll find them in a collection called Confederate Miscellany, along with some other notable Civil War treasures.

by Laura Starratt, Manuscript Archivist, MARBL

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Title Page for Predatory Birds by Anthony Hecht and Aubrey Schwartz

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Anthony Hecht
Finding Aid

National Poetry Month

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In honor of National Poetry Month, we are proud to highlight recent acquisitions of personal papers, books, and artwork given to MARBL by Helen Hecht, wife of the late Poet Laureate of the United States, Anthony Hecht.

Art is not created in a vacuum.  This is especially true for poetry, which, I would argue, more than any other literary genre depends upon a lively conversation with and about itself. Romantic notions of the brooding poet-genius working in isolation are largely just that—romantic notions. And while initial drafts of poems may come into the world from moments of singular inspiration, Great Works of Art become what they are through tireless editing, correspondence, and a good deal of humor. As a writer and librarian with the privilege of working in an archive with strong literary collections, I've learned that the best poems are a kind of conversation with and about other poets; they are a contemplation of the past and present artistic and historical landscape.
 

Correspondence between Anthony
Hecht and George Starbuck

Among the many joys of perusing the Hecht collection is the treasure trove of letters. Hecht was a prolific letter writer, and the correspondence list of the Hecht finding aid reads like a who's who of American letters: John Ashbery, Anne Sexton, Saul Bellow, John Berryman, Robert Bly, Harold Bloom. The most recent acquisition of letters to the Hecht collection continues the momentum with the addition of letters to or from Henri Cole, Mary Jo Salter, and W.S. Merwin among others. Among my favorite letters from the recent additions—from Hecht to George Starbuck—paints a witty and comical portrait of a reading at a writer's conference in the summer of 1968:

"When Guillevic was finally done, she [Denise Levertov] said, 'My husband has just been arrested, and I have written a long poem about it, and since you are such an appreciative audience, I'll read it to you.' Someone remarked, quietly, 'Her husband was arrested, and she is suffering from subpoena envy.'"

But the Hecht letters represent more than a delicious compilation of tidbits about the social scene of the poetry world in the late 60's and early 70's. They also represent Hecht's dedication to thinking about poetry critically. Poetic analysis exchanged between Hecht and literary critics (most notably William Pritchard), or Hecht and novice poets are given the same elegant, scrupulous dedication. This same attention is also mirrored in the marginalia of Hecht's draft copies of "Auguries of Innocence" or "Birdwatchers of America"—also recently donated to the collection. In his correspondence, as with his poems, Hecht was a gracious and ruminative figure, an artist concerned with engaging in the root-essence of things—whether poetic form, American history, or a juicy anecdote from a writer's conference.

 

A Bestiary by Aubrey Schwartz and Anthony Hecht

 
Among other joys of the Hecht additions include several pieces of artwork—including 13 signed woodcuts by Michael Spafford, 10 signed and hand-colored woodcuts by Leonard Baskin and Harry Ford, and two signed artist portfolios of lithographs created by Aubrey Schwartz for the Gehenna Press. These portfolios include A Bestiary by Aubrey Schwartz (a poem by Hecht, "The Flea," is here shown with accompanying art) and Predatory Birds—which represent one in five, and one in two copies in the world, respectively.

Authored By: 

Christeene Fraser, Administrative Services Coordinator, MARBL

Authored By: 

By Kim Norman, Conservator, Emory University Libraries Preservation Office

Sadye Harris Powell (1889-1964) was an African American nurse from Atlanta, Georgia, born in 1889 to William A. and Aurelia Virginia Harris. She graduated in 1910 from Spelman High School, the precursor and original form of Spelman College. After pursuing her nursing education at Provident Hospital and Training School of Chicago (1912), Sadye Harris served as head nurse at the Fair Haven Hospital, previously located at Morris Brown University in Atlanta.

Harris married Charles W. Powell, and in 1928, they together founded the William A. Harris Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, named after her father. This hospital was located on Hunter Street and was one of few modern and well-equipped institutions of its kind. Mrs. Sadye Harris Powell acted as superintendent of the hospital.

Powell was very active in social welfare programs. During her lifetime of service to the community, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Girls’ Club, the first life member of the YWCA, a life member of the NAACP, and an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary of the Atlanta Medical Society. In 1948, she was elected to the board of trustees for Spelman  College. Sadye Harris Powell died February 26, 1964 and is buried in Atlanta’s historic Oakland Cemetery.

The Sadye Harris Powell collection at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library consists of papers (dated 1910-1991) belonging to her family. The papers include photographs of family members, incorporation papers for the William A. Harris Memorial Hospital, and five scrapbooks. There is also printed material from Atlanta churches, colleges, and African American organizations as well as other family correspondence.

Of the five scrapbooks, one documents the Atlanta Baptist College football championship team in 1910. Another photo album includes images of Cuba and was created by an African American member of the United States Maritime Service. This album is full of images from Europe and of World War II servicemen.  Currently unknown is the relationship to Sadye Harris Powell of the soldier who figures prominently in this scrapbook.

The two remaining scrapbooks photographically document family life, academic scenes, and social gatherings. One album has early black and white images, adhered to very fragile pages yet missing its original book covers. The last scrapbook holds contemporary color photographs, plus personal cards and letters, celebrating a retirement party. All items within this album had been attached by stripes of adhesive to each page, though no book covers were retained.

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Finals are almost here and the restricted access period for Woodruff
Library is fast approaching. Restricted access for the spring semester is Monday, April 22nd through Wednesday, May 8th.   Library space will be limited to Emory students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Non-Emory visitors may enter only for exhibits, events, MARBL, and Government Documents.  Courtesy and affiliate borrowers may pick up items on hold at the Library Service Desk.

 Here are a few other things to consider during restricted access: 

 • Make sure to keep your valuables close at hand.   

 • Please be courteous to others who are studying.  

 • Help us maintain a clean zone by using trash and recycling cans. 

 If you have any questions, please contact the Library Service Desk at  404-727-6873 or servicedesk@mail.library.emory.edu.

Happy studying!

by Richard McNeal, Library Specialist Sr, Library Service Desk

 

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Related Links: 

Networking the Belfast Group

The Belfast Group

 

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A team of scholars and technologists at the Emory Libraries led by Rebecca Sutton Koeser and Brian Croxall are developing tools for identifying and marking up names, places, and organizations in Emory’scollection of materials associated with the poets known as the Belfast Group. Tagging these entities will make it possible to examine and present some of these writers’ social and geospatial networks. Because it connects identifiers to the semantic web, the tools created for the Networking the Belfast Group project will give users access to much more data than documents like finding aids regularly provide.  

In order to compare the team’s tools with doing the same work by hand, I tagged the people, businesses, and places in Frank Ormbsy finding aid with identifiers.  These identifiers connect people to resources of linked data, providing more information about “Frank Ormsby” and establishing that we’re always talking about the same entity throughout our finding aids. That might sound easy enough with someone named “Ormsby,” but when you start trying to establish which “Robert Johnson” a particular finding aid is referencing, it becomes much more complicated. Marking up the 14,000 lines of XML took even more time than we expected—about fifty hours. The vast majority of my time was spent determining who people were in the database we are using for our unique identifying numbers, the Virtual International Authority File(VIAF).

The other issues I encountered centered on how language and networks function.  The first was, bizarrely enough, a question about parts of speech.  If a group is said to be Northern Irish, do I mark that phrase as a geographic place name?  If the text said, this group was from Northern Ireland, I would have not even questioned marking it with the identifier for “Northern Ireland.”  When it was an adjective, I hesitated and conferred with the other team members.  Is this because adjectives describing groups of people have more wrapped up in them than geography?  Is it just a categorization hiccup?

The second kind of question I asked was about relationships.  If a poem has Belfast in the title, should this be given a geographical identifier? If a poem title has the name T.S. Eliot in it, does T.S. Eliot get marked as the person?  The relationship is quite different from most of the marks, where T.S. Eliot would have authored materials in the collection or where Belfast would have been a site of production or distribution rather than a subject. When something is about, rather than by a person, should it be tagged?  And whatever we decide on that question, should the same policy apply to places when they are used either as subjects or sites? Similarly, there were reviews of books where I tagged the authors of both the text being reviewed and of the review itself.  The actual collection houses only the reviewer’s work; however, this seemed a different kind of “about” than a poet writing about another person.  

I also ran into questions about how to differentiate members of families.  When a letter is from the Longleys—a husband and wife—whose identifier do we use?  When a Longley is referred to without the first name, how do I decide which Longley is meant? Sometimes it was obvious that Michael Longley was meant, because he is a poet and the collection includes more of his materials; however, I could see how making assumptions about who to identify might reduce the presence, particularly of women, in these networks.

At the center of these questions is how we understand networks.  Knowing that two entities are related is quite different from knowing how two entities are related.  These questions have implications not only for the functions of the tools created by the team, but also for how researchers will use and understand the networks we produce using them.

Authored By: 

Katie Rawson

The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

Scrapbook from the 25th Anniversary of Alpha Kappa Alpha at Emory University

The Nu Alpha Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was chartered at Emory University on April 14, 1979. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was founded on January 15, 1908 at Howard University as the first Greek-letter organization established by African American college women. This scrapbook, which is held in MARBL, was compiled in 2004 to commemorate the chapter's 25th anniversary. In addition, the chapter hosted a weeklong celebration around the theme "Sankofa: Reconnecting with the Past." Some of the events included a step show, pot luck dinner, career networking tea, and banquet for chapter alumni. Today, the Nu Alpha chapter is still active at Emory University.

by Gabrielle M. Dudley, Research Library Fellow, MARBL

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Related Story:

E-Resource Spotlight: Adam Matthew Primary Source Databases

Related Links: 

Medieval Family Life Database from Adam Matthew

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Adam Matthew's Medieval Travel Writing database begs to be browsed. 

It’s filled with manuscripts, maps, and travel texts, mostly from journeys to central Asia and the Far East, but also accounts of travels to the Holy Land.   Included are influential prose written in the late Middle Ages, such as the books of Marco Polo and ‘Sir John Mandeville’, but also works of relatively unknown Medieval missionaries and merchants.  Scholars may well choose to use this database as tool to gain context (social, cultural, political, economic), rather than to just locate a specific primary source.

And that is OK.   

Exploring a paper topic on pilgrimage, the origins of global trade, travels to the Holy Land, the Silk Road, or the representation of the ‘East’ or the ‘Other’ in the Middle Age? Then, browsing the essays, bibliography or chronology presented in the Medieval Travel Writing database might be a good first step.   

The brief biographies of the main 'travellers' include variant name spellings, which will help with future searches in other sources.

The original documents are in a range of languages, including French, Latin, German, Spanish, Dutch and English, so the secondary texts of translations and editions are very helpful.   Click on the Documents TAB and you see a list of items with uninspiring titles, such as MS 632  or  MS.e.Mus.124.  Follow a title link and you can view the entire manuscript as a pdf or as page-images.  You will also see all the document details and a sidebar of links to secondary material.

Don’t give up; keep clicking.   Lots of goodies are hidden under TABS with inconspicuous titles, like ‘Further Resources.’  If you take the time to browse, you are sure to find something unexpected.   

Authored By: 

Kim Collins, April 15, 2013

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This spring, the Emory Libraries' electronic book collection continues to grow larger with the addition of e-books published from 2011 through 2013 by Harvard University Press as part of a package distributed by De Gruyter.

Related Story:

Harvard University Press Partners with DeGruyter for eBook Sales

Related Links: 

Harvard University Press eBooks

Databases @ Emory

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Once you have logged in with your Emory ID and password, you may download titles from the De Gruyter catalog by chapter in PDF format. You may print them or transfer them to an e-reader or tablet to use as you need to. Books are added after they have been published in print, though not necessarily simultaneously.

The new e-books database is just one of many new electronic databases acquired this year by the Emory Libraries. In February, the libraries announced the availability of a series of primary-resource databases from Adam Matthew Digital, focusing on the humanities and social sciences.

Emory subscribes to a number of electronic book collections. For more information on finding and using e-books at Emory, visit our e-books research guide.

Authored By: 

Chris Pollette, Outreach and Emerging Technologies Librarian

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The Robert W. Woodruff Library announces the winners of the 2013 Undergraduate Research Award.

Related Story:

Win $500 for your Research Project

Related Links: 

Undergraduate Research Award: Past Winners

Undergraduate Research Symposium

 

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From an impressive array of submissions by Emory undergraduate students, judges have selected three projects to be honored with this year's Undergraduate Research Award:

Megan Corbat—“Descriptive and Substantive Representation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Persons in Connecticut’s Legislature: Single-Axis, Intersectional, and Qualitative Approach”
Faculty sponsor: Beth Reingold

Elizabeth Graham—“Cultural Relativism versus Human Rights: US Foreign Policy on Female Genital Circumcision”
Faculty sponsor: Carol Anderson

James Zainaldin—“Asclepius at Epidaurus: An Interpretation of the Sacred Space of Healing”
Faculty sponsor: Philippa Lang

Each winning entry will receive a prize of $500, supported by the Elizabeth Long Atwood Fund.

The judges also selected one project for an Honorable Mention:
Sweta Maturu—“United States Involvement in International Conflicts and Civil Uprisings: American Human Rights Policy towards Egypt during the Arab Spring”
Faculty sponsor: Carol Anderson

The awards will be presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on Wednesday, April 24 at the Dobbs University Center. The winners will share their work with the Emory community via poster presentations from 3 to 6 p.m.

Judges for this year’s research award were:
Tanya Molodtsova, Department of Economics
Daphne Norton, Department of Chemistry
Rob O’Reilly, Electronic Data Center
Nathan Suhr-Sytsma, Department of English
Stewart Varner, DiSC

Authored By: 

Woodruff Library Undergraduate Research Award Committee (Jen Doty, Donna Hudson, and Erin Mooney)

The Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library is a place of discovery. All are welcome to visit and explore our unique holdings, whether as a researcher or an observer. The breadth and depth of our collections are vast, and it is nearly impossible to investigate every nook and cranny. We invite you this year, through our blog, to tour some of those places you didn't know existed, and get acquainted with collections you might not have previously explored. Check back in with us weekly over the course of 2013 as we offer you a delightful look into some of the favorite, but perhaps lesser-known, corners of our collections. These pieces are visually interesting, come attached with fascinating stories, and are often 3D objects you might not have realized are part of what makes up The Extraordinary World of MARBL.

Confederate Sword in the William H. Scott Collection

William H. Scott (1848-1910), sometimes known as Henry Scott, is still a largely unheralded figure in American history. Scott was an ordained Baptist preacher, teacher, and businessman. He was also a political activist throughout his life, tenaciously defending African American civil rights issues. Among his accomplishments: Scott was one of the twenty-nine original members who founded the Niagara Movement. Born a slave in Virginia, Scott seized Emancipation for himself with his feet by escaping when he was 14 years old. He wound up as an aide-de-camp to a Union officer with the 12th Massachusetts Infantry Regimen during the Civil War (1861-1864). According to Ronald S. Coddington in African American Faces of the Civil War: An Album, it was on the battlefield at Fredericksburg that Scott relieved, shall we say, an anonymous Confederate soldier of his sword. William H. Scott's righteous temerity can be viewed by visiting MARBL to see the actual sword in all of its historical glory, from the hand guard to the tip of the blade. The sword is part of the "William H. Scott family papers, 1848-1972." In 2009, MARBL displayed an exhibition dedicated to Scott by Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections, entitled "Slave, Soldier, Citizen: The Journey of William Henry Scott."

by Mashadi Matabane, PhD Candidate in the Institute of Liberal Arts at Emory University, and Graduate Assistant to Randall Burkett, curator of African American Collections, MARBL

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