Pictures at an Exhibition

Click to enlarge.

On Friday, library staff members and UNC SILS students gathered for an impromptu gallery talk for our new exhibit, "Book + Art: Artists' books from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture," led by curators Christine Wells and Kelly Wooten and exhibits coordinator Meg Brown. For more pictures from the gallery talk, visit the Bingham Center's Flickr photostream.

And remember: book artist and photographer Bea Nettles will be speaking tomorrow at 5:30 PM in the Rare Book Room as part of this fall's Book + Art series of events!

Photo Op with the AOTUS

During the recent Society of American Archivists (SAA) meeting in Washington, D.C., several RBMSCL staff members received a very special tour of the National Archives. Former Duke University Librarian and current Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, gave the group a personal tour of his office.The group (click photo to enlarge) is gathered here under the portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which hangs in Ferriero’s office. (The National Archives began during Roosevelt’s administration.)

Ferriero, who has been AOTUS since last November, regaled the group with stories of great documents housed in the Archives. He recently examined Walt Whitman’s federal employee file (he was briefly employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs). In the file was a five page letter of reference—written by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Post contributed by Tim Pyatt, Duke University Archivist.

RBMSCL Photos: It's MayDay!

Today, archives and other cultural heritage institutions across the country will be celebrating MayDay, our annual reminder to re-examine our strategies for protecting our valuable collections in the event of an emergency. To honor the day, we're posting this picture of a range of pH-neutral archival boxes and papers, just waiting to house our new acquisitions. Proper housing is one of the many steps that the RBMSCL takes to ensure that our collections will be around for generations.

Over at Preservation Underground, our colleagues in the Preservation department have prepared a handy list of online resources on library emergency planning.

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.

RBMSCL Photos: Frog Attack!

A frog beanbag holds open the pages of a register from the Congress of the Confederate States of America.

Thanks to Lynn Eaton, Hartman Center Reference Archivist, for suggesting this photo!

RBMSCL Photos: Guerrilla Sculpture

 

This weekend, some guerrilla aluminum foil sculpture mysteriously appeared on one of the display cases in the Perkins Library exhibit gallery. 

Photo by Linda McCurdy, Director of Research Services

RBMSCL Photos: White Gloves

Someone has to wash all of the white gloves that RBMSCL staff and researchers use to handle photographs and other delicate objects. Here's a freshly-washed batch, hung up to dry.

Photo by Megan O'Connell, Library Assistant