Collections : [David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

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David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library

The holdings of the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library range from ancient papyri to records of modern advertising. There are over 10,000 manuscript collections containing more than 20 million individual manuscript items. Only a portion of these collections and items are discoverable on this site. Others may be found in the library catalog.

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Collection

Workers' Defense League records, 1940-1949 0.2 Linear Feet — 38 items

The Workers' Defense League was an American socialist organization devoted to promoting labor rights. Collection comprises material mailed by the Workers Defense League primarily as part of fundraising efforts, particularly on the part of legal cases undertaken by the organization.

Collection comprises material mailed by the Workers' Defense League primarily as part of fundraising efforts, particularly on the part of legal cases undertaken by the organization. The main case was that of Odell Waller, a Virginia sharecropper sentenced to death in 1940 for killing his white landlord. Arguing that the landlord had cheated Waller and that he had in any case acted in self-defense, the WDL raised money for Waller's defense, lobbied for the commutation of his sentence, and mounted a nationwide publicity campaign on his behalf. The effort was unsuccessful, and Waller was executed on July 2, 1942. Other cases included Alton Levey, Rosario Chirillo, and Tee Davis; the organization worked in support of federal regulation to repeal poll taxes. Items include brochures on the Waller case, luncheon and dinner invitations, a tear sheet for an advertisement, action alerts, flyer announcing a contest and a mass meeting in New York, and contribution forms with mailing envelopes.

Also includes a fundraising mailer (1946 May 16) related to Tee Davis and sent by Lillian Smith, the author of the novel STRANGE FRUIT. Tee Davis was an African American from Arkansas who was sentenced to ten years in prison for assault with intent to kill. His crime was firing a shotgun towards the bottom of the front door to his home while an intruder tried to break in. The intruder was a white sheriff looking for thieves.

Collection

Virginia Woolf's oak writing desk, between 1904-1907 2.5 Linear Feet — 67.4 x 126 x 87.7 cm; 26.5 x 49.5 x 34.5 inches

Writing desk at which one would stand, designed and owned by Virginia Woolf. The sloping top of the desk features a central panel in two pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts to reveal a storage compartment underneath. Two drawers are located below the storage area, one on each side of the desk. There are metal pulls on each drawer. The left-hand drawer pull surrounds a flower medalion; the medalion on the right-hand drawer is missing. The drawers and desk top each feature a metal lock, but no keys are present. Quentin Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk. He painted the rest of the desk, except the back, in grays with black accents. There are random spatters of paint present on all surfaces.

Writing desk at which one would stand, designed and owned by Virginia Woolf. The sloping top of the desk features a central panel in two pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts to reveal a storage compartment underneath.Two drawers are located below the storage area, one on each side of the desk. There are metal pulls on each drawer. The left-hand drawer pull surrounds a flower medalion; the medalion on the right-hand drawer is missing. The drawers and desk top each feature a metal lock, but no keys are present. Quentin Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk. He painted the rest of the desk, except the back, in grays with black accents. There are random spatters of paint present on all surfaces.

Collection

Delouis Wilson papers, circa 1890s-1940, 1967-2015 21 Linear Feet — 33 boxes; 1 pamphlet binder

Delouis Wilson is an African American artist, and jewelry designer, and art collector, based in Durham, North Carolina. The papers comprise her journals (1977-2008); calendars; sketchbooks, art school notebooks, and loose pieces of mixed media artwork. The journals, currently closed to use, document in detail her personal life, travels in the U.S. and abroad, including time spent in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, life in Durham, N.C., and employment as a jewelry designer. The collection also includes 30 large photographic studio portraits of African Americans, almost all hand-tinted crayon enlargements, dating from about 1890 to 1945 and collected by Wilson chiefly in the Southern U.S. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts, the Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.

The papers of Delouis Wilson, an artist and jewelry designer based in North Carolina, consist of a set of 27 journals (1977-2008, currently closed); a few calendar notebooks; sketchbooks and notebooks from her time at Atlanta College of Art; and loose pieces of artwork. An important component of Wilson's archive consists of a collection of 30 large photographic portraits of African Americans dating from the late 1880s to about 1940, collected by Wilson chiefly in the American South.

Wilson's journals (closed to use by donor request), calendars, and notebooks document in detail the personal life of the artist, life in Durham, N.C., her travels abroad and in the U.S., including time in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, and her career as a jewelry designer. They include small illustrations contain as well as laid-in items such as letters and postcards; some have handmade covers constructed of textiles and other non-paper materials.

The artwork, sketchbooks, and art notebooks present a mix of drawings, sketches, prints, textile work, and mixed-media color paintings created by Wilson during and shortly after her art school years, all 8x11 inches or less. The notebooks also include art school class notes and handouts, creative writings, and personal notes such as recipes, lists, housing notes, and addresses. There are self-portraits scattered throughout, including a larger piece from 1990 laid into a sketchbook. Also in the collection is one large color photograph of an African American woman by Wilson. The artworks range in size from 4 1/2 x 6 to 16x20 inches.

A central component of the collection are thirty historic studio portraits of individual Black men and women (1890s-1940s), with some of couples and families, collected by Wilson in thrift shops and flea markets throughout the Southern U.S. Most belong to a process called crayon enlargements. The studios developed faint enlargements of the photographic images on convex pieces of thick card stock, then outlined and filled them with ink, crayon, or pastel pigments to resemble a painting. One portrait in the collection is a fully-developed gelatin silver photograph. A few smaller portraits are sized approximately 10x8 to 13x9 inches; the majority are larger, ranging from 19x13 to to 20x16 inches. Most of the prints are hand-tinted with a variety of tecniques, but some are black-and-white, and some are on flat rather than convex mounts.

Collection
Elizabeth Symonds was born in 1796 and lived at Pengethley Manor in England. This collection includes 49 watercolor, gouache, and graphite paintings of Hummingbirds by Elizabeth Symonds. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

49 watercolor, gouache, and graphite paintings of Hummingbirds by Elizabeth Symonds. Each painting is accompanied by a glassine sheet with the Latin name and English equivalent of the hummingbird written in ink (except for number xliv which is missing). The watercolors were formerly bound in a volume with a manuscript title page. The volume was previously disbound and only a photocopy of the title page remains.

Collection

Stone Circles records, 1995-2012 11.4 Linear Feet — 19 boxes

The Stone Circles records contain materials documenting the history of the organization. These include press clippings, board meeting minutes. staff and financial information, program files, newsletters, event information, and correspondence.

Established in 1995, Stone Circles is a leading organization in the national movement toward a more spiritually-based form of activism. SC has introduced thousands of social change leaders and organizations to spiritual and reflective practice through workshops, retreats, trainings and strategic convenings. Stone Circles at the Stone House is located in Mebane, NC on 70 acres of farmland.

Collection
Jenny Zervakis was part of a wave of underground, do-it-yourself cartoonists who came of age during the Zine Revolution of the 1990s. Collection consists largely of issues of her "Strange Growths" autobiographical comic zine and "Urban Hiker," a Durham magazine to which Zervakis regularly contributed. Also included in the collection are other comics and writings by Zervakis, as well as an artist's statement. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Collection consists largely of issues of "Strange Growths" and "Urban Hiker." "Strange Growths" is an autobiographical comic zine that Zervakis began in 1991, featuring artwork and writing that address her life experiences. The "Urban Hiker" was a community-based magazine produced in Durham that provided entertainment and education through people's stories. Also included in the collection are other comics and writings by Zervakis, as well as an artist's statement.

Collection

Batya Weinbaum papers, 1936-2021 55.0 Linear Feet — 1.4 Gigabytes

Online
Batya Weinbaum is a Jewish American artist, musician, poet, author, editor and professor. In addition to founding and editing the interdisciplinary feminist journal Femspec, she has published 17 books and more than 250 articles, poems, essays and reviews. She has made contributions to the fields of multiculturalism, women's studies, sexuality studies and education. The collection documents her personal and professional history, containing materials related to Weinbaum's writing and research, including drafts of her books, materials related to the journal Femspec, and several decades of journals and sketchbooks.

This collection documents Weinbaum's personal life, education and professional life. The papers are arranged into the following thirteen series: Legal, Correspondence, Press, Activities, Research and Scholarship, Art, Writing, Teaching, Photography, Print Materials, Journals, Family Memorabilia and Audiovisual Materials.

The first series largely documents Weinbuam's lawsuit against Cleveland State University from 2004-2006. The second series contains correspondence primarily related to Weinbaim's teaching and publications, and includes letters she exchanged with influential figures in various fields such as contemporary American literature, multiculturalism, women's studies, poetry, music composition and education. The third and fourth series include press and reviews related to Weinbaum's personal writings and artwork, as well as items associated with workshops, speaking engagements and other activities given or attended by Weinbaum. Her Handmaid's Gate Camp project in Floyd, VA is documented in series four. The next four series contain substantial materials related to Weinbaum's writing and research, including: drafts of her books, poetry, academic publications, artwork, music and materials related to editing and publishing the journal FemSpec. The Teaching series also encompasses syllabi and course materials used during Weinbaum's time as a graduate student instructor and as a professional at Cleveland State University and Pacifica Graduate Institute.

The collection also includes an extensive Photography series, with photographs/negatives Weinbaum took professionally as a documentary photographer in South America and Mexico; fieldwork in China and Israel, as well as family photo albums and scrapbooks. The eleventh series contains several decades of journals, notebooks and sketchbooks. The Family Memorabilia series documents Weinbaum's relationship with her daughter, Ola Liota Weinbaum. The Audiovisual Materials series has electronic files in a variety of formats including: floppy discs, cassettes, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs and VHS tapes. These files encompass Weinbaum's writing and material related to Femspec. The contents of Weinbuam's hard drive are also described throughout the series where appropriate. Where possible, Weinbuam's original folder titles and descriptions have been retained.

Collection

Margery Sved papers, 1972-1985 0.5 Linear Feet — 1 box

Margery (Margie) Sved, PhD is a psychiatrist practicing in the Triangle area of North Carolina. She champions issues related to women and members of the LGBTQ community in medicine.The Margery Sved papers document women's health organizations and events in the Triangle area from the 1970-80's, including a notebook from a conference sponsored by AMWA (American Medical Women's Association) at Duke in 1980 on Leadership for Women in Medicine. There is also a file on an early conference of lesbian physicians.

The Margery Sved papers contains materials documenting women's health organizations and events in the Triangle area of North Carolina from 1972-1985, including educational materials, notes from conferences and workshops related to women and minorities in medicine, and publications on women's health.

Collection
The United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, China, in 1995 and built on political agreements that had been reached at the three previous global conferences on women. Collection includes conference publications, information packets, schedules, and posters collected by attendee Margot Smith, as well as videos produced by Smith. All materials date from 1995 unless otherwise indicated.

Collection includes conference publications, information packets, schedules, and posters collected by attendee Margot Smith. Also included are recordings of conference proceedings and other videos produced by Margot and her company, Off Center Video. Margot's daughter, Janet Linney, was a videographer at the conference and helped produce the recordings. All materials date from 1995 unless otherwise indicated.