Arlin Turner was a professor in Duke's English Department from 1953 to 1978 and served as department chair during 1958-1964. The collection includes department memoranda, correspondence, minutes and documentation relating to English Department policies. Also included are minutes, memoranda and correspondence related to various committees Turner served on. The collection ranges in date from 1953-1979.

Collection includes council and committee records including memos, correspondence, minutes of the University Council, the Humanities Council, the Undergraduate Faculty Council and the Graduate Affairs Committee of the University Planning Committee. There are also records of the English department, including minutes, correspondence, and memoranda. Files relating to student grades and personnel decisions were destroyed. The collection ranges in date from 1953-1979.

Victorian literature scholar, Duke English professor, and executive director of the Carlyle Letters Project. Collection contains Ryals's personal and professional correspondence, teaching materials, and writings.

The collection consists of Clyde de Loache Ryals's personal and professional correspondence, as well as his teaching materials and writings from the English Department. Also included are two photographs, a receipt, and several cutouts of his obituary.

Curtis Carroll Davis was a graduate student in English at Duke University from 1939-1947. The scrapbook includes correspondence, photographs, programs, invitations, telegrams, holiday cards and newspaper clippings accumulated during his early years as a doctoral student. It ranges in date from 1939-1942.

Contains correspondence, clippings of current local and world news (including World War II), Duke athletics programs, clippings related to inspirational celebrities, holiday cards, telegrams, invitations to dances at Duke, programs from events in Durham, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Haven, CT.

Dale B.J. Randall (1929-2016) taught in the Duke English Dept. from 1957-1999 and in the Drama Program from 1991-1999. The collection includes material related to both the English Dept. and the Drama Program as well as Randall's scholarly research. Types of material include correspondence, flyers, programs, clippings, and articles. The collection ranges in date from 1940 through the 2010s.

The largest part of the collection contains research material pertaining to Lord North, Joseph Conrad and Warrington Dawson, about whom Randall was writing books. His research files include xerox copies, slides, illustrations and microfilm. There are materials from Randall's time in the Dept. of English, particularly the controversy which occurred in the late 1980s-early 1990s. The controversy boiled down to a debate between traditionalists and revisionists. It made national headlines at the time, and Randall refers to it as "The Troubles." There are also syllabi, examination questions, and non-graded student papers. Additionally, the collection contains material from Randall's time as Chair of the Drama Program and includes correspondence, programs, flyers, and clippings.

Randall's papers also include a copy of the written sexual harassment complaint a student made against an English professor in 1981. This folder is restricted for 70 years.

Both University Archives and Special Collections received material from Professor Randall. The accessions have been merged into the finding aid presented here.

Dorothy Roberts worked in the Dept. of English's administration office from 1948 until her retirement in the late 1980's-early 1990's. The collection includes correspondence, clippings, photographs, printed material and other items created and collected by Dorothy Roberts about the Dept. of English at Duke University. Files largely pertain to the history of the department, focusing heavily on departmental faculty. The collection ranges in date from 1903-1993.

The collection largely consists of material compiled by Roberts, who functioned as historian of the Dept. of English. Of note are the various lists of faculty, Ph.D. candidates and staff of the department over a number of years. Also included are files she maintained on faculty members, which include correspondence and clippings as well as a file Roberts kept on herself regarding her career at Duke. She also provides her impressions of key departmental staff, namely the chairmen she worked for. In 1982, Roberts donated 14 letters between her and Guy Davenport, a Duke alumnus, regarding Paris and other European cities as well of Davenport's appreciation of James Joyce and Roberts' own love of traveling abroad. Roberts' friendship with Reynolds Price is represented in the collection. There are several folders on him which include correspondence, Christmas cards, photographs, clippings, and an envelope which holds locks of Price's hair. Of particular note is a sketch Price drew of Emily Dickinson that he gave to Roberts. There is also a caricature of Ph.D. candidates, including Price, from 1962.

Family and personal papers, primarily Bevington's personal and professional correspondence (1931-2001), which includes letters from Ray Bradbury (1976-1993); typescripts of diary entries (1959-1989); 22 heavily annotated books of modern poetry, and research notes. There are also correspondence and professional records for Bevington's husband, Merle. Other items include one color and 9 black-and-white photographs, a scrapbook, passports, geneology information/records, awards, newspaper clippings, class records, and unpublished manuscripts.

James Applewhite is a poet and professor emeritus of English at Duke University. The collection is comprised of manuscripts, drafts, and proofs of poems, as well as notes, correspondence, clippings, and printed materials (including serials and anthologies). The collection documents Applewhite's work as a poet and professor of English at Duke University, including his research about Wordsworth. Manuscripts in the collection include Lessons in Soaring: Poems, A History of the River: Poems, and River Writing: An Eno Journal.

Joseph Cable Wetherby served as Associate Professor of English at Duke University from 1947-1976. The papers consist of correspondence, printed matter, speeches, clippings, minutes, memoranda, teaching aids and other teaching materials, student papers, photographs, research notes, and writings. Major subjects include the teaching of English to international students at Duke, broadcasting and the development of the WDBS radio station at Duke University, and the Duke University Debate Team, which Wetherby coached for over 20 years. English.

The Wetherby Papers contain printed material (including pamphlets, brochures, flyers, programs, speeches, and clippings), correspondence, minutes, memoranda, teaching aids and other teaching materials, student papers, photographs, research notes, writings, and other papers. Inclusive dates for the collection are ca. 1930 to 1976, with the bulk of material from 1947 to 1976.

These papers chiefly reflect Wetherby's interest in three major areas: teaching English as a foreign language, broadcasting, and debating. In the first category falls material on grammar and enunciation (including numerous exercises, tests, and other teaching aids), speech and hearing pathology, and a small number of administrative papers dealing with the teaching of English to international students at Duke University. In the area of broadcasting, there are clippings, course descriptions, lecture material, and printed material on the history of radio and television; its methods, principles, and policies; legal status; government policies affecting broadcasting; and audience and market research. Wetherby also kept clippings, printed matter, and copies of speeches on communications and broadcasting in general, as well as on specialized topics such as TV violence and cigarette advertising.

Files concerning the history of Duke University include materials on a proposed FM station for the campus (1957-1968), as well as selected student papers on such topics as broadcasting at Duke, the Vigil of 1968, and the Associated Students of Duke University in a conflict with WDBS. There are also a number of selected student papers on various aspects of communications, broadcasting, and the persuasive speaking.

There is a card file on members of the Debate Team with their records by opponent and tournament, and a small amount of material (correspondence, records, circulars, a telegram) on the West Point National Tournament for 1962 to 1964.

Useful information regarding a significant incident early in Wetherby's tenure as debate coach will be found in William King, "Not fit to debate? National debate topic on Communist China gets hackles up," in the Duke Alumni Register, vol. 65, no. 2, Nov.- Dec. 1978. The article deals with Wetherby's defense of the right of collegiate debaters to argue this sensitive topic in 1954, at the height of the McCarthy era. Wetherby appeared on the "See It Now" program of Edward R. Murrow on CBS Television.

Wetherby coached three teams from Duke University which appeared on national television on the "College Bowl" series, in 1955, 1960, and 1968. Some materials in the collection deal with the logistics of these teams' travel and appearances, and on the operation of the telecasts.

Gathered in separate folders as well as scattered throughout the collection is a large amount of printed material in the form of brochures, handbooks, pamphlets, newsletters, and copies of speeches. Included is material from organizations like the National Association of Broadcasters, the Federal Communications Commission, the Southern Speech Association (later the Southern Speech Communication Association), and the Speech Communication Association. The collection from the Southern Speech Association and its successor organization includes a consecutive run of programs for annual conventions from 1951 to 1976. The material on the Speech Communication Association includes consecutive issues from 1968 to 1976 of Free Speech, a newsletter of this organization's Commission on Freedom of Speech.

During the 1960s, Wetherby frequently was sent to regional high schools to promote Duke University to prospective students.

Lewis Chase taught in the English Department at Duke University beginning in 1929. It is unclear when/if he left the University. He died in 1937. The collection largely includes material pertaining to Chase's research on writer Edgar Allan Poe. It ranges in date from 1807-1941.

The collection includes correspondence pertaining to Chase's publications and research on Edgar Allan Poe's works, Chase's research notes, typescripts of Poe-related correspondence found in libraries, clippings, postcards and other memorabilia relating to Edgar Allan Poe. It also includes photographs, mostly commercial prints, of people and places related to Poe's life, including London scenes, the Poe cottage and Seagate Castle. Correspondence files are extremely brittle. Among the correspondents are Edmund Gosse, John Erskine and J. E. Spingarn. There is also an unidentified handwritten travel diary dated September 1858, which was found in the Woman's College Library, and believed to have been left by Chase. It details travels in New England and China. Paperclips damaging the files were replaced, as were disintegrating folders. The collection ranges in date from 1807-1941.

Lionel Stevenson was James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University from 1955-1971. This collection contains artwork, canadiana, clippings, correspondence, course material, diaries, financial records, manuscripts, photographs, and scrapbooks regarding the life and work of Lionel Stevenson. The material ranges in date from 1808-1989, bulk from 1911-1974.

The papers of Lionel Stevenson span the years 1808 to 1989, although the bulk of the material dates from the 1920s to 1973. They consist of canadiana; clippings; correspondence; course material; general files; manuscripts and notes; notes, papers, and research; non-textual material; organizations; oversized materials; and writings. The collection documents Lionel Stevenson's work as both an author and a professor, as well as an avid collector of news clippings and expert on the Cary family. Subject areas include genealogy of the Cary family, Canadian authors and poets, and photographs, and nineteenth century English literary criticism.

The General Files series is mainly comprised of personal files, like financial records and general miscellany. The Non-Textual Material series contains over 230 cartes de visite photographs, chiefly of the Cary family, as well as other various photographs and pictures. The bulk of the Writings series contains mainly articles and drafts. Notable in this series is Stevenson's Masters thesis. The series Course Material contains folders of syllabi, lecture notes, and miscellaneous papers relating to courses he taught. The Notes, Papers, and Research series contains research notes relating to the writings of Lionel Stevenson. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. Notable in this series are letters from literary figures Joyce Cary, Bliss Carman, and Evelyn Waugh. The Organizations contains papers regarding the various groups Stevenson belonged to, notably the Canadian Authors Association, Dickens Fellowship, Modern Language Association, and the PEN Congress. The Manuscript and Notes series contains miscellaneous papers and a manuscript of Revolt Among the Artists. The bulk of the Clippings series are clippings removed from Correspondence and arranged alphabetically. The Diaries series is two boxes filled with Stevenon's personal diaries kept from 1919 to 1974. The Oversized Material series contains clippings and papers removed from their respective series, as well as three scrapbooks of clippings, a novel, audio cassette, and a poster for an essay contest. Canadiana contains miscellaneous Canadian memorabilia that Stevenson collected. The last series Oversized Artwork contains paintings and pictures that were formerly housed in the general oversized collection.