Alex Harris is a documentary photographer, author, and professor emeritus at the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, North Carolina. The over 700 black-and-white and color photographs in the collection span his career, and include projects exploring the landscapes and peoples of Alaska, the American South, New Mexico, and Cuba; portraits of older reading volunteers and students in Philadelphia; students on strike at Yale University; counter-culture people at a Rainbow Gathering in Arizona; the artist's son tethered to his game device; elderly people living on their own in North Carolina; the interior of author Reynolds Price's home; and movie production sets in the South. The gelatin silver and inkjet prints range in size from 8x10 inch reference prints to 24x36 inch exhibit prints. Harris's professional papers document his collaborations with other photographers and writers on books and exhibitions, including anthropologist Gertrude Duby Blom, naturalist E.O. Wilson, and South African photographers; they also cover his long career at Duke University, as teacher, author, and co-founder of the Center for Documentary Studies and its publication, DoubleTake. In addition to the paper records, there are many recorded oral histories and interviews. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Arthur Sperry Pearse (pronounced like "purse") was Professor of Zoology at Duke University from 1927 until his retirement in 1948; he played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Marine Biology Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, and served as the lab's first director from 1938 until 1945. Collection comprises professional papers and photographs documenting A. S. Pearse's career as a zoologist. Formats include correspondence, writings and lectures, lab notes and data, fieldwork notes, teaching materials, clippings and printed materials, and over 2000 photographs, glass slides, and negatives. The images document Pearse's research travels, particularly in Nigeria and the Yucatán, but also in Alabama, Florida, coastal North Carolina, Japan, China, Burma, the Phillippines, Colombia, and Venezuela, chiefly during the period 1915-1935. Images are of local flora, fauna, landscapes, villages, dwellings, local crafts and industries, indigenous peoples, and other scientists.There are also early photographs of the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C. Also found are many publication illustrations such as maps and charts. Prominent subjects throughout the collection include the establishment of and research projects at the Duke Marine Lab; the promotion of forestry as a scientific discipline at Duke; Pearse's role as editor of the publication Ecological Monographs; and his research interests in marine biology, ecology, crustaceans, parasitology, microbiology, biological adaptation, and forestry.
The Center for Documentary Studies was established at Duke University in Durham, N.C. for the study of the documentary process. The collection contains 51 black-and-white and color photographs, chiefly 11x14 and 16x20 inches, that were selected by CDS staff from portfolios published in DoubleTake magazine or by DoubleTake books from 1995 to 1997, and were exhibited at the CDS galleries. Many of the images were taken in the southern United States, but there are also scenes from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and from countries such as Mexico, Vietnam and Ireland. Some images are dated as early as 1906 and 1940. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Danny Lyon (1942- ) is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker originally from New York. The collection contains photographs and other writings created while Lyon served as a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1962-1964, as well as later materials related to his books and films about the civil rights movement and its leaders. The collection also contains a later body of work by Lyon titled the Texas Prison Archive, which includes photographs, correspondence, film, and writings collected and created by Lyon in the late 1960s in the Texas prison system. These materials culminated in "Conversations with the Dead," first published by Lyon in 1971.
Jim Dow (1942- ) is an American photographer and educator based in Massachusetts. The core of the collection consists of over 1900 single-image photographs, 232 multi-image panoramic prints, and approximately 2300 film negatives, representing black-and-white and color images taken by Dow from 1966 to 2023. It also includes raw and adjusted digital image files that Dow created from his photographic negatives. Subjects include: U.S. vernacular culture and landscapes, including roadside architecture, courthouses and jails, and small business interiors; food vendors, stadiums, and athletic fields around the world; and interiors and exteriors of private clubs, libraries, and churches and museums in cities around the world. Photographs often include cultural expressions such as advertising, murals, bar decor, and graffiti. Dow's U.S. work focuses mainly on New England, the South, and the West, with a single-state project on North Dakota. Other images were taken by Dow in Argentina, Canada, England, Mexico, Portugal, Scotland, and Uruguay, with a few images from Wales. Also included is a series of commissioned work. Dow's professional papers comprise teaching slides, course readers, syllabi, and digital files, as well as art gallery ephemera. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Margaret Sartor is a photographer and instructor at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. Her Photographs and Papers collection includes photographs of the American South, and some materials from her book project on William Gedney.
The Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Art degree program at Duke University has been awarded since 2013. Collection houses MFA/EDA theses submitted by graduates of the program, in the form of typescripts; handmade books; digital video and audio, three-dimensional artwork; photobooks; photographic prints; digital still images; and film of multi-media performances. Subjects range widely and include: U.S. and Southern cultures; world cultures; street photography; childhood; environmental narratives and documentaries; city and rural communities; themes of social justice, memory, and identity; women and spirituality; and abstract constructs. Other places documented include China, Poland, Vietnam, and the Middle East. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Max Belcher (1944- ) is an American-born photographer with interests in portraiture, vernacular architecture, and racial and immigrant identity. This collection of his work comprises black-and-white and color contact sheets, study prints, and fine prints of Belcher's projects based in Canada, Liberia, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Vietnam, and the United States, in particular New York City, Massachusetts, and the Southern States. Three projects are well-represented in this collection: (1) American People: Portraits from the Philadelphia Community in the Dominican Republic, (2) Claiming Place: Biracial American Portraits, and (3) A Land and Life Remembered: Americo-Liberian Folk Architecture. Published catalogs of Belcher's work are also held in this repository and cataloged separately. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
The Picture File was created and maintained beginning in the 1950s by the Duke University Manuscript Department staff and its institutional successors as a vertical file of pictorial works separated from manuscript collections as well as acquired individually. The collection is large and diverse, with images dating from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Engravings feature prominently, with photographs a close second. The predominant genre is portraits of political and military leaders, authors, artists, physicians, scientists, and others. Members of the Duke family and others from Durham, N.C. are also present. In the Socialist Party Series there are numerous images of leader Eugene Debs. Topics range widely, with a focus on American history, including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; history and culture of the southern U.S.; and U.S. and European politics. A significant number of individuals in the People Series are African Americans, ranging from individual studio portraits to groups of individuals and racist caricatures and cartoons; a smaller number are of Native Americans.
Rick Lang was a photographer and faculty member at the Creadlé School of Art, Winter Park, Florida. Collection comprises 229 black-and-white photographs documenting the American South, particularly Florida and Louisiana, with an emphasis on roadside advertising and signs, small businesses, and weathered buildings. There are also a few images from New Mexico and Arizona. Print sizes range from 11x14 to 20x24 inches. Accompanying the prints are 104 digital image files and one pdf, over 3000 negatives, and 258 contact sheets. In addition there are print materials chiefly associated with Lang's solo and group exhibits, including three photobooks, and condolences sent upon his passing in 2013. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.