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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.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. The Iconographic Collection spans the years 1848-2005 with the bulk of materials dating between 1940 and 1985, and includes black-and-white and color photographs, negatives, slides, contact sheets, photograph albums, and microfiche. It is an artificial collection created to document the facilities, key events, advertising highlights and corporate culture of the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT). Domestic and international offices are included, with the New York, Chicago and London offices being the most heavily represented. Key executives include James Walter Thompson, Stanley and Helen Landsdowne Resor, Don Johnston, Dan Seymour, Norm Strouse, and E.G. Wilson. Client advertising includes Ford, Kodak, Chesebrough-Pond's, Lever Brothers (Unilever), and Warner-Lambert. Notable photographers whose work appears in the collection include Fabian Bachrach, Ralph Bartholomew, Cecil Beaton, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Philippe Halsman, Horst P. Horst, George Hurrell, Yousuf Karsh, Baron Adolf de Meyer, Bill Ray, Jean Raeburn, Edward Steichen, Thomas Veres, Brett Weston and Dorothy Wilding. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Established in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. The Information Center served as a corporate research library and reference center for the agency. Collection spans the years 1916-1999 and consists of subject files containing clippings, published articles, internal documentation, memoranda, research reports and other materials. The bulk of materials originated at the Chicago Office; the Justin White Files arrived from the New York Office. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. Burt Manning was an advertising executive at JWT who served as Chief Creative Officer and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (1987-1998). Collection spans the years 1956-1988 and includes correspondence, reports, policy manuals, presentations, speeches and other materials that document Manning's career as Creative Director and executive at JWT offices in Chicago and New York. Companies represented include American Advertising Federation, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Burger King, Ford, GTE Sprint, Institute of Life Insurance, Leo Burnett, Miller, Pepsi, Quaker Oats (Aunt Jemima, Ken-L-Ration, Puss 'n Boots), Schlitz, Scott Paper, Twentieth Century Fox and the U.S. Marine Corps. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded in Durham, N.C. in 1897, and was dissolved in 2022. Its archives document the company's founding and development, and contribute to the historic record on African American businesses and entrepreneurship in the South and in the United States. Dating from 1850 to 2008, the material covers nearly every aspect of N.C. Mutual's operations, management, and milestones. Includes corporate office files, including the records of five company presidents; annual statements; reports; surveys; memos; legal and financial papers; original life insurance policies; training material; programs; ephemera and artifacts; and a large number of historical photographs of male and female staff and their families, offices, buildings, and Durham scenes dating back to the late 1890s. Significant businessmen represented in the papers include founders John Merrick and Aaron Moore; and presidents Bert Collins, Joseph Goodloe, William Kennedy Jr., William Kennedy, III, Charles C. Spaulding, Asa T. Spaulding, and current president James H. Speed. Throughout there are numerous images and narratives about the many women workers and administrative staff who held positions at the company dating back to the turn of the 20th century. The collection is especially rich in print material, including many issues of three company publications: The Mutual (1903-1929), The Whetstone (1924-1998), and The Weekly Review (1925-1998). It is also notable for its assemblage of material on United States African American history, including much information on other companies, and public relations material dating from the earliest years to present times, including advertising ephemera, advertising campaigns, and other related items. Other materials document North Carolina Mutual's outreach to the African American community throughout its history to counter racism, unemployment, and diseases by means of public health programs, church affiliations, mentoring, and scholarship programs. Over one hundred selected digitized photographs and a few documents are also available online. Acquired and curated jointly by the North Carolina Central University's University Archives, Records and History Center and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.

Bobbye Ortiz was a social activist and Marxist feminist. The collection consists chiefly of personal correspondence; extensive subject files on international political and cultural movements; photographs and slides; ephemeral publication material such as grassroots newsletters, pamphlets, broadsides, and clippings; cultural artifacts, including buttons and T-shirts; and over 300 sound recordings of spoken voice and music (see separate catalog record for sound recordings). The collection documents the personal life and career of an international feminist, Marxist activist, and mother, who also served as editor of the magazine Monthly Review and was the founder of the organization WIRE (Women's International Resource Exchange). English.

Louise Hortense Branscomb was a physician from Birmingham, Alabama, who was also heavily involved in community work and with the United Methodist Church. Her papers include diaries, medical notebooks, correspondence, and photographs documenting her and her family's activities during the twentieth century.

Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. Artifacts and Memorabilia span the years 1888 through 2004, and represent a continuation of Record Group 7 of the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) Archives. It is an artificial collection, the items drawn together from numerous accessions and gathered in one group because of their physical natures and purposes, rather than their Provenance. A significant portion of the objects came from the Epcot Worldwide Manager's Meeting, held in May 1984, at which offices displayed objects they used for New Business promotions, personnel recognitions, and other purposes.

Clarissa Sligh is an artist and author of works such as Wrongly Bodied, Reading Dick and Jane with Me, What's Happening With Momma? Jake in Transition, and It Wasn't Little Rock. Collection includes materials relating to Sligh's career as an artist, with particular focus on her various projects and exhibitions in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Projects represented include Jake In Transition/Wrongly Bodied, Witness to Dissent/It Wasn't Little Rock, Coast to Coast, Sandy Ground, Malcolm X: Man, Ideal, Icon, What's Happening With Momma? and an NC Reunion/Slavery project, along with several others. Sligh's files frequently include correspondence, research materials, drafts of essays and exhibition plans, clippings and other source materials, contact sheets and slides, and occasionally exhibit pieces and texts from the actual installation. Other items included in the collection are exhibition binders and scrapbooks kept by Sligh to document her career; correspondence and communication between Sligh and other artists, galleries, or publishers; catalogs and publicity materials from Sligh's many exhibitions, shows, and publications, artists' books, materials documenting Sligh's art and process, large framed photographic prints; and other materials. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.