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The Daniel C. Roper Papers, 1860-1958 (bulk 1933-1938), consist chiefly of professional and political correspondence, including telegrams and memoranda, but also include speeches, financial papers, clippings, invitations, legal papers, printed material, and pictures. The collection primarily documents Roper's term as Secretary of Commerce during the first administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In general the papers provide an inside look at this Democratic administration during the early depression years, as well as the relationships among business, government, and politics. In particular, Roper had close ties to people in the business community and was sympathetic to their concerns. In addition, the collection tracks the course of the New Deal in the Department of Commerce and the career of Roper not only as a United States government official in Roosevelt's cabinet but also as a progressive Democrat. However, there are some gaps in these professional files in that there is very little material pertaining to Roper's career prior to his appointment to the cabinet post. Also, files for 1931 are almost entirely missing, and cross-reference sheets in the collection prepared by Roper's staff appear to refer to a separate set of files missing from this collection. There is relatively little in the papers concerning Roper's personal life, except for financial papers.

The J. Walter Thompson Company. John F. Devine Papers span the years from 1952 to 1974 but primarily contain files from 1956 to 1970 documenting Devine's activities first as administrator of the Radio/Television Department (1954 to 1960) and then as a corporate executive in the New York office (1960 to 1970). As a whole, the collection provides a glimpse into media advertising operations during the period of transition from radio to television as the dominant medium for product-sponsored advertising and programming. In particular, the papers reveal Devine as an adept financial manager on the corporate level. As Department administrator, Devine was responsible for the development of television programming for specific clients, including Eastman Kodak Company (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Screen Directors Playhouse, and The Ed Sullivan Show), Ford Motor Company (Ford Theatre, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Suspicion), Kraft Foods Company (Kraft Television Theatre), and Lever Brothers Company (The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney and Lux Video Theatre), among others. Correspondence, memoranda, and reports indicate the rapid acceptance of television as the primary advertising medium and the concurrent development of specialized departments within JWT to serve the expanding needs of clients. The importance of market research to define product consumption patterns and to refine client advertising promotions is illustrated in research requests, correspondence, memoranda, and reports. The inception and growth of organized labor groups, including the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA), American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Writers Guild of America (WGA), are also delineated in correspondence, memoranda, and reports. In addition to his employment at JWT, Devine was an advertising industry representative to negotiations between television networks and organized labor groups during the period from 1956 to 1960.

The papers of Wilfried Henkel, former managing director (Geschäftsführer) at the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), Frankfurt office, span the years 1957 to 1987, with the bulk of the material dating from 1975 to 1984. The collection consists of articles and presentations (typed or offprints) accompanied by charts and graphs, typed and handwritten correspondence, external and internal memoranda, as well as press clippings and other printed material, and documents Henkel's activities during his tenure at the Frankfurt office, where he was considered the "chief ideologist." Throughout his time in Frankfurt, Henkel worked on individual accounts, but more importantly he was one of the early proponents of corporate advertising, especially in the form of corporate identity and corporate communications. In addition, he worked extensively on JWT's corporate strategy, the T-Plan (target plan).

The papers of Paul Ramsey span the years 1934 to 1984. Included are correspondence, memoranda, book reviews, typescripts, reprints, drafts of books and articles, clippings, lecture notes and outlines, course outlines, examinations and handouts, writings of Ramsey and others, news releases, theses and dissertations, and cassette tapes. The principal focus of the collection reflects the direction of the teaching and writing career of Ramsey, principally while a professor in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. These primarily professional papers relate to his major fields of interest: theology, philosophy, and the humanities. In particular, Ramsey's chief specialty as a teacher and scholar has been Christian ethics, beginning with the publication of his classic, Basic Christian Ethics in 1950. There followed writings in ethical methodology, "situation ethics," marriage, and sexual ethics. In the 1960s he expanded the scope of his research and writing to include the ethics of warfare and nuclear deterrence, and in the 1970s turned to medical ethics topics, such as fetal research, abortion, and in vitro fertilization.

The Abram Kanof Papers, 1858-1996, contain printed material, correspondence, writings, and photographs primarily reflecting Dr. Kanof's research and writing in the field of Jewish ceremonial art; his role in the development of the Tobe Pascher Workshop of the Jewish Museum, New York, N.Y.; his curatorship at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C.; and to a lesser extent, his patronage of the arts. The Abram Kanof Papers are relevant to the study of religious art in the Judaic tradition, and they also document Dr. Kanof's contributions, as a researcher, patron, and administrator, to the study of the relationship between art and Jewish liturgy and worship.

The papers of R. Philip Hanes span the years 1928 to 1987 with the bulk occurring during the 1960s through the 1980s. Included are correspondence; printed material, such as brochures, leaflets, pamphlets, and programs; mimeographed material; clippings; press releases; newsletters; reports; financial records; minutes and agenda of meetings; agreements and contracts; pictures and slides; questionnaires; telephone logs; and plans.

When ALFA disbanded in 1994, the archival collections and the bulk of the periodicals collection were transferred to Duke's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The book collection and the remaining periodicals stayed in Atlanta, with books relating to feminist theory going to Emory University and the rest to a community library. The ALFA Archives and Periodicals Collections that have been transferred to Duke are an incredibly rich source of information about feminist and lesbian activism and communities, especially in the Southeast, from the early 1970s to the present.