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English professor, Duke University, folklorist of Durham, N.C., and founder in 1913 of the North Carolina Folklore Society. Collection centers around Frank Clyde Brown's lifelong exploration and collecting of North Carolina and Appalachian folklore, which resulted in this vast archival collection of original folklore materials and editorial records for the seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (published 1952-1964). Collection is comprised of field recordings on wax cylinders and phonodiscs; tens of thousands of field notes, transcriptions of original songs, stories, and traditional expressions; musical scores; and numerous journal articles, student theses, books, and lists. Also included are the papers of Charles Bond, a Duke graduate student who studied and expanded the collection in 1970. The vast majority of the folklore sources originated in North Carolina, but there are some materials from other regions. Subjects include: African American traditions; ballads and songs (music as well as lyrics); European roots of North American folklore; folk music; folk poetry; games and parties; oral traditions and storytelling; sayings, names, and superstitions; social conditions in the Southern States; work songs; and North American folklore in general. In addition, one can find rich resources on the study and teaching of folklore, and attitudes during the 1920s to 1950s about Southern customs and communities.

Paul H. Jeffrey was a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator. The Paul Jeffrey Papers have as their focal point nearly 1,400 manuscript scores and parts that Jeffrey composed or arranged for big band jazz ensemble, primarily for the Duke Jazz Ensemble. Also present are audio and moving image materials, photographs and posters, as well as correspondence, promotional materials, and written records relating to various aspects of Jeffrey's career.

Raymond Gavins was the first African American faculty member of the History Department at Duke University. During his 45-year career at Duke University, Gavins held professorial and administrative positions including time as Director of Graduate Studies, History. His courses, publications, and research focused on Black history and life in the United States and North Carolina. This collection contains correspondence, writings, reports, course materials, and proposals related to Black Studies, Duke's History Department, advisory boards and committees, professional organizations, and conferences. Also includes subject files and notes from Gavins' research, drafts of his writings, and recordings of Gavins and interviews he conducted.

The Robert A. Hill Collection covers the period of 1800 to 2014 and documents Hill's research, writing, and publications about Marcus Garvey's life and work and the founding of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), as well as Hill's many other projects. Items in the collection include research material assembled by Hill, writings by and about Garvey, manuscripts, correspondence, printed material, clippings, microfilm, photographs, video and sound recordings, and objects. Series 1-4 contain the production papers of the Marcus Garvey Papers Project: American Volumes (AM), African Volumes (AF), Caribbean Volumes (CA), and Project Administration (PA). Hill's other projects and writings are included in Series 5-6 as Other Works by Robert A. Hill (OW) and Hill Personal (HP). The remaining Series 7-10 consists of Microfilm (MF), Primary Sources (PS), Research (RE), and the unprocessed Jamaica (J). The collection was acquired by the John Hope Franklin Research Center in 2015.

Louis Dupree was a scholar, educator, and consultant on the refugees, politics, and archaeology of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He served as a Senior Research Associate for the Program in Islamic and Arabian Development Studies at Duke University during the late 1980s. The Louis Dupree Papers contain correspondence, notes, clippings, conference programs, drafts, manuscripts, speeches, newsletters, interview transcripts, research materials, teaching materials, a scrapbook, photographs, grant applications, memorabilia, student papers, a dissertation, and other materials related to the personal life and professional career of archaeologist, activist, and scholar Louis Dupree. Major subjects include Louis Dupree, Nancy Hatch Dupree, the Duke University Program in Islamic and Arabian Development Studies, Ralph Braibanti, Afghanistan, Afghan refugees, Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, Pakistan, the United States Army 11th Airborne, the United States Army 187th Airborne, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. English.

Arthur Hollis Edens (1901-1968) had a long career as an educator and administrator. He served as president of Duke University from 1949 to 1960. During that time, Edens focused on fund-raising and long range planning, and oversaw the implementation of a new student union and a University Council for faculty members. The A. Hollis Edens records include correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, and other documents related to Edens's career at Duke. Among the major subjects of the collection focused on Duke University are its administration and development, the Board of Trustees, the Duke Endowment, Annual Reports from major divisions of the university, segregation, and Edens's inauguration in 1949. Prominent people in the collection include faculty member Paul M. Gross and presidential assistant Earl W. Potter. The collection also includes documents related to Edens's membership in organizations such as the U.S. State Department's Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange, the National Commission on Accrediting, the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the Southern University Conference, the Methodist Church, and the President's Committee on Education Beyond the High School. English.

J. B. Matthews (1894-1966) was a Methodist missionary, college professor, author, lecturer, and prominent conservative spokesman. Collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, statements, speeches, reprints, clippings, broadsides, newsletters, press releases, petitions, and other printed material, chiefly 1930-1969. The principal focus of the collection relates to the work and research of Matthews and his associates in the area of anti-communism, particularly in connection with Matthews' role as Director of Research for the Special Committee on Un-American Activities of the U.S. House of Representatives (1938-1945), Executive Director of the Permanent Subcommittee on Government Operations of the U.S. Senate (1953), and a consultant for John A. Clements Associates. Many of the organizations, newspapers, periodicals, and persons represented in the collection have various leftist, socialist, communist, radical, or pacifist (especially anti-Vietnam War) connections. Individuals represented in the files include Ralph Abernathy, Bella Abzug, Roy Cohn, John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Michael Harrington, Alger Hiss, J. Edgar Hoover, Jesse Jackson, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Joseph Lash, Joseph McCarthy, Carl McIntire, Benjamin Mandel, Richard Nixon, Aristotle Onassis, Lee Harvey Oswald, Linus Pauling, Drew Pearson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Louis Untermeyer.

Weston La Barre (1911-1996) was an anthropology professor at Duke University from 1946 to 1977. Prior to coming to Duke, La Barre worked in military intelligence in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Weston La Barre Papers include correspondence, publications, lectures, committee materials, teaching materials, photographs, audio recordings, scrapbooks and other materials. La Barre's professional interests included cultural anthropology, religion, psychodelic drugs such as peyote, and psychology. Major correspondents include George Devereux, Allen Ginsberg, Alexander Morin, Richard Evans Schultes, and Howard Stein. English.

Duke University Press publishes both scholarly books and journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In its early years, preference was given to works published by faculty, graduate students and alumni and to works focused on southern states. The records of Duke University Press span from 1812-2019 and consist of correspondence, annual catalogs, advertisements, annual reports, Board minutes, contracts and agreements, book and journal reviews, financial records, marketing files, the records of former director Steve Cohn, and facsimiles of the Carlyle letters.

Dr. Charles Rudolph "Chuck" Davis or Baba Chuck (1937-2017) was an African American dancer, choreographer, and founder of the African American Dance Ensemble, the Chuck Davis Dance Company, and the annual DanceAfrica Festival. Collection includes correspondence, paper based records, printed materials, teaching materials, programs, posters, publications, newspaper clippings, conference materials, notebooks, photographs, negatives, slides, super 8 film, videotapes, artwork, and various other types of memorabilia.