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WDBS was Duke University's campus radio station from 1950-1983. It initially broadcast on AM by carrier current, a system in which radio signals were fed into the university's electrical system. In 1971, WDBS began broadcasting on FM 107.1 as a commercial, non-profit station. AM broadcasts ceased in the early 1970s. WDBS was sold in 1983 to repay debts the station owed Duke University. Collection includes annual reports, correspondence, proposals, newspaper clippings, advertising, program guides, record company photographs and press releases, and other materials related to the operation of WDBS. There are also reel-to-reel sound recordings of broadcasts from the 1960s and 1970s, including speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokeley Carmichael, Douglas Knight, Samuel Dubois Cook, Charles Goodell, Robert Shelton, Spiro Agnew, Julian Bond, Birch Bayh, William Kunstler, Floyd McKissick, Richard Kleindienst, and Terry Sanford. News events and other subjects represented on tape include the 1968 Vigil, the 1969 takeover of the Allen Building by the Afro-American Society, racial unrest in Durham, anti-war activism, the 1971 USA Pan-Africa track meet, the 1972 Republican National Convention, the dedication of the William R. Perkins Library, and the Duke Symposium. Musical recordings include an organ recital, the Concert Band, and the Glee Club. English.

Pioneering African American surgeon who was chief of surgery at Lincoln Hospital, clinical professor of surgery at Duke University, founder of Lincoln Community Health Center, director of student health at North Carolina Central University, and vice president and medical director for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, all in Durham, N.C. Spanning the period of 1917 to 2004, the Charles DeWitt Watts Papers contain files related to Watts's education, family, community activities, centered in Durham, N.C., and his career as a surgeon, administrator, and trustee on several boards. There is material on the formation in 1901 of Lincoln Hospital, a medical care facility for African Americans in Durham, N.C.. and other items on the early 20th century history of Durham, but the bulk of the papers relate to the later half of the 20th century. Formats primarily consist of correspondence, reports, notes, speeches, photographs, and print materials. It is organized into the following series: Community Relations, Personal Files, Photographic Materials, and Professional Files. Material in the Medical Records Series have been separated and are currently closed to use. Acquired as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture.

ALS to his sister, Helen, and her husband, Henry F. Jones, in which he describes his legal career and life in New Orleans. He refers to epidemics of yellow fever and cholera and notes that the climate is considered to be beneficial to tuberculosis patients.

Richard L. Watson, Jr. served as Professor of History at Duke University (1939-1984), Chair of the Department of History (1960-1967), Chair of the Academic Council (1964-1966, 1975-1977), and associate editor of the South Atlantic Quarterly (1974-1987). Papers include correspondence, notes, committee minutes and reports, course evaluations, research files, and manuscript drafts of chapters, and involve Watson's work with the Army Air Force Historical Office, the History Department, Duke University, professional organizations, research and writings in American history and historiography, and personal materials. English.

Henry Watson, Jr. (1810-1891) was a plantation owner, enslaver, and lawyer of Greensboro, Alabama. Collection includes letters, diaries, business correspondence, and papers (chiefly 1828-1869) relating to Watson's career in law, his planting activities, his accumulation of property (including enslaved persons), establishment of the Planter's Insurance Company, farming conditions in antebellum Alabama, politics in Alabama before the Civil War, activities of the Watson family, the migration of Watson's family and relatives to various places in the West, secession in Alabama, Watson's removal to Germany during the Civil War, his return to the U.S. after the war, and his postwar career in Connecticut and Alabama. Also includes correspondence with his partner, John Erwin, a Whig leader; land grants to Edwin Peck signed by Martin Van Buren; letters from Confederate soldiers imprisoned at Johnson's Island, Ohio; letters from Henry Bernard; and early letters from Elisha Stanley describing Pittsburgh, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kentucky, the mercantile business during the War of 1812, the martial spirit and activities of the Kentuckians during the War of 1812, and the disastrous effects of peace on mercantile pursuits. Also in the collection are letters and papers of John Watson (d. 1824), including fragments, complete literary manuscripts, and papers relating to the settlement of his estate; and letters and diaries of Henry Watson's brother, Sereno.

Born in Caroleen, North Carolina in 1902, studio photographer Herbert Lee Waters supplemented his income from 1936 to 1942 by traveling across North Carolina and parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to film the people of small communities. He collaborated with local movie theaters to screen his films, which he called Movies of Local People. It is estimated that Waters produced films across 118 communities, visiting some of them multiple times. The H. Lee Waters Film Collection dates from 1936 to 2005 and is comprised primarily of 16mm black-and-white and color reversal original motion picture films created by Waters during the filming of the Movies of Local People series. The collection, arranged alphabetically by town name, also includes various preservation and access elements created over the years from the original footage: 16mm internegatives, 16mm screening prints, 3/4-inch Umatic videotape, Betacam SP videotape, Digital Betacam videotape, VHS videotape, DVD discs, and high resolution digital files including 2K preservation video copies. The collection contains a small number of papers and physical objects related to Waters' film making, including: a photocopy of two log books (encompassed in one volume) maintained by Waters to record financial and business information during the filming of Movies of Local People; photocopied and original advertisements for screenings of Waters' films; photocopies of Waters' notes, receipts, and correspondence concerning film sales; related ephemera; copy of a 2005 master's thesis written on the films of H. Lee Waters; home movies made by Waters from the 1930s to the 1950s; and oral histories with Mary Waters Spaulding and Tom Waters, the children of H. Lee Waters.

Zuriel Waterman was a physician from Cranston, Rhode Island and served as a surgeon aboard several American privateers during the Revolutionary War. He relocated to Edenton, North Carolina after the war. Commonplace book, dated circa 1769-1774, appears to have been created by Zuriel Waterman and Sarah Dean. The name Sarah Dean appears on the inside cover, but many later entries written in a different hand are attributed to Zuriel Waterman. The book contains a number of excerpts, verse, and other writings including: "A Chronological Table of Epithets of the Kings of England," "Versus on Mr. George Whitefield," "A Short and True Description of North Carolina and its Inhabitants," and "Care for bite of a mad dog." Also included is a count of inhabitants in the colony of Rhode Island by locale and race, a sketch of the city of Troy, a petition of the Continental Congress to the King of England, and various religious and political writings.

U.S. physician; pioneer of vaccination in the U.S. Collection chiefly consists of photostatic copies of correspondence written to Waterhouse, and brings together material from various U. S. collections. Includes some original letters acquired by Duke University. The bulk of the material, correspondence and minutes of meetings of the Corporation of Harvard College, relates to vaccination and Waterhouse's removal from his Harvard professorship. Correspondents include: J. Warren, J.C. Warren, J. Jackson, J. Gorham, W. Jenks, J.R. Coxe, B. Lincoln, S. Williams, J. Sullivan, B. Silliman, J. Redman, W. Cogswell, J. Lathrop, J. Monroe, J. T. Kirkland, H. Dearborn, H.A.S. Dearborn, J. Tilton, J. Winthrop, T. Jefferson, D. Webster, J. Sparks, L. Cass, and R. Elton. Collection also includes photostatic copy of Waterhouse's 1794 journal describing a trip to Saratoga Springs. Forms part of the Trent Manuscripts Collection and was acquired as part of the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is an international human rights advocacy organization headquartered in Washington D.C. It partners with local organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean to raise awareness of human rights abuses in the region and to influence the foreign policy agenda of the United States government. The WOLA records span 1968-2023, with most materials dating from 1980-2009. Contains research and project files on nearly every country in Latin America, administration records, clippings, correspondence, printed material, audiovisual materials, and other assorted materials related to the work of WOLA. Major subjects include political and government issues such as coup d'etats, dictatorships, elections, human rights abuses, and policy; economic topics such as aid, development, labor and poverty; documentation and advocacy related to human rights cases such as violence, forced disappearances, and truth and reconciliation; security issues and police reform, including demilitarizing police, the School of Americas, and violence against women; drug policies; Hurricane Mitch; advocacy training for other NGOs and lobbying work; and various events and conferences in which these topics are discussed. Additional topics include the role and influence of the United States throughout Latin America by means of government and economic policy, military actions, and human rights work. Acquired by the Human Rights Archive.