A Rare Collection

When most students consider Duke's special collections library, they're probably more likely to think Walt Whitman than Wonder Woman--if they know the library even exists.

That may soon change, though, because Duke's Rare Books, Manuscripts and Special Collections Library is about to become owner of a 50,000-piece comic book collection--one of the largest in the country. The collection, which includes comic books from 1930 to the present, was a gift from Edwin and Terry Murray, private collectors with a connection to Duke.

"We're calling it a 'pulp culture' collection," says Tim West, RBMSCL director of collection development. "It's a little out of our usual mainstream, but it's a lot of fun."

The RBMSCL was created in 1989, after the University decided to merge its Manuscript Collection with its Rare Book Department, both founded over 50 years ago. It is now one of the most respected special collections in the nation, and unlike many of its peer collection libraries, which are located in the most remote corners of University book repositories, Duke's is on the first floor of Perkins Library--highly accessible (and free) to both students and the public. While library officials admit they receive some complaints that students are intimidated to venture into the RBMSCL, those who do are often surprised to find just how many rare documents the Library holds.

Like most university special collections, Duke collectors don't simply pursue any rare or valuable document. Rather, the focus of the library "is to support educational and research missions of the University," says Robert Byrd, director of the RBMSCL. Thus, instead of going after the most expensive rare books and manuscripts (many of which the RBMSCL could never afford), collectors focus on areas which they believe will be particularly helpful to researchers--be they students, professors, or members of the community at large.

"Not that we don't acquire [expensive collectors items]," says West, "but we're focusing on the research side, not the market value."

As head of collection development, West is responsible for coordinating the efforts and funding of all RBMSCL collectors, who include a visual materials archivist and the directors of the three centers affiliated with the Library: The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History; the John Hope Franklin Collection of African and African-American Documentation; and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture. West is a collector himself, specializing in literary materials.

For West and Byrd, collecting is an ongoing process. "You have to be very patient in this business, especially when you're working with individuals," says West. "You can't just go out and talk to someone and instantly get it. You have to bide your time."

When the late literary scholar Harold Jantz left Johns Hopkins University for Duke in the 1970s, for example, the University purchased much of his German Baroque literature collection as part of his arrangement for coming to Duke. After his death, Jantz's widow donated more materials to the collection, and the RBMSCL has purchased additional German books from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to complement the existing ones. Today, the Jantz Collection and the Faber du Faur Collection of German Baroque Literature at Yale University are considered the two most comprehensive collections outside Germany.

The acquisition of the Jantz collection "must have been a great coup for Duke," says Christa Simmons, curator of the Faber du Faur, "because [Professor] Jantz taught at Johns Hopkins and his collection was there for years." She added that the Jantz Collection "is larger than ours and broader in scope, taking in travel literature and especially books that mention America."

Donors aren't always related to the University, of course. In 1987, Duke professor of cultural anthropology William O'Barr, who teaches courses in advertising and society, was conducting research at the J. Walter Thompson Company, a prominent advertising agency, when some of his contacts there told him the company was looking for a place for its archives. Byrd and O'Barr subsequently drafted a proposal to donate the collection to the RBMSCL.

"Other universities had submitted proposals as well, but they liked ours," Byrd says. "It was a matter of presenting Duke as a place that would take care of the materials and promote their use." Byrd says the acquisition of the Thompson archive "really established us as a major repository for materials relating advertising and society. So now often when we approach [other agencies] we can tell them the J. Walter Thompson archive is here... the Outdoor Advertising Association of America archives are here. Your papers would really complement these other collections. Researchers come here already to do research in these fields.... We're trying to make the case that this is an ideal repository for papers that would complement the ones we already have."

Of course, both companies and individuals always have their own reasons for deciding to donate their materials to Duke. A rare copy of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, published by Kelmscott Press in 1896 and now on display in the Rare Book Room--perhaps the Library's most significant new acquisition--was a gift from Elizabeth Hamilton Willis, widow of William Hailey Willis, a former Duke professor of classics. "In this case, the widow had four daughters," says Byrd, "and all of them were interested in the volume and the volume couldn't be divided, so she thought the best way to satisfy all four of them was to give it to Duke, so not one would get it over the others."

Duke is not the only institution trying to acquire rare books and manuscripts. "It's a competitive process," Byrd says. He says it can be as simple a matter as cultivating the right relationship with dealers. Sometimes it can be more complicated. "In terms of soliciting gifts it's certainly competitive. I mean, donors have options." Byrd cites the papers of Don Patinkin, former president of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the most prominent Israeli economists, as one of Duke's great acquisitions. Patinkin was having trouble choosing between his home university and Duke, which has one of the leading collection of economists papers. He ultimately chose Duke.

Byrd does note, however, unlike some other special collections, RBMSCL collectors rarely buy at auction, because the library endowment simply is not big enough. Still, Duke's collection is clearly a major player, currently going head-to-head with Columbia University to obtain a significant collection of human rights documents. The RBMSCL's eagerness to acquire these papers may be indicative of its hope to become identified as a major, national library--not just a Southern one.

The focus of the RBMSCL used to be on Southern history in the 1950s, Byrd admits. "[But] as the nature of Duke has changed, we've tried to broaden our collecting and to become more international in scope and more toward areas where we can attract researchers from the nation as a whole and not be as regionally identified," he says. "We want to continue [collecting Southern history], but we don't want it to define us."

Byrd says last year the Library received the Society of American Archivists' Award for Service to the Archival Profession. "I think on the manuscript and archives side [as well as in our specialty areas], we're highly respected and thought of as a leading repository. In terms of what we've done digitally, again, we're one of the leading special collections libraries. I think in terms of our print holdings and rare books, we'd be more at a mid-level.... We're not nearly as strong a rare book library as some of our peer universities."

Byrd attributes this in part to finances. He says he hopes in the future the RBMSCL, like many of its peers, will become a "named" library--like the Bienecke Library at Yale or the Lilly Library at Indiana. "Even apart from the resources that might bring, it gives you greater visibility because you are referred to by name. People know if they want women's materials they can go to the Schlesinger Library [at Harvard University]. We don't have that, but I think [when we do] it will increase visibility among our peers."

West adds that he believes in the areas of history of economic thought and advertising, Duke is the best in the field. "The Smithsonian does pretty good [in advertising], but I think we have the best collection."