About the Center
Overview
The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture in Duke University’s Rubenstein Library acquires, preserves and makes available to a large population of researchers published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women, past and present.
History
In 1988, as a result of a gift by Sallie Bingham, the Women's Studies Archivist position was created to coordinate the acquisition, cataloguing, reference, and outreach activities related to the Rubenstein Library's holdings on women and gender. The center was permanently endowed in 1993 and named the "Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture" in 1999 in honor of author, playwright, teacher and feminist activist Sallie Bingham. The Center is charged with acquiring, preserving and providing access to published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women past and present. In 2011, the Center's directorship was endowed by and named in honor of journalist, activist and women’s health care pioneer Merle Hoffman. Currently the staff consists of a director, research services librarian, technical services archivist, graduate intern, field experience students, and volunteers.
Holdings
While the Bingham Center is a broad-based women’s history archives, our main collecting areas include the following. A more detailed description of our holdings may be found on the Collections Overview page and through our Subject Guides.
- Southern women
- girl culture
- domestic culture
- women authors and publishers
- lay and ordained church women
- women artists
- the history of feminist theory and activism
- women's sexuality and gender expression
- women of color
Access
The Bingham Center staff works to make women's archival collections and rare print materials more accessible to potential researchers by:
- creating guides and bibliographies highlighting collection strengths
- collaborating with Duke faculty to devise class projects that incorporate the use of primary source materials
- offering a competitive research grant program to provide support for emerging scholars who need to use our unique collections for their projects
- providing a remote reference service for researchers around the world
- developing digital exhibitions of our manuscript and print materials
Outreach
The Bingham Center promotes its collections to a wide audience by:
- Mounting exhibits that feature materials from the Center
- Publishing a newsletter twice a year
- Offering presentations to school, community, and professional groups
- Offering public programming such as academic symposia, dramatic readings; and film festivals. Please see our News and Events page
Internships
The Bingham Center has been a training ground for numerous students who want to gain experience working with rare materials that focus on women and gender. Internships are created on a case by case basis as we try to devise meaningful projects that capitalize on and complement students' academic interests while providing them with valuable work experience.
Support
The Bingham Center depends upon the generosity of private benefactors. Most of its holdings have been received as gifts or acquired with support from donors. Its staff welcomes inquiries from individuals or organizations interested in contributing to the Center’s holdings or supporting its programs in other ways. For more information, please see the Rubenstein Library's Guide to Donating Materials. To make a financial contribution to support our unique collections, programming, and providing access to materials, you can donate online. We appreciate your support!
Contact
For additional information, please contact us.
919-660-5870
(Perkins Circulation Desk)
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