Aleph Number:
Collection is restricted. Images and recorded
interviews may be used for non-commercial, public service,
or educational purposes. All other requests to copy,
reprint, or republish recorded interviews or printed
materials must be made in writing to the Center for
Documentary Studies. Researchers who wish to use an
interview that does not have a release agreement must read
and sign a
All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Also, some of the materials in this collection are not immediately accessible, because they require further processing before use.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.
The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
[Identification of item],
The
Processed by Ruth E. Bryan, Karen Glynn, Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, and Matthew Warren.
Completed February 10, 2003. Additions made in 2008 and 2012.
Acessions described in this finding aid: 2002-0230, 2006-0064, 2012-0090.
Encoded by Joshua A. Kaiser and Paula Jeannet Mangiafico.
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University was established for the study of the documentary process.
The records of the documentary project
The photographs in this collection, most of formed part of a traveling exhibit, were taken chiefly during 1999 by twelve well-known documentary and landscape photographers working in partnership with project oral history interviewers. The photographers are Dawoud Bey, Bill Burke, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Lucy Capehart, Lynn Davis, Terry Evans, Lauren Greenfield, Joan Liftin, Reagan Louie, Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed. Their images capture the experiences of individuals participating in grassroots initiatives addressing American social issues such as housing, immigration (in particular, Haitians in Florida), the natural environment, race relations, youth empowerment, and economic and cultural development, and others.
Also preserved in this collection are detailed oral histories recorded in each community, with audio recordings and transcriptions; information on the traveling exhibit; and materials on other project outcomes, including a hardbound large-format book of the images, a postcard exhibit, a guide for educators, booklets and other publications on community organizing, and radio and television programs. Other files document the establishment of research archives based on the documentary project's output, at Duke, in Arizona, and in each of the twelve communities.
The collection is arranged into two series: Project Files and Photographs. The first houses the interview records, including digital and analog cassette tapes of oral histories, as well as tape lists, logs, and transcripts in both paper and digital formats, and the project files described above. The second series houses the photographic prints, most of which were part of the traveling exhibition and the book. Additional supporting materials found in the Project Files Series include postcards and videocassette tapes from exhibits; a CD-ROM of the 2001 website; field notes in paper and digital format; and other office files generated by the project and its staff, including Tom Rankin, one of the project co-directors. There are also slides of the and biographies of the photographers. Three hundred thirty-nine of the electronic transcripts have been migrated to the electronic records server. A disk directories log and use copies exist. Please contact Research Services staff before coming to use this collection.
Acquired as part of the Archives for Documentary Arts at Duke University.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
Contains a variety of project records: administrative files, tape logs and oral history transcripts, publicity materials, photographer and interviewer biographies, project documentation in the form of slides, and other supporting materials documenting the scope and unfolding of the project and its associated book and traveling exhibit. THere are also audio and video recordings related to interviews and other project-related work.
Images and recorded interviews may be used
for non-commercial, public service, or educational
purposes. All other requests to copy, reprint, or republish
recorded interviews or printed materials must be made in
writing to the Center for Documentary Studies. Researchers
who wish to use an interview that does not have a release
agreement must read and sign a
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Technical Services needs to reformat for use copy before use.]
[These computer disks, Disk001 to Disk024, containing transcripts and some tape logs, have been removed and their contents migrated to the Special Collections server. A disk directories log exists. Contact Research Services staff.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[The contents of the computer disks in this box may overlap or be duplicates of the computer disks found in box 8 and migrated to the electronic records server.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audio and video materials are closed to use. Technical Services needs to reformat for use copies of audio and digital materials materials before contents can be accessed. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this collection.]
[The contents of the computer disks in this box may overlap or be duplicates of the computer disks found in box 8 and migrated to the electronic records server.]
[Technical Services needs to produce use copies of digital materials before use.]
[The contents of the computer disks in this box may overlap or be duplicates of the computer disks found in box 8 and migrated to the electronic records server.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
[Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact a reference archivist before coming to use this collection.]
Prints in various sizes, chiefly in black and white, taken by documentary photographers in project locations: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, New York, and Wisconsin. All captions and contextual notes have been taken from the original source. Unless otherwise noted, images were also published in the volume,
Seventeen black and white gelatin silver prints of community organizations and individuals in Chicago, Illinois, with the chief focus on members of the Southwest Youth Collaborative, an effort on the part of faith-based institutions, social service centers, recreational centers, and neighborhood organizations to empower youth and their community in South Chicago neighborhoods.
Thirty-one 8x10 and 16x20 black-and-white gelatin silver prints of individuals involved with the Alternatives Credit Union in Ithaca, N.Y. The Credit Union's policies and programs are focused on supporting community-based economic development through access to loans, mortgages, and other financial services for high-risk or low income clients.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in book.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book.
Twenty-one 20x24" black-and-white gelatin silver prints of communities and individuals in the western North Carolina mountains involved with "Handmade in America," a cooperative of craftsmen and craftswomen designed to promote self-suffiency and locally-based economic development.
Sixteen chromogenic prints of Native American individuals and their historic-breed animals, in their Navajo Nation communities in New Mexico and Arizona.
Twenty-one 11x14" toned black and white silver gelatin prints of Alaskan landscapes and fishing communities, documenting change and struggle in the community members' lives.
Not in in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book. Variant image in traveling exhibition.
Nineteen 16x20, 20x24, and 24x24" chromogenic prints of Yaak Valley, Montana landscapes, and loggers and other individuals, documenting change and social and environmental concerns in their communities.
Not in book.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in book.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book.
Twenty-six 13x20 and 16x20" Cibachrome prints of individuals in the San Francisco neighborhood of Bayview/Hunter's Point. Many of the young people in these portraits are Youthline "listeners," who support a social network and gateway to youth services for teens in the area.
She does a pop dance routine outside her apartment with her "sister" Jessica Ramos and her friend Michelle Lawrence as her grandmother and aunt watch them from the window. Karen was raised by her grandmother (who speaks no English) and her father, after her mother abandoned her as a child to return to her native El Salvador.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
There is a constant activity of drug transactions outside the window of Ayana and Asante's impeccably clean apartment in Bayview-Hunters Point. Ayana and her friend joke about the boys who sell "copa," the name of a hair gel product the girls use as a code word for crack. Bay View is the poorest neighborhood in San Francisco and Mamie Matthews has always been very active in the community. The drug dealers know Mamie and her family and, out of respect, do not loiter directly in front of her building.
She does her mother's hair in their apartment in Bayview-Hunters Point as the family prepares for church on Sunday. Asante's mother Mamie has seven children of her own and four foster children. Ayana and Asante help their mother care for the children but will be leaving for college in Atlanta in the fall. They are the first in their large family to attend a four-year college. Enter scope/content note.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Rosa says she always cries when Josh leaves. He is an only child and she a single mother so they both await with trepidation his imminent departure for the University of Wisconsin where he has received a full scholarship and will be the only African American student in his program.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
She has been admitted to the University of California at Santa Barbara on a scholarship and will be the first person in her family to atten a four-year college.
Not in book.
She was one of the leaders of the successful U.C. Berkeley protests on the same issue for which students had hunger strikes and mounted tent cities.
Many listeners socialize together and two of them who are leaving for college wanted a picture of their Youthline friends to bring with them.
Every caller remains anonymous but gets asked a standard set of informational questions during the course of their call.
She goes to the piercing studio planning on a tongue-pierce but after being told that her tongue is the wrong shape, ends up getting a brow pierce like her sister instead. Enter scope/content note.
The Youthline listeners say that many of the support calls they get are about relationships.
They listen as girls describe times in their life during which they were scared. Ayana describes a time when she and Asante were attacked in their car at a stoplight. One girl describes having a baby as a teenager. Another girl is afraid of kids at school with guns. Another reveals her fear that there is a contract on her life.Enter scope/content note.
Not in book.
Not in book.
Aya, an aspiring actress, gets ready for school, looking for books and other necessities under piles of clothes and teenage artifacts.
Eighteen 16x20" black-and-white gelatin silver prints of African Americans and Haitian Americans and their communities in Delray Beach, Florida. They are involved with several volunteer organizations to provide community policing, assist immigrants, and promote cultural understanding.
Not in book.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Sixteen 20x24 and 30x38 chromogenic prints of individuals in north Philadelphia involved with the Village of Arts and Humanities, a community effort focused on reclaiming declining neighborhoods through educational programs, the arts, and community-based social services.
Not in book.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Twenty 11x14 and 16x20" Cibachrome and black-and-white gelatin silver prints of Texan farmworkers and their communities near the Mexican border. Founded by the Farmworker's Union in 1991 to provide decent and affordable housing for farmworkers and their families, Proyecto Azteca benefits these community members, who also volunteer for building projects.
In 1847 Congressman Abraham Lincoln declared that "the spot" was not, nor never had been part of Texas or the United States, and therefore could not justify an invasion of Mexico. This unpopular sentiment ruined his political career for the next decade.
Not in book.
Not in book or traveling exhibition.
Not in book.
Not in traveling exhibition.
Not in traveling exhibition.
The horizon shows the Rio Grande River, established as the border with Mexico after the War of 1848.
Fourteen 16x20 and 20x24" gelatin silver prints documenting the training and work of community doulas and midwives in Ithaca, N.Y., and the families who benefit from their support before, during, and after childbirth.
Eighteen 16x20" framed gelatin silver prints of community volunteers and their friends in Eau Claire, South Carolina.