DACS

pierceolive Inventory of the Olive Pierce Photographs, 1960-2008 Processed by: Paula Jeannet Mangiafico; machine-readable finding aid created by: Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, Katy Terrell David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Duke University Durham, N.C., USA

Aleph Number: 003462285

Machine-readable finding aid derived from XML authoring program. Date of source: February 2009Processed by Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, December 2008; finding aid encoded by Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, Katy Terrell, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, February 2009 Description is in English Finding aid was prepared using DACS and local Style Guide Inventory of the Olive Pierce Photographs, 1960-2008 David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Duke University Durham, North Carolina 27708-0185 USA

Descriptive Summary David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University Pierce, Olive Olive Pierce Photographs, 1960-2008 Material in English 24.5 Linear Feet 700 Items For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Documentary photographer based in Rockland (Knox Co.), Maine. The Olive Pierce Photographs span the years 1960-2008. The collection is arranged into three series: Photographs, Manuscripts and Printed Material, and Electronic Material. Documentary black and white photographs taken by Pierce feature Maine life and landscapes from 1960-1993; daily life, political turmoil, and social conditions in urban Massachussetts neighborhoods; and life in Iraq in 1999 and 2003, as well as protests in the U.S. against that war. Also includes manuscript, print, and electronic material related to Pierce's published works and her career as a documentary photographer and teacher of photography. Administrative Information Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

However, collection may contain materials to which the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibilities and Privacy Rights form applies. Patrons must sign this form before using this collection.

In addition, original audiovisual materials are closed to patron use. Use copies must be made for access to content.

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.

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.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Olive Pierce Photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

Provenance

The Olive Pierce Photographs were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 2006 and 2008.

Processing Information

Processed by Karen Glynn, Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, December 2008

Encoded by Paula Jeannet Mangiafico, Katy Terrell, February 2009

Accessions 2006-0036, 2006-0112, 2008-0052, and 2008-0093 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.

Accession 2009-0152 added to collection and finding aid by Meghan Lyon, June 2009.

Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory: DACS, EAD, NCEAD guidelines, and local Style Guide.

This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.

Biographical Note

Olive Pierce was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1925. Since her father had a secure job as a banker, her family's lifestyle was not much changed by the Depression. However, she was profoundly affected by driving through the Dustbowl in the early thirties and seeing families who had lost everything moving west in trucks. She was educated at Vassar College, graduating in an accelerated wartime program in 1945. In 1948 she went to Poland as a secretary to a post-World War II medical mission. She returned with snapshots of Auschwitz and Warsaw in ruins and with the desire to become a photographer.

Pierce had as her mentors and teachers photographers Berenice Abbott and Paul Caponigro. In 1976 she received a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute which turned her toward documentary work. In 1986 she published No Easy Roses: A Look at the Lives of City Teenagers, based on her experience as a teacher of photography at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Ten years later, she published Up River: The Story of a Maine Fishing Community.

The 1990 Gulf War shocked Pierce into political awareness about American foreign policy in the Middle East. To oppose the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq, she went illegally to Baghdad and Basrah in 1999 under the auspices of Voices in the Wilderness to photograph children. In 2004, after fifty years of working as a photographer, she turned her attention to an audio documentary about the death of a Maine lobster fisherman. She is presently working on a novel with a related theme.

Pierce's photographs have been shown in Massachusetts, Maine, and Chicago, Illinois. She is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts; the Portland Museum of Art; and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine.

Collection Overview

The Olive Pierce Photographs span the years 1960-2004 and are arranged in three series: Photographs, Manuscripts and Printed Material, and Electronic Material. Documentary black and white photographic prints taken by Olive Pierce focus on New England life and landscapes from 1960-1993, and life in Iraq in 1999 and 2003, as well as protests in the U.S. against that war. The earliest body of Pierce's work (1960-1968) features landscapes and individuals in Maine. A second group of images from Maine assembled by the photographer date from 1963 to 1993. Other prints document social and political controversy in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the early 1970s; social life in the Jefferson Park neighborhood in Cambridge during the 1970s; teenage life in a Cambridge high school in the early 1980s; everyday life of a fisherman's family in Maine from the late 1980s to the early 1990s; the daily lives of Iraqi children in 1999 during the period of UN sanctions; and protests in the U.S. against the war in Iraq. Collection also includes Pierce's On Teaching Photography guide (1987); as well as a poster for the exhibition on war protests, On the Bridge, A Community Speaks: Photographs by Olive Pierce; a copy of the Fall 2004 issue of Vassar's alumni magazine, which contains a photo-story by Pierce; and a copy of the magazine Maine Times, which contains six photos by Pierce accompanying an article on Iraq war protests in the U.S. (September 2003). Other items include postcards featuring her images of Iraqi children, and proofs for several collections of Pierce's images accompanied by text written by her. The Olive Pierce Photographs were acquired as part of the Duke University Archive of Documentary Arts.

Subject Headings

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.

Pierce, Olive. Cambridge (Mass.)--History. Cambridge (Mass.)--Pictorial works. Cambridge (Mass.)--Social life and customs. Children --Iraq. Documentary photography--Iraq. Documentary photography--Maine. Documentary photography--Massachusetts. Fishing--Maine --Pictorial works. High school students--Massachusetts--Attitudes. Iraq War, 2003---Pictorial works. Iraq War, 2003---Protest movements--United States. Photography--Study and teaching. Maine--Pictorial works. Maine--Social life and customs. Massachusetts--Social life and customs. Massachusetts--Pictorial works. Iraq--Pictorial works. Iraq--Social life and customs. Contact sheets. Photographs. Poscards. Posters. Proofs. DVDs. Machine-readable files. Contents of Collection Photographs Series, 1960-2004 (8 boxes)

Olive Pierce's earliest documentary photographs, taken in the 1960s, feature landscapes and individuals in Maine; a second group of images taken in Maine cover the years 1963-1993. Other prints in this series document social and political controversy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970-1972; the social life in the Jefferson Park neighborhood in Cambridge during the 1970s; teenage life in a Cambridge high school in the early eighties; everyday life of a fisherman's family in Maine from the late 1980s to the early 1990s; and the daily lives of Iraqi children in 1999 during the period of UN sanctions, as well as protests in the U.S. against the war in Iraq. Prints are arranged by project, roughly in chronological order, and further by size.

Vinalhaven, 1960-1968 [Maine] 8(7x7) To the shore, 1960 Catching crickets, 1960 (11x14) Aunt Edie's house, 1963 Three children in doorway, 1964 3(10.5x10.5) Girl in window, 1964 16x20 Winter harbor, 1963 John Hildings, 1967 Bluff Head, 1967 Overturned boat, Louds Island, Maine, 1968 Cambridge City Council, 1970-1972 18x10 The balcony, firing of the City Manager, 1970 Police barring the doors, rent control hearing, 1971 Police brutality hearing, 1971 Speaker, Larry Largey hearing, 1972 Larry Largey protest, 1972 Riot squad on Cambridge Street after Larry Largey's death, 1972 28x10 Spectator, Cambridge City Council, 1970 Councilors Crane & Daneby, Cambridge City Council, 1970 Man with newspaper, Cambridge City Council, 1971 Pledge of Allegiance, Cambridge City Council, 1970 Jefferson Park Housing Project, 1973-1976 811x14 Crossing the tracks, 1974 Alex, 1974 Learning to smoke, 1974 Baby, 1975 Dance, 1975 Hanging out, 1976 311x14 Boys in doorway, 1973 The Sawyer brothers, McCrehan Pool, 1973 Boys and cars, 1974 Joan & her siblings, 1974 Cambridge High School (No Easy Roses), 1982-1984 811x14 Senior Prom, 1982 Body builders, 1984 Welding class, 1983 Dance class, 1983 Track Meet, 1983 311x14 Between classes, 1983 Football bus, 1984 Reginald & Mr. Meyer, 1983 Psychology class, 1983 Glynis & Natasha, 1983 Friends, English class, 1982 Pictures and Testimonies, 1984 2Various sizes, photos with text Ella Powe Laura Madrigal Fred Owens Mark Agard Kenny Berube Nilda Rosado Alejandro Levins Morales Karen & Tynika Booth Maine (Up River), 1963-1993 6(18.5x24) Becky, Madeline, & Jacko, 1988 Jessica in the snow, 1989 Burial, 1988 (20x24) Amanda & Tanya, 1987 Early morning fog, 1990 Ricky & Daniel, 1990 Nissen bread, 1991 The Carter men, 1988 Winter clam digging, 1992 Winter harbor, 1963 5(20x24) Beth & Christopher, 1987 Harvey family skiff, 1990 Minnie, 1987 Nate & the bluefish, 1988 Donny's first deer, 1987 Benny's seafood, 1991 Randy & John, 1988 Michael, 1991 Debbie's Wreath, 1987 Money Tree Party, 1992 Amanda, 1987 Saturday afternoon, 1991 Wayne's family, 1988 Baitshed, 1987 Raking Blueberries, 1993 Iraq, 1999 7(16x20) Outside Baghdad General Hospital, 1999 Girl selling seeds, Safaafir market, Baghdad, 1999 Five children, Basrah, 1999 Mother and daughter, Amarah Children's Hospital, Amarah, 1999 Boy and beggar, Jumhuriyah neighborhood, Basrah, 1999 Girls' classroom. Center for the Internally Displaced, Basrah, 1999 4(13.5x19.5) Before School, Dijlah Elementary School, Baghdad, 1999 (16x17.5) Little girl in hospital bed, 1999 (16x20) Carrying water, 1999 Recess, 1999 Nurse, Basrah, 1999 Waiting for medicines, Baghdad General Hospital, 1999 Mothers & Children, Baghdad General Hospital, 1999 Porters, Safaafeer Market, 1999 Cigarette vendors, Baghdad, 1999 Families, Basrah Pediatric Hospital, Iraq, 1999 Recess, Dijlah upper school, Baghdad, 1999 Boy near The Garden of Eden, Qurhah, Iraq, 1999 On the Newcastle/Damariscotta Bridge, 2003 8(11x14) On the bridge, 2003 Promote dialogue, 2003 They gave there [sic] tomorrows, 2003 Manuscripts and Printed Material Series, 1987-2008 (1 box)

Proofs, notes, and publicity related to several of Pierce's published works, and her career as a documentary photographer.

9Iraq's Children: Our Children, photos, and text, 2002 From Boston to Baghdad, photos and text, 2001 Frank Hunter classroom materials, 2008

Student papers from Frank Hunter's Introduction to Photography class, Documentary Studies 115.01, responding to the exhibit Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photographs, 1963-2003. Olive Pierce reviewed and wrote comments on the papers.

Iraqi Children, postcards of Pierce's images, 1999 Vassar publication and Maine Times magazine, 2003-2004 On Teaching Photography, 1987 20Poster for On the Bridge exhibit, 2003 Electronic Material Series, 2008 (2 items)

DVD created by Olive Pierce with images and audio titled "Fern's Last Days." Also, digital sound file of talk given by Pierce at Duke University, October 24, 2008 at the opening reception for the exhibit, "Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photography." File has been mounted to library server. For access to both items, please contact the Rubenstein Library reference staff.

[Original DVD is closed to research; a use copy must be made before contents can be accessed. Please contact Research Services staff before coming to use this collection.]

9Fern's Last Days, 2008(DVD, 24 minutes) Online Exhibit: Olive Pierce: Forty Years of Photographs (1963-2003), featuring digital sound file of artist's talk, 2008 Oct. 24(MP3, 39 minutes)