Aleph Number:
Patrons must sign the Acknowledgement of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
Collection is open for research.
In off-site storage; 24 hours advance notice is required for use.
Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
[Identification of item], Erasmus Club Records, University Archives, Duke University.
The Erasmus Club Records were received by the University Archives as a transfer in 1964 and 1982.
Processed by Archives Staff, March 2007
Encoded by Kimberly Sims, January 2008
Accessions A64-170 and A82-4 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
The Erasmus Club was a campus literary society which organized in 1926 for the encouragement of study and research in language and literature, and later, the humanities in general. It was sometimes called the Erasmus Philology Club. Membership was open to faculty members and to those recommended by faculty. The club sponsored readings and other presentations and usually met annually with the Philological Club of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Beginning in 1943, the Erasmus Club awarded a prize for the best undergraduate essay in the humanities. Winners included Reynolds Price (1954) and Fred Chappell (1961). The Club was dissolved in 1986 due to a lack of interest.
The collection includes minutes, correspondence, memoranda, students' essays, financial records, announcements and other material. There are scattered lists of speakers and topics, of joint meetings with the faculty of UNC, and of papers submitted. The minutes for the period of 1926-1938 are in a bound volume which also includes correspondence, notes and newspaper clippings. Minutes for 1938-1960 are loose and arranged chronologically by academic year, although there are some gaps. Scattered minutes for later years can be found in the Secretary's files. Student essays submitted for the prize make up half the collection. Where known, the winning entry and runner-up are arranged chronologically. The remainder are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. The material ranges in date from 1926-1986.
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.