Library Overview

The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture forms one of the constituent parts of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library (RBMSCL) of Duke University. Housed in the university's original 1928 library building, RBMSCL includes, in addition to the Bingham Center, the Duke University Archives; the John Hope Franklin Collection of African and African American Documentation; the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History; the Duke Documentary Photography Archive; and the Duke Archive for Human Rights.

RBMSCL's holdings cover a broad range of subjects and a variety of formats. The library's print collections contain over 300,000 printed books, pamphlets, broadsides, maps, and newspapers, while the library's manuscript and archival collections contain more than 20 million items, including diaries, letters, account books, photographs, audio and video tapes, films, digital media, and other formats.

Subjects and materials with significant representation include African-American history, advertising history, comic books and popular culture, documentary photography, English and American literature, the history of economic thought, German baroque literature, medieval and renaissance manuscripts, the history of Methodism, popular American music, American newspapers, papyri, Southern United States history and culture, and women's history.

The library hosts a regular series of public programs and exhibits, offers grants and awards for visiting researchers and to foster undergraduate research, and develops ongoing digital projects that highlight the strengths of the collections.

Duke University Libraries
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
103 Perkins Library, Box 90185, Duke University
Durham, North Carolina 27708-0185 USA
http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/
special-collections@duke.edu
(919) 660-5822 (t)
(919) 660-5934 (f)