Manuscript Migration: The Multiple Lives of the Rubenstein Library's Collections
Duke Library and Its Friends
The stories of these manuscripts reveal how personal relationships and institutional ambition drew these objects to Duke. Many of the manuscripts in Duke’s collection were acquired by members of the Friends of Duke Libraries, a group founded in 1935 to bolster Duke’s growing reputation as a national university. The Friends’ elaborate events and distinguished lectures not only drew money into Duke’s libraries, but also manuscripts.
The Friends often accomplished their work behind the scenes. One influential chairman of the Friends program committee and Divinity librarian, George B. Ehlhardt, nurtured relationships that brought significant donations to the library in the later 1940s and 1950s. During this time many important donations were made to the library including a 1.5-million-dollar gift to the library from Mary Lillian Duke Biddle, for whom the room is named.
Ehlhardt himself gave many rare book and objects to Duke Libraries, including ancient manuscripts such as Greek MS 072, as well as a substantial Robert Frost collection. Greek MS 072 is a single leaf containing a section of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Bread, a Christian liturgical service held during the season of Lent. This leaf includes part of a prayer for catechumens preparing for baptism. The images reflect Eucharistic themes and may also depict members of the Trinity.
Ehlhardt examined Greek MS 072 alongside his teacher and friend Kenneth Willis Clark and gave it to Duke in 1979 in memory of Clark after his death.
Kenneth Willis Clark, faculty member in the Divinity School at Duke University until his death in 1979, was a lifetime member of the Friends of the Library, and contributed many essays about Greek Manuscripts for Library Notes.
Pictured here in the entrance to Duke University Libraries is Dr. Josiah Trent, Mary Duke Biddle Trent (Semans), and President Flowers (with others), gathered April 12, 1943, to celebrate the Dedication of the Rare Book Room. Dr. Trent served as a member of the Friends of Duke University Library Executive Committee from 1942 until his death in 1948 and Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (the daughter of Mary Biddle-see above) was the longest serving chair of the Libraries Executive Committee (1952-1964.) Members of the Friends often had life long commitments to the library that extended even to the next generation, such as Harry L. Dalton. Dalton served on the Executive Committee with Dr. Trent-learn more in the exhibit case Cherished Chapters.
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Research contributed by Nathan Tilley, Doctoral student in the Religion Department, Duke University.
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