A Slice of the Sub-Collection Pie

Since we’ve hit and exceed 1,000 items with the project, I thought it might be interesting to break down sub-collections to see what percentages of materials are currently represented within the project. This is a transitory analysis. A few months from now the numbers will be different and the percentages might be altered. But it could be interesting reflect on past project progress. The sub-collections are Church and Religious Body Histories (Histories); Clergy Autobiographical and Biographical Materials: Journals, Testimonies, etc. (Clergy Biographical); Ephemerals: Cookbooks, Event Programs, and Directories (Ephemerals); Meetings, Proceedings, and Conference Reports (Meetings); Newsletters, Newspapers, and Conference Reports (Newsletters); Sermons of North Carolina (Sermons).

Here are the sub-collection numbers as of January 31st, 2013:

Here's a pie chart of the sub-collection stats:

Clearly at the moment we are dominated by the Meetings and in a not too distant second are the Histories. Lately, we've been eyeing serials more and more to bolster our numbers in Newsletters and balance things out. Although, it's important to note here that we can only assign an item to one sub-collection. So it is a possibility that the cheerful pie chart above cannot totally document the overlap in items that might toe the boundaries between two (or maybe even more) categories. When it comes to classification, things are rarely cut and dry.

But speaking of pie, check out this handful of exotic recipes below. They make up part of the 8% of the Ephemerals sub-collection.

Pinto Bean Pie from The grange range cookbook (1975). Since this recipe has chocolate, it just may work.  

Squash Pie from Country cookbook (1984) sounds a little riskier though...

Fluffy Frozen Peanut Pie from Keys to the Kitchen (1981).

And on the top of the next page, Frozen Rum Cream Pie.

This cookbook is worth exploring. On page 268 is a recipe for Cracker-Nut Pie and on page 278 is a recipe for Green Tomato Pie.

The Gertrude Bobbit Circle cook book (1948) has a curious variety of pie as well. This page alone has recipes for old-fashioned favorites like Transparent, Jeff Davis, Vinegar, Jelly and Pineapple pie. 

Between the boundaries of the NC Religion sub-collections are several neat materials - and pies too.

One Thousand...and Seven!

NC Religion has started the New Year off with a bang! As of yesterday, Monday, January 28th, there are 1,007 items loaded into the Internet Archive and ready for skimming. The best way to celebrate? Head on over to our collection and start browsing through the items. We've got a thousand and seven ways to get your research started. And we're not planning on slowing down our digitization progress any time soon. If you have something specific in mind that isn't on our site and fits the parameters of our collection, consider nominating a resource and we will do our best to look into your inquiry and see if it can or cannot be added to the NC Religion project for digitization. 

Stamps, Chicken Scratch & Other Oddities

Marginalia can be distracting when flipping through an item. Not to mention downright annoying when the previous owner or owners have written over or crossed out original text. In some cases those notes can indicate corrections. Still, when I flip to a page covered in chicken scratch, I can't help but cringe at first. After the initial gut reaction wears away, it's interesting to examine messy traces people have left behind. These secondary additions - notes, stamps, extra pages adhered, creased pages or folded booklets, etc.. - offer an elliptical insight into an item's life.

Some of the Duke crew noticed a collection of minutes that featured stamps. These stamps spotlight the typical batch of founding fathers (plus former President Harding) looking quite stately. I'm not exactly an avid stamp collector so I can't comment on the nitty-gritty details myself, but whether you're a stamp aficionado or just plain curious like me then check out these links so you can see the items too:

http://archive.org/stream/minutesofannuals1931bear#page/n23/mode/2up

http://archive.org/stream/minutesofannuals1916bear#page/n27/mode/2up

http://archive.org/stream/minutesofannuals1932bear#page/n25/mode/2up

http://archive.org/stream/minutesofannuals1928bear#page/n41/mode/2up

http://archive.org/stream/minutesofannuals1916ceda#page/n0/mode/2up

Stamps might not qualify as marginalia per se; I'm using the term loosely here. However like notes, their presence can provide another possible avenue for a deeper level of research. Out of the bunch, my favorite is the 1 1/2 cent stamp. I had no idea there used to be a half-cent in US currency!

Aside from marginalia and other decorative additions, I've come across a number of quirky books like this one here:


This book, Sketches of pioneer Baptist preachers in North Carolina, has some very inventive handiwork. From the looks of it, the creator cut the text from one source and adhered it on top of another preexisting book. And someone even added penciled-in page numbers that correspond to the new text! Based on some of the visible words, the original text appears to focus on science.

We'd love to hear about any neat and unusual details you discover in the NC Religion materials!