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Early Blue Devils and Duke Ambassadors

New Archives photo site lets users stroll through Duke history

One of the earliest known images of the Blue Devil.  It comes from 1929 or 1930.

Glenn Miller is back at Duke. So are the Duke Ambassadors and Shoe Leather Day, the moment in 1949 when students launched a boycott of Durham buses running on campus because of a fare increase.

They're all part of the University Archives' new Duke Yearlook on Flickr, an easy-to-use website for photos that allows users to download images, post comments and submit photos of their own. Archives has already posted eight decades of images on the website.

"Over the last several years, we built up a collection of several thousand images," said University Archivist Tim Pyatt "Since these images had been requested for use by alumni, for publications, exhibits or other uses, we thought they would be a great starting point for a Duke Yearlook."

Pyatt said the site features a mix of student life and campus scenes, including images of Duke cheerleaders and the Blue Devils mascot that document different outfits and designs used over the years.

The site was developed by Archives staff with intern Mary Samouelian, a University of North Carolina library science graduate student, selecting the images. Pyatt said he expects Duke alumni to be the primary audience, but hopes the entire Duke community uses the site.

"One of the things that libraries and archives have learned in the last few years is that the public loves online content and that most researchers use Google or a similar search engine as a starting point rather than going directly to the library or archives site," he said. "Building an archives-based digital collection of these images would have been one option, but we believe that folks will find these images easier (to use) and be more willing to share content if they are placed in a social networking site such as Flickr."

The site also includes high-resolution images of many photos that can be used in papers and other publications. Pyatt said he hopes the site generates more interest and sharing of Duke memories.

"To date we have not received many comments, but we love to get them," Pyatt said. "As the site gets better known, we hope that alumni will identify themselves, add historical comments and offer to share their photos of their time at Duke."

Pyatt said Archives' next project is to create and/or enhance Wikipedia entries for Duke history and the Wikipedia biographies of Duke leaders.