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Exploring the Chanticleer

Hello!

Archiving Your Student Group's Records

One way the University Archives builds its collections on Duke's Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander history is by working with student groups to archive documentation about their activities!

If you're in a student group and would like to know more about the archiving process, or if you're just interested in how archiving works, take a look at the website for our student group collecting project, Your Organizations Live On at the University Archives (or YOLO@UA).

Or ask me!

Class Activity

  1. We'll divide into small groups. Within your pairs, designate one person as the notetaker, one person as the timekeeper, and one person as the reporter.
  2. Your group number will be the same as your breakout room number. In the "Class Materials" box below, identify the box containing the materials your group will be working with in class.
  3. As a group, spend 10 minutes browsing through and sharing observations about your yearbook and/or the Chronicle issues that you find.
  4. For the final 10 minutes, we'll then come back together and talk as a class about your discoveries. Each group will have a chance to share one or more of the following:
  • something they found in the Chronicle or Chanticleer
  • a question about what they found in the Chronicle or Chanticleer
  • a tip for researching in the Chronicle or Chanticleer

Searching the Chronicle

There are two ways to search the Chronicle: by date and by a full-text keyword search.

1. Searching the Chronicle by date: start here!

              A screencap pointing out the location of the date range slider on the website for the digitized issues of the Chronicle.

You can limit your search to the issues from a single year, decade, etc., and browse through them in chronological order.

2. Searching the Chronicle by keyword(s): start here!

The simple search box (purple arrow) is great for searching single keywords, fairly unique last names, etc. Or click on the "Advanced Search" link (green arrow).

                     

The "Advanced Search" is your best option if you want to search for more complex keyword phrases, like full names or the names of student organizations, campus offices, academic programs, etc. Make sure to select "Exact phrase" from the dropdown box of search options at the right.

                    

Searching the Chanticleer

You can access digitized volumes of the Chanticleer from 1912 (the first one!) to 2015 at:

https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives/collections-guides/digitized/chanticleer

Annotated search box showing the process for searching within a volume of the Chanticleer.

The Chanticleer's search feature isn't always perfect! The yearbooks often include fancy fonts, which can be hard for the scanning software to recognize. Sometimes it's necessary to page through the Chanticleer and see what you can find; there's usually a table of contents that can at least point you to a section you might want to look through.

Class Materials

Group One

Chanticleer: 1925 (see page 107)

Chronicle search term: Asian Students Association

Group Two

Chanticleer: 1993 (see pages 17, 73, and 204)

Chronicle search term: Spectrum (you'll get a lot of results! Focus on results from the 1990s.)

Group Three

Chanticleer: 2016

Chronicle search term: Diya and Duke India Association (Duke India Association--or DIA--is Diya's original name!)

Group Four

Chanticleer: 1982 (see page 80)

Chronicle search term: Asian Pacific Studies Institute

Group Five

Chanticleer: 1961 (see page 89. Pages 149 and 184 are also, sadly, relevant: content warning for racist parties!)

Chronicle search term: East Coast Asian Student Union or ECASU (try a search on each!)

Group Six

Chanticleer: 1956 (see pages 29 and 259)

Chronicle search term: Asia Prime (for this, you'll want to search the Chronicle's website)

*content warning: These materials document racist theme parties held by Duke students. The Asia Prime party, held by Kappa Sigma in February 2013, prompted strong condemnation and protest on campus.

Group Six

(alternate)

Chanticleer: 2007

Chronicle search term: Lunar New Year or Diwali

 

Ready for Further Research?

In addition to the Chanticleer and the Chronicle, the University Archives has a number of archival sources related to the Duke Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander community's history.

As a place to start, you may want to take a look at this online exhibit, "Cherry Blossoms Among Magnolias?": A History of the Asian American Experience at Duke, created by Alan Ko, T '19 and based on his research in University Archives collections.

You can learn more about the AAPI collections and resources available at the University Archives through this research guide. Then, you can visit the Rubenstein Library reading room to work with the materials or make a reproduction order to access the materials remotely.