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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 24
JUNE 21, 1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
The Barchas CoUection
Rare Old Books Given to Medical Library
lV/TA/eSS£S TO THE SIGNING-\t was smiles all around when Mrs. Cecile M. Barchas
sat down at President Terry Sanford's desk and co-signed the papers transferring the
multi-million-dollar Barchas Collection to Duke. Standing left to right are: Rudy
Barchas, a Twin Falls, Idaho, lawyer and a son of the donors; Chancellor John 0.
Blackburn; G. S. T. Cavanagh, director of the Medical Center Library; Samuel I.
Barchas; Dr. William G. Anlyan, vice president for health affairs; and President
Sanford. (Photo by Thad Sparks)
Duke has received as a gift what is
considered to be one of the finest private
collections in existence of rare books in
the history of science and medicine.
The collection contains hundreds of
first editions, and a number of the books
date from just after the dawn of printing
in the 15th Century.
The donors are Samuel I. and Cecile
M. Barchas of Sonoita, Ariz. They
declined to disclose the exact appraised
value of the collection, but it is in the
millions of dollars.
Barchas was a prominent trial lawyer
in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills before
his retirement to Arizona in 1956.
"We investigated all of the leading
institutions in the country that we
thought had the scholarly purposes and
capabilities of receiving a unique
collection of this kind," Barchas said.
"After six years, we determined that,
because of . its excellence, Duke was the
ideal place for these books."
President Terry Sanford said that
"Duke University is privileged to receive
the unique Barchas Collection and is
Despite Handicap^ James Coppedge
Finishes His Senior Year on Schedule
James Coppedge is the kind of young
man who makes p»ople feel guilty when
they offer excuses for letting
circumstances get in the way of things
they want to do.
His story goes like this:
Late one Saturday evening last June,
the 18-year-old Nashville, N.C., native
and a friend were driving their dates
home after an evening of dancing. That
friend who was behind the wheel became
drowsy and fell asleep.
The car drifted off the road, struck a
guard rail, bashed into a tree and turned
over several times, completely
demolished.
The driver and the two girls escaped
with minor injuries. James wasn't so
lucky, however. His neck was broken..
Since that fateful night he's learned
he'll never walk again. His arms have only
limited functioning capacity, and he has
no sensation below them whatsoever.
According to his physician. Dr. Jesse
Roberts, it's almost impossible to have a
more serious injury and survive.
In spite of his handicap, James
completed his senior year of high school
this month without losing any time, and
he has the diploma from the Northern
Nash Senior High School in Nash County
to prove it.
In the past 12 months as an inpatient
on the hospital's Inpatient Rehabilitation
Unit, the young man has had some
"heavy" studying to do. In addition to
the normal subjects a high school senior is
asked to master, James has had to apply
himself to learning such tasks as how to
feed himself again, how to make his
fingers hold a pencil, how to brush his
teeth and comb his hair, how to dress
himself and how to use the lavatory
unassisted.
Teachers Lottie Kee and Linda Lane
provided the academic training, but
James was the only one who could
re-educate his own muscles.
It wasn't easy.
"At first I didn't want to do what the
doctors and the therapists told me to
do," he said. "1 thought it would be too
hard.
"Then one day I finally realized I had
to do it sometime. I had a friend who was
up here with me for a while who had
been shot and was learning to do all the
(Continued on page 3)
PROFILE IN
CO UR AGE—James
Coppedge, paralyzed
from the neck
downward in an
auto accident a year
ago, read a
statement of thanks
and appreciation to
the staff of Duke
Hospital's Inpatient
Rehabilitation Unit
after he received his
high school diploma
on schedule last
Sunday. He called
re h a bi litation,
"learning how to do
for yourself all over
again even though
at first you may
think that you won't
be able to do
anything." (Photo
by David Williamson)
honored that Mr. and Mrs. Barchas have
chosen Duke as the depository for these
rare and valuable volumes they have so
lovingly collected over the years.
'The Barchas Collection," Sanford
said, "while being housed at Duke, will be
a national resource for research and
publication in this highly significant area
of scholarship and history."
The value of the gift will be counted as
part of Duke's Epoch Campaign which
now totals more than $42 million.
Under the terms of an agreement
signed by the Barchases and Sanford,
Duke will supplement the Barchas
Collection by acquisitions totaling
$100,000 annually for at least 10 years.
The books, which total approximately
3,250 volumes, will be known as the
Samuel I. and Cecile M. Barchas
Collection. They will be housed in the
Barchas Center for the History of
Science, located in the medical library
section of the Seeley G. Mudd Building,
the library and communications center
which will be completed in the fall of
1975.
The Barchas Collection will be located
adjacent to the Josiah C. Trent
Collection, one of the country's major
collections of books on the history of
medicine.
"The Trent Collection enjoys an
enviable reputation for the quality of its
remarkable holdings," Barchas said. "We
hope that by bringing our collection to
Duke, the Barchas Collection will
complement and supplement the Trent
Collection and achieve for the history of
all the physical and biological sciences a
similar degree of scholarly excellence."
Duke also has agreed to begin a
program of publishing scholarly books
and monographs in the history of science
and medicine growing out of research in
the Barchas Center, and to translate into
English and publish classics in the field
(Continued on page 2)
Inaccuracy Noted
In Times Story
A story in the June 14 New York
Times about the establishment here of
the Whitehead Institute for Medical
Research contained some inaccuracies
that have been clarified in a telegram to
the newspaper.
The text of the telegram, sent by
Edwin C. Whitehead, chairman of the
board of the Technicon Corporation, and
Dr. William G. Anlyan, vice president for
health affairs, was as follows:
"Your story of June 14th regarding
the establishment of The Whitehead
institute for Medical Research on the
campus of Duke University contained
two major inaccuracies that we would
like to correct.
"1. It is the Whitehead Institute for
Medical Research and its Board of
Directors that will become the ultimate
major stockholder of the Technicon
Corporation and nor Duke University.
"2. The establishment of the
(Continued on page 3)