Robert L. Blake Papers, 1943-2005

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Summary

Creator:
Blake, Robert L.
Abstract:
Contains the professional papers of Robert (Bob) L. Blake, Coordinator of the Department of Medical Illustration in the Duke University School of Medicine. Types of materials include pen and ink drawings, pencil sketches, carbon dust drawings, scratchboard engravings, pen trials, watercolors, acrylic paintings, collage, illustrations of various sizes, hand lettering and calligraphy, prints, plates, programs, clippings, pamphlets, brochures, cards, photographic materials, scrapbooks, and commercially published works. Major subjects include Duke University School of Medicine, Civilian Public Service Unit #61, conscientious objectors during World War II, and medical and architectural illustration. Materials range in date from 1943 to 2005.
Extent:
5.3 Linear Feet (3 manuscript boxes, 1 half-manuscript box, 4 flat boxes, 1 map folder)
Language:
English
Collection ID:
MC.0048

Background

Scope and content:

Organized into nine series: Anatomical and Medical Illustrations; Biographical Materials; Caricatures and Comics; Civilian Public Service Unit #61; Clippings and Commercially Published Works; Departmental Materials; Designs and Lettering; Duke and Durham Architectural Illustrations; and Hospital Scenes Illustrations.

Contains pen and ink drawings, pencil sketches, carbon dust drawings, scratchboard engravings, pen trials, watercolors, acrylic paintings, collage, illustrations of various sizes, hand lettering and calligraphy, prints, plates, programs, clippings, pamphlets, brochures, cards, photographic materials, scrapbooks, and commercially published works created and used by Blake. Works of art depict medical anatomy as well as Duke University Medical Center people and facilities. Major subjects include Duke University School of Medicine, Civilian Public Service Unit #61, conscientious objectors during World War II, and medical and architectural illustration. Materials are in English and range in date from 1943 to 2005; some are undated.

Materials in this collection are organized thematically, representing Blake's oeuvre and professional activities. Where possible, individual works of art are described at the item level indicating subject depicted, purpose behind the work, medium, and dimension. Medical illustrations are arranged by body part depicted and include transcriptions of handwritten annotations, if present. Architectural drawings, another major focus of Blake's work, are arranged by title when given; otherwise, they are grouped by location depicted.

Users of this collection can trace Blake's growth as an artist while he learned illustration skills on the job. Quick sketches made in the operating room during surgery cast a sense of immediacy, placing us at Blake's elbow. Reference photographs used as architectural and anatomical models--several featuring Blake himself--have faint indentations where a pressed pencil traced outlines of buildings and gestures. Photographs of buildings taped together convey his consideration of frame, and pen and brush trials show methodical testing of line width and color.

Throughout his career, Blake's architectural drawings were frequently repurposed for Duke pamphlets, cards, brochures, departmental newsletters, and textbooks. Thus, this collection contains abundant evidence of reprographic processes, including prints, halftones, photographic reproductions, and negatives, used for marketing Duke publications during the twentieth century.

Other materials of note in this collection highlight Blake's unofficial position as documentarian, photographing his friends, colleagues, and special events. Early on, as a member of the Civilian Public Service (CPS) Unit #61, Blake photographed a series of slides documenting everyday CPS work activities and was an artist for "Service," a semi-quarterly newsletter for CPSers. Decades later, into the late 1980s, he helped plan and photograph reunions. Blake fulfilled a similar role during his tenure as a medical artist at Duke; one scrapbook, titled "Medical Illustration, 1943-1964, Audiovisual Education, 1965-1983," illuminates the social activities of the department and includes carefully written captions naming nearly all individuals photographed. Scrapbooks in this collection have been digitized and include an inventory with transcriptions of all captions. Digital access copy available; please consult with the Medical Center Archivist.

Biographical / historical:

Robert (Bob) L. Blake was born on December 24, 1916, in New Jersey and raised in Pennsylvania. In high school, he was known as the quasi-official class artist. One of his early jobs, during the 1930s, was as a fashion photographer in the clothing firm of Kraft and Phillips of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also began drawing more seriously while working near the firm's fashion artists.

In 1942, Blake arrived at Duke University as part of an alternative service program for conscientious objectors, Civilian Public Service Unit #61. At Duke University, Blake was one of many attendants in the hospital operating rooms. It was while performing this work that Blake met Elon Clark, then director of the Department of Medical Art and Illustration and coordinator of the Medical Art Facility. After three months in the operating room, Blake moved to Elon Clark's studio and built his knowledge of medical anatomy on the job, learning how to use medical illustration as a communication tool to bring one part of the body, such as a single vein, into focus.

While training under Clark, Blake learned carbon dust drawing, a technique popularized by Max Broedel, renowned medical artist and educator at Johns Hopkins. (Elizabeth Broedel, his daughter, pioneered Duke's division of medical illustration in the early 1930s.) In a 1985 oral history with Clark, Blake describes the process of creating a carbon dust drawing and the difficulty of sourcing materials from artists' suppliers in Durham. Blake's carbon dust drawings were typically done on stipple boards, cardboard mats covered with a thin layer of chalk, making the boards finely textured but also brittle and easy to break. Blake describes sharpening a pencil on sandpaper to create an extremely fine dust, which he would then apply to the stipple boards with a brush. Details could be highlighted using either ink or a sharp metal implement to carefully scratch away the layer of chalk, revealing the white underneath.

Together with Elon Clark, Blake helped to create a laboratory for the pioneering work of making facial prostheses. The prostheses were used by accident victims, cancer patients, and people with congenital differences. Blake was interested in creating items that were not perfect, but which perfectly complemented the body of the person receiving the prosthesis. For example, Blake learned how to make a plaster cast of a real nose on a real person, rather than a plastic model, to preserve the texture of the pores and natural appearance of the skin.

In 1949, Blake joined the Duke faculty, eventually becoming Coordinator of Medical Art around 1971 and Acting Director of Audiovisual Education following Elon Clark's retirement. In addition to creating numerous pen-and-ink teaching drawings and pigments for dying scars, Blake illustrated covers for university publications, created posters and signs for campus events, and lettered citations and certificates for various departments and schools. He was responsible for lettering the scrolls presented to the members of the Half-Century Club (Duke alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago), a job that increased markedly each year. Blake also prepared a Poison Control Center exhibit which was shown around the world during the 1960s. In it, he used his three children as the models for pictures of children venturing into dangerous medicine cabinets or broom closets.

In his personal time, Blake continued to paint using watercolors. He showed his own paintings in various areas of the Medical Center, mostly scenes from rural and coastal North Carolina. His work was exhibited annually at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for more than 20 years. Robert Blake retired on January 1, 1984, having illustrated approximately 500 scientific articles for medical journals and having created drawings for over 50 textbooks. In 1988, he stated that he continued to turn out about 75 watercolor paintings per year.

In 2003, the Department of Medical Art, formerly known as the Department of Medical Illustration, became part of Educational Media Services within the Duke University School of Medicine. Audiovisual Education, continued by Sam Agnello, also became part of Educational Media Services.

Robert Blake was married to Hildur Blake (1919-2019), who worked as a nurse at Duke for over three decades. Together they had three children. Blake died on December 30, 2014.

References

Educational Media Services Records, Duke University Medical Center Archives.

Robert Blake Photographs (NCC.0007), North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library, NC. https://durhamcountylibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NCC_0007_Robert_Blake_Photographs.pdf.

Robert L. Blake and Elon H. Clark Group Oral History Interview, 1985, Duke University Medical Center Archives.

Acquisition information:
Accession A2007.008 (gift, January 2007), Accession A2009.028 (June 2009), Accession A2011.066 (gift, April 2011), Accession A2013.114 (gift by Kennard Blake, May 2013), Accession A2015.017 (gift by Kennard Blake, May 2015), Accession A2018.018 (gift by Kennard Blake, May 2018)
Processing information:

Processed by Archives staff: circa 2003-2007; updated: 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018. Reprocessed by Kayla Cavenaugh under supervision of Lucy Waldrop, September 2024 to January 2025.

Arrangement:
Organized into nine series: Anatomical and Medical Illustrations, 1948-1980, undated; Biographical Materials, 1943-1995, undated; Caricatures and Comics, 1955-1981, undated; Civilian Public Service Unit #61, 1943-2005, undated; Clippings and Commercially Published Works, 1951-1988, undated; Departmental Materials, 1945-1984, undated; Designs and Lettering, 1950-1970, undated; Duke and Durham Architectural Illustrations, 1944-1970, undated; and Hospital Scenes Illustrations, 1960-1965, undated. Prior to 2025, materials in this collection were initially arranged by subject and size and in subsequent years by accession.
Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Contents

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Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Robert L. Blake Papers, Duke University Medical Center Archives.

Citations made prior to January 2025 may reference a different system of arrangement.