Duke Medical Center Library & Archives News Tag: archives

While Duke Gardens is one of the most recognized destinations on campus, it’s less well known that the attraction’s origins can be traced back to the medical campus.

The gardens were the idea of Dr. Frederic Hanes (pictured right), a physician who joined Duke in 1930 and became chair of the Department of Medicine in 1933. His daily walks on campus often led him past a debris-filled ravine, the result of a stalled project to create a lake. An avid horticulturist, Hanes had thought that this would be a perfect site for a garden featuring his favorite flower, the iris.

In 1934 Hanes persuaded Sarah Pearson Angier Duke, widow of Benjamin Duke, one of the university’s founders, to donate $20,000 for the…

Tags: archives

A good mystery novel, at its core, consists of interesting characters, a compelling plot, and puzzle-solving.  In these respects, the job of an archivist mirrors that of a detective, as the archivist must reconstruct the pasts of people or objects from fragments of information.  While such mysteries come in a variety of forms, the most common is determining the history, or provenance, of an item or collection.  

Recently a series of paintings in the Medical Center Library’s Artwork Collection posed such a challenge.  The paintings, done in 1944 by Frank Beresford, depict scenes of the U.S. Army 65th General Hospital Unit at work during World War II in the Eastern Theater of Operations (E.T.O.).  Absent from the Library’s inventory…

Tags: archives

In April, the School of Nursing welcomed back its graduates for their annual alumni weekend. Nursing education has a long and rich history here at Duke. From its beginnings in 1931 to the present day, Duke has attracted the best faculty and produced top graduates. Among these graduates is a unique group that exemplified service: the Cadet Nurses.

On April 30, 1941, prior to U.S. involvement in World War II, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) issued a call for schools of nursing to increase enrollment in order to train more nurses for military, health, and civilian service. Duke responded by admitting 84 students in October, 1941, a boost from 58 the previous year.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor later that year, the…

Tags: archives, nursing

The Duke University Medical Center Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to materials documenting the history of the DUMC community, from the 1930s to the present. This new guide provides a brief overview of the Archives, including information about the collections, how to find items, as well as suggestions of other helpful resources.

Categories: Resource Updates

Tags: guide, archives