Duke Medical Center Archive Blog

This is the third blog post in a three-part series exploring the life and career of Dr. O. Michael Colvin (1936-2013), renowned oncologist and educator, who served as Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1995 to 2002. This blog post highlights Colvin’s dedication to his patients at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The first blog post introduces Colvin and his work.

The second blog post discusses the impact of the National Cancer Act of 1971 on the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and on Colvin’s career.

“While some may believe that humans are frail creatures who give up… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic American Heritage Month or Latinx Heritage Month. The theme of this year’s celebrations at Duke is “Our Roots, Our Future.” As custodians of institutional history, we particularly want to highlight the contributions of the Latinx community throughout the history of Duke Health. We invite you to check out some of the resources below from our Archives collections to learn more this month!

Alejandro Barbagelata Oral History Interview 
Dr.… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

This is the second blog post in a three-part series exploring the life and career of Dr. O. Michael Colvin (1936-2013), renowned oncologist and educator, who served as Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1995 to 2002. This blog post discusses the impact of the National Cancer Act of 1971 on the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and on Colvin’s career.

The first blog post introduces Colvin and his work.

The third blog post highlights Colvin’s dedication to his patients at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

While Colvin served as a physician and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, cancer research across the nation became a national priority. Scientists in the… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

This is the first blog post in a three-part series about the life and career of Dr. O. Michael Colvin (1936-2013), a renowned oncologist and educator who served as Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1995 to 2002. His papers, donated to the Duke University Medical Center Archives, represent his roles as a Johns Hopkins and Duke administrator, researcher, and professor. The purpose of this first blog post is to introduce Colvin to our readers. 

The second blog post discusses the impact of the National Cancer Act of 1971 on the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and on Colvin’s career.

The… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

This is Part 4 of a multi part series on the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology (CHMEP) and the records held documenting the CHMEP at the Medical Center Archives. In this blog post, we spotlight the filming of Brainstorm, a science fiction film, at the CHMEP. This blog post concludes on our series on the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology and it’s archival collection.

Part 1 “Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology”, gives a brief history of the Duke CHMEP.

Part 2 “… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Agents of Change: Portraits of Activism in the History of Duke Health is an oral history project documenting the work of activists and "change agents" throughout Duke Health’s history. This year-long project team was organized as part of the Bass Connections program and one of four teams connected to the Duke Centennial. Our team was led by Dr. Jeff Baker, Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and History and Rebecca Williams, Archives Librarian. Jonathan Pyka, Sara Spicer, and Lucy Zheng were the graduate team members. Gemma Holland, Ava… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

Agents of Change: Portraits of Activism in the History of Duke Health is an oral history project documenting the work of activists and "change agents" throughout Duke Health’s history. This year-long project team was organized as part of the Bass Connections program and one of four teams connected to the Duke Centennial. Our team was led by Dr. Jeff Baker, Director of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and History and Rebecca Williams, Archives Librarian. Jonathan Pyka, Sara Spicer, and Lucy Zheng were the graduate team members. Gemma Holland, Ava… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

Duke University was established in 1924 when James B. Duke, through the Indenture of Trust, designated a gift that transformed Trinity College into a comprehensive research university. The entire university is celebrating Duke’s centennial throughout the entire year of 2024. As part of the centennial celebrations, Duke is spotlighting important individuals from the past 100 years. This is Part 2 of our series rounding up the Duke Health individuals featured. You can find Part 1 here.

J. Deryl Hart   
First Chair of the Department of Surgery and University President

His professional papers:… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

In honor of Duke’s Centennial Celebration, the Medical Center Archives is highlighting the records of the student groups it has in its holdings.

Duke Chapter of the American Medical Women's Association Records 
The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA), founded in 1915, is an organization which functions at the local, national, and international level to advocate for the advancement of women in medicine and for the improvement of women's health. Contains records pertaining to the operations of the Duke Chapter of the AMWA. Materials date from 2019 to 2020

Duke Chapter of the American Association for Men in Nursing Records … MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

The Duke University Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the North Carolina Licensed Practical Nurses Association (NCLPNA) Records are processed and open for research. The collection contains administrative records related to the day-to-day operations of the NCLPNA, such as meeting minutes, reports, correspondence, education and conference materials, publications, financial and membership records, photographs, publications, and ephemera. Major topics covered in this collection include licensed practical nursing, nursing education standards in North Carolina, African American women in medicine, North Carolina hospital systems, and healthcare advocacy.

The NCLPNA Records were donated in March 2022 by… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, the Medical Center Archives is highlighting our materials related to the Duke-National University of Singapore (Duke-NUS) Graduate Medical School.  This institution combines Duke’s research-focused medical curriculum with Singapore’s heavy investment in the biomedical sciences. The history of Duke-NUS reflects long-lasting collaboration between Asian, American, and Asian American  education professionals, stretching back to the 1980s.

The story of Duke-NUS begins with Duke University’s Asian and Pacific Studies Institute (APSI), an… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

Oral history interviews are some of our favorite items to share from the Medical Center Archives’ collections. This month we are featuring an interview with Dr. Priya Kishnani. Jessica Roseberry interviewed her on December 29, 2010 as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.  

Dr. Kishnani is the Chen Family Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at the Duke University School of Medicine. She is also Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics. She was born in Bombay, India. She received her MD in Bombay in 1990. She moved to the United States in 1991 after completing a Pediatric Residency in Mumbai, India. She went on to do a second Pediatric Residency at Duke University Medical Center, and in 1995, she completed a Fellowship in Clinical and Biochemical Genetics at… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Last summer we unveiled the exhibit, Highland Hospital: Portrait of 20th Century Mental Health Care, which documents the management, patient care, and educational programs of a residential psychiatric hospital located in Asheville, North Carolina. We are happy to announce that digital version is now available online.

Like the physical exhibit, Highland Hospital features photographs, administrative documents, promotional brochures, and newspaper clippings from the hospital’s history.  The exhibit explores the history of one regional hospital during the twentieth century including the daily life of its patients and the educational programs available. We hope that this portrait encourages you to… MORE

Category: News

This is Part 3 of a multi part series on the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology (CHMEP) and the records held documenting CHMEP at the Medical Center Archives. In this blog post, we spotlight the Atlantis Dive Series at the CHMEP.

Part 1 “Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology”, gives a brief history of the Duke CHMEP.

Part 2 “NASA, the Apollo Program, and the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology”, highlights the work the CHMEP did with… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Duke University was established in 1924 when James B. Duke, through the Indenture of Trust, designated a gift that transformed Trinity College into a comprehensive research university. The entire university is celebrating Duke’s centennial throughout the entire year of 2024. As part of the centennial celebrations, Duke is spotlighting important individuals from the past 100 years. Below are the Duke Health individuals featured in January-March 2024 along with the archival collections and resources from our collections where you can further research these individuals.

Bessie Baker     
First Dean of the Duke School of Nursing     
Her professional papers:… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight