Duke Medical Center Archives Blog 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. This is the third and final post of our series rounding up the Duke Health individuals featured. You can find Part 1 and Part 2 here.

Onyekwere E. Akwari  
… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Every October, the Society of North Carolina Archivists celebrates Archives Month! This year’s theme, What Puts You on the Map?, brings to mind Duke University Medical Center’s SEDO system, a wayfinding system rolled out in 1971 that left its mark on the hospital. 

On March 5, 1971, a special issue of Intercom, the hospital’s weekly bulletin, devoted three of its four pages to the implementation of the new System of Environmental Direction and Orientation, or SEDO. SEDO was a mid-century modern wayfinding system based on eight color zones and hanging lighted signs, “similar to the… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

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

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 and Part 3 here. 

J. Deryl Hart    
First Chair of the… 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

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

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. This post is the first of three parts. You can find Part 2 here and Part 3… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Mrs. Jessie Parker Smith, LPN, was a member of the first graduating classes of the Durham School of Practical Nursing during the late 1940s, as well as one of the cohorts of what is now known as the "Trailblazers", the first African American nurses hired by Duke. Smith remained a nurse at Duke for over 40 years. Initially a surgical nurse, she came to work with a variety of patients and specialties over her career. Tireless in her advocacy for the profession, Smith was an active member and Treasurer of the North Carolina Licensed Practical Nurses Association.

In April of 2022, Smith donated the North Carolina Licensed Practical Nurses Association (NCLPNA) Records to the Duke University Medical Center Archives. The NCLPNA was a predominately African American nursing group, and… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight