Duke Medical Center Archives Blog Category: DUMC History

Dr. Charles Hammond

Remembering Dr. Charles Hammond
Posted On: February 8, 2021 by Rebecca Williams

The Duke Community was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Charles Hammond last week.

Dr. Hammond joined the faculty of Duke University School of Medicine faculty in 1968 and served as chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1970 to 1980. In 1980 he became chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where he served until his retirement in 2002. As the E. C. Hamblen Professor of Reproductive Biology and Family Planning, his emphases were primarily in reproductive endocrinology and infertility as well as placental malignancy,… MORE

Category: DUMC History

Brenda Armstrong

Honoring Dr. Brenda Armstrong
Posted On: February 13, 2019 by Rebecca Williams

In honor of Black History Month, we are featuring Dr. Brenda Armstrong. From student activist to Senior Associate Dean for Student Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention, Dr. Armstrong left behind a legacy of almost half a century of service to Duke and the wider medical community. 

Dr. Armstrong was born in Rocky Mount, NC on January 19, 1949. In high school she chose not to attend an exclusive New England private school and instead attended Rocky Mount’s segregated Booker T. Washington Senior High School. Despite the school board’s belief that none of their students would attend college, teachers at Booker T. Washington Senior High taught her and more than forty other students college readiness courses like calculus and trigonometry and ensured that they were prepared to take… MORE

Category: DUMC History

archival collections

Online Resources Round-Up
Posted On: August 13, 2018 by Rebecca Williams

While we always welcome visitors to our physical location, the Archives has a variety of online resources to help users learn about the collections and the Medical Center’s history. The resources listed below can all be found or linked to elsewhere on our website, but they are grouped here together for your convenience. 

MEDSpace – If you’re looking for historic images, our digital repository, MEDSpace, is an excellent place to start. MEDSpace contains nearly 700 photographs documenting the history of Duke Medicine. You can also find early publications, medical illustrations and artwork, and medical artifacts.

Digitized Intercom – The Intercom, Duke Medicine… MORE

Category: DUMC History, News

archival collections

Online Resources Round-Up
Posted On: August 13, 2018 by Rebecca Williams

While we always welcome visitors to our physical location, the Archives has a variety of online resources to help users learn about the collections and the Medical Center’s history. The resources listed below can all be found or linked to elsewhere on our website, but they are grouped here together for your convenience. 

MEDSpace – If you’re looking for historic images, our digital repository, MEDSpace, is an excellent place to start. MEDSpace contains nearly 700 photographs documenting the history of Duke Medicine. You can also find early publications, medical illustrations and artwork, and medical artifacts.

Digitized Intercom – The Intercom, Duke Medicine… MORE

Category: DUMC History, News

VA Hospital

On This Day: VA Hospital Opens
Posted On: April 6, 2018 by Rebecca Williams

On April 6, 1953, the Veterans Administration Hospital opened here in Durham, NC. The Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center is a part of the federal Veterans Health Administration (VHA) which seeks to provide medical care and services to America’s military Veterans. The origins of the VHA date back to the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln “authorized the first-ever national soldiers’ and sailors’ asylum to provide medical and convalescent care for discharged members of the Union Army and Navy volunteer forces.”{1}  Today the VHA manages one of the largest health care systems in the world, partners with medical schools across the country to provide training for health professionals, and oversees medical research programs. 

The Durham hospital has grown since it first… MORE

Category: DUMC History

Robert Randolph Jones Jr.

Murder Mystery
Posted On: December 21, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

If you were to stack every box contained in the Duke Medical Center Archives, it would equal the height of approximately 54 Duke Chapels! While we work hard to arrange and describe the over 11,000 linear feet of materials in our collection, it is both impossible and inadvisable for us to read or catalog every individual piece of paper. As foolish as it is to think that an archivist could possibly know all of the stories held within these collections, it is often tempting to believe that the institutional knowledge accumulated through time in the archives creates an omniscient historian or at least something pretty close. Recently I was reminded that I certainly do not know everything and more importantly that archival research can be a thrilling treasure hunt.  

In preparation… MORE

Category: DUMC History

Vernice Wright, LPN on Strudwick, is shown trying to lure the ward's mysterious visitor out of hiding.

Tales from the Archive: Strudwick Mystery Is Solved
Posted On: May 30, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

Archives contain many stories. Departmental records, photographs, scrapbooks, and old brochures all trace the historical record in different and occasionally surprising ways. Former faculty papers can show the process of scientific discovery. Oral histories can reveal past institutional knowledge. Old memos provide a glimpse into working conditions. Sometimes the stories are painful. The original sketches of the hospital floor plans show segregated wings. Sometimes the stories are incomplete. We certainly have not saved every document from the history of Duke Health. Sometimes the stories are just simple and fun. That’s the type of story that we’d like to share on the blog today.

When browsing… MORE

Category: DUMC History

Women working in laboratory

Medical Laboratory Professionals Week
Posted On: April 27, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is a yearly celebration of the valuable work done every day by clinical laboratory personnel around the country. During the last full week of April every year, the medical laboratory professional community aims to educate and promote awareness about the profession. To commemorate this week and the work done by laboratory professionals here at Duke the Archives would like to share some documents from the earliest days in the Pathology Department. 

The Department of Pathology has been at Duke since the very beginning of Duke Hospital and the School of Medicine with Dr. Wiley D. Forbus serving as the founding chair of the department. His papers are a… MORE

Category: DUMC History

School of Nursing Table Display

School of Nursing Alumni Weekend
Posted On: April 12, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

This past weekend Duke welcomed back alumni from a variety of academic disciplines and classes and the Archives were honored to participate in the celebrations on Friday at the School of Nursing. We set up a table display (shown below) with a historical timeline, photographs, old brochures and handbooks, and even a nursing uniform and cap. 

 

 

We heard many fun stories about campus life, nursing classes, and changes in nursing over the years.  Many alumni recognized the nursing uniform on display from their student days, but several commented that ours did not have nearly enough starch! 

MORE

Category: News, DUMC History

School of Nursing Table Display

School of Nursing Alumni Weekend
Posted On: April 12, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

This past weekend Duke welcomed back alumni from a variety of academic disciplines and classes and the Archives were honored to participate in the celebrations on Friday at the School of Nursing. We set up a table display (shown below) with a historical timeline, photographs, old brochures and handbooks, and even a nursing uniform and cap. 

 

 

We heard many fun stories about campus life, nursing classes, and changes in nursing over the years.  Many alumni recognized the nursing uniform on display from their student days, but several commented that ours did not have nearly enough starch! 

MORE

Category: News, DUMC History

Donna Allen Harris

Oral Histories from the Archives: Donna Allen Harris
Posted On: February 28, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

In honor of Black History Month, our blog this week features Donna Allen Harris, the first African American woman to graduate from Duke’s School of Nursing in 1971.

On December 4, 2008, Jessica Roseberry conducted an oral history interview with Harris at the Medical Center Archive. During the interview, Harris recalls the isolation she felt while helping integrate the high school in Elizabeth City. Coming to Duke, she worried about the continuation of that isolation but found a close group of friends among the nursing students. Harris contends, “It was that this social aspect of it was so much different from high school and that was my solace.”

Donna Allen Harris was born in Elizabeth… MORE

Category: DUMC History

Dr. W. Delano Meriwether, the first black student admitted to the Duke School of Medicine, came to Duke in 1963. Dr. Charles Johnson, the first black faculty member in a tenure track position, came to Duke in 1970. While black students and faculty were unfortunately not welcomed to Duke until more recently in history, African Americans have been a part of the Duke Medical Center since the very beginning. 

In 1930, when the hospital and the School of Medicine were about to open, Donald Love was busy with the many necessary preparations for the new hospital wards. Love is considered the first African American hire. He was hired in 1930 and worked at Duke until his retirement in 1974. In a… MORE

Category: DUMC History

LPN nurses

Black History Month at Duke Medicine
Posted On: February 6, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

February is Black History Month and we will be celebrating it all month long here at the Duke Medical Center Archives. On our blog this month, we will highlight some important people and events in Black history at Duke Medicine. 

We encourage you to check out the Archives’ research guide Black History at Duke Health. The guide aims to introduce researchers to materials documenting the history of African American faculty, students, and staff at Duke Medicine. Included are oral histories, archival collections, photographs, audiovisual materials, and publications, selected key dates and key figures, and links to recommended digital resources.  

Please stay tuned for… MORE

Category: News, DUMC History

LPN nurses

Black History Month at Duke Medicine
Posted On: February 6, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

February is Black History Month and we will be celebrating it all month long here at the Duke Medical Center Archives. On our blog this month, we will highlight some important people and events in Black history at Duke Medicine. 

We encourage you to check out the Archives’ research guide Black History at Duke Health. The guide aims to introduce researchers to materials documenting the history of African American faculty, students, and staff at Duke Medicine. Included are oral histories, archival collections, photographs, audiovisual materials, and publications, selected key dates and key figures, and links to recommended digital resources.  

Please stay tuned for… MORE

Category: News, DUMC History

Dr. James M. Young, SOM '55

White House Physician
Posted On: January 10, 2017 by Rebecca Williams

Today President Obama will deliver his farewell speech as he prepares to leave office and President-elect Trump prepares for his inauguration on January 20th. In this time of transition, there have been many news stories about the cabinet members, policy advisors, and the many 4,000+ jobs that the new administration must fill. There are a lot of people that work in the White House with varying backgrounds and responsibilities—including doctors! The White House Medical Unit is an important, but perhaps lesser known department that provides important healthcare services for the president, his employees, and everyone who visits the White House each day.

Dr. James M. Young, a 1955 graduate of the Duke School of Medicine, served as one of the physicians in this unit from 1963-1966… MORE

Category: DUMC History