Duke Medical Center Archive Blog

Kayla Cavenaugh joined the Archives staff as an Intern in August 2023. During her internship at the Medical Center Archives, Kayla will process archival collections, write archival description, create finding aids, assist with acquisitions, as well as assist with the selection of images and writing metadata for MEDSpace and MediaBeacon. Her first project is to help complete the processing of the North Carolina Licensed Practical Nurses Association Records.

Kayla earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Art History and German with a minor in English, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After graduating, she served as a Fulbright English-Language Teaching Assistant in the rural community of Murau, Austria. In 2017, she learned to read Old German Script through a course… MORE

Category: News

Emma Eubank joined the Archives staff as an Intern in August 2023. During her internship at the Medical Center Archives, Emma will process archival collections, write archival descriptions, create finding aids, and assist with acquisitions. Her first project is to process the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology Records to make the collection available to researchers. 

Emma earned a BA in Anthropology and Medieval & Renaissance Studies from William & Mary in 2022. She is now in the dual degree program between the North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working towards a MA in Public History from NCSU and a MSLS with a… MORE

Category: News

Archives Month is an annual, month-long observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities, and people. Archives serve as the memory of our nation, and by celebrating, we recognize and give legitimacy to the enduring value of American records and America’s archives.

We encourage you to check out our Instagram account where we'll be highlighting treasures from the Medical Center Archives collection all month long.

This year the Society of North Carolina Archivists theme is for Archives Month is “Scandals, Nuisance, Calamity, and Anguish in the Archives… MORE

Category: News

Location: Medical Center Library & Archives, Level 1

Date: Tuesday, October 31, 11am – 2pm

Please join us for the Duke University Medical Center Archives’ annual Halloween event! This casual open house event will feature a selection of odd, intriguing, and rarely seen materials from our collections. 

All are invited to drop in to view detailed medical illustrations, touch old medical instruments, explore forgotten stories from the history of Duke Health, and much more. 

Come by for a fun break to learn some history and enjoy free Halloween candy!

Category: News

In honor of Dr. Lefkowitz’s 50 years at Duke, we would like to spotlight his collection of personal papers that are held at the Medical Center Archives.

The Medical Center Archives began collecting Dr. Lefkowitz’s materials in 2004 with the initial transfer of two boxes of records. The collection has since grown to 410.75 linear feet of materials and is one of our largest. It documents Dr. Lefkowitz’s career and contains his professional papers, including travel and conference materials, speeches, memoranda, committee materials, awards and honors, former employee files, old equipment files, grant materials, alumni files, material… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

In honor of Dr. Lefkowitz’s 50 years at Duke, we would like to spotlight his collection of personal papers that are held at the Medical Center Archives.

The Medical Center Archives began collecting Dr. Lefkowitz’s materials in 2004 with the initial transfer of two boxes of records. The collection has since grown to 410.75 linear feet of materials and is one of our largest. It documents Dr. Lefkowitz’s career and contains his professional papers, including travel and conference materials, speeches, memoranda, committee materials, awards and honors, former employee files, old equipment files, grant materials, alumni files, material… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

“The senseless murder of George Floyd gave birth to a movement — around the globe and right here at Duke Health.”

In the summer of 2020, Duke University and the School of Medicine took steps to acknowledge and address systematic racism, both within their institutions and across the nation. Emphasis was given to the effects racism has on Black communities and individuals. On June 16, 2020, Duke University held "Living While Black," an all-day symposium bringing together distinguished Black faculty, students, and staff. Speakers discussed the history of race and racism within Duke and the United States, their personal perspectives as Black individuals at… MORE

Category: News

In 1963, the initial chamber for Hypo-Hyperbaric research was installed at Duke. Construction of the F.G. Hall Laboratory, named after Frank Gregory Hall and now part of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, was completed in 1968. Six large chambers were installed, which allowed the center to simulate depths of 1000 feet of seawater (fsw) and up to 100,000 feet of altitude. Dr. Herbert Saltzman was named Director of the Laboratory, and, under his direction, program investigators emphasized studies of cardiopulmonary, hematologic, and neurologic consequences of exposure to substantially high or low atmospheric pressure.

Category: Collection Spotlight

Highland Hospital
Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 1
Now on Display through October 2023

Highland Hospital, a small, inpatient mental hospital located in Asheville, NC was owned and operated by Duke University from 1944 to 1980. This exhibit showcases materials from the Highland Hospital Records and provides an interesting case study of 20th century mental health care.

Category: News

This summer we rolled out some new updates to the Duke Medical Center Archives website. You might notice some slight changes to the front page, but the biggest update is a brand new portal for our finding aids.

Findings aids, also called collection guides, are detailed online descriptions of our materials. We publish a guide for every open collection in the Duke University Medical Center Archives. The guides outline the contents of the collection, explain how a specific collection is organized, and give a history of the person or organization that produced the collection.

Previously our website simply had a list of the published finding aids on one page. This new portal allows for more advanced searching with several new… MORE

Category: News

Care and Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health
Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 3
On Display: July 3 - August 12, 2023

The Medical Center Library & Archives is hosting "Care and Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health," a six-banner traveling exhibition. Developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, it displays the history of societal attitudes towards people with mental health conditions in the United States.

In conjunction with the NLM display, a companion exhibit will be produced featuring Highland Hospital, a small, for profit, inpatient mental hospital located in Asheville, NC that was owned and operated by Duke University… MORE

Category: News

The Duke University Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Root Causes Records are open to researchers. The collection contains the groups’ administrative files, which date from 2017 to 2022. Files document the group's meetings, email communications, budget information, grant materials, public relations, education and outreach, event planning, articles of incorporation, and organizational structure.

Root Causes, a Duke led student group first organized in 2016, was created by health professionals with the mission to support sustainable and humane production of food in combination with access to healthy food. Through their efforts to serve, advocate, and educate they hope to involve the… 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 a recent interview with Dr. Nelson Jen An Chao. He was interviewed by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project on March 25, 2021.  

Dr. Chao is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. His leadership at Duke includes roles as Chief of the Division of Cell Therapy in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Global Cancer Program at the Duke Global Health Institute.

He received his medical degree from Yale University and completed his Residency in Medicine as well as a Fellowship in Oncology, Medicine at Stanford University. He first came to Duke… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

In March 2020, COVID-19 changed and disrupted all of our lives, at Duke and around the world. Essential workers remained on site at their jobs, and those who could work remotely did; classes for students from pre-K to professional schools went online; and all planned events were canceled or postponed. All the while we lived with the fear of how this virus would affect ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us. Nearly 3 years later, we are still collectively living through this historic time and processing the changes that ensued.

As part of our mission to preserve, maintain, document, and make available for research the permanent records of the functions of the Duke University Medical Center and Duke University Health System, the Duke University Medical Center… MORE

Category: News

Beebalm and Butterfly-Weed: Native Plants from the Medical Garden 
Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 1
On Display March 2023 – June 2023

We are excited to announce the installation of a new exhibit on Level 1 of the Medical Center Library & Archives. This exhibit will focus on the Library's Medical Garden, highlighting two of its native plants, Beebalm and Butterfly-Weed.

Category: News