Duke Medical Center Archive Blog

If you’ve spent any time in our reading room on the 1st level of the Medical Center Library, you might have noticed the striking and colorful ribbon illustrations on the walls in between the bookshelves! But you might not know the importance of these images to the history of protein science and scientific visualization! They are the influential work of Duke scientists Jane and Dave Richardson.  

The ribbon diagrams or “Richardson diagrams” are now ubiquitous in depiction of proteins today, but they were first hand-drawn by Jane Richardson. She is widely recognized for the creation of this new visual language, first published in “Advances in Protein Chemistry” in 1981. The drawings stemmed from the realization that a general classification scheme could be… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Duke Hospital opened for patients on July 21, 1930. Pictured below is the staff of the Duke University School of Medicine, Nursing, and Dietetics and Duke Hospital two days before the opening.

F. Ross Porter was one of Duke Hospital's first administrative interns when the hospital opened in 1930. In 1932 he was appointed assistant superintendent of Duke Hospital, and in 1933 he was certified in hospital administration. He served at Duke as professor of hospital administration until 1960. On the 25th anniversary of the hospital, Porter shared his remembrances in the August 1955 issue of the Intercom. He writes: 

“Contrary to our expectations that the Hospital wards could be opened… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

Did you know that we have a Youtube channel?! You can find the Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives on Youtube @dukemedlib. Our channel features a variety of videos and guides on a wealth of topics available to view any time!

We have a popular series of videos that explain what a record is and then outline the process of transferring records to our collections.

This summer we published a new video: Archives Research: Getting Started! This short video gives an overview of archives in… MORE

Category: News

We have many spaces to sit and work in the library! We recently highlighted the Richmond House Room as a spot for library time travel and today we want to share some more information about another place in the library that might make you feel as you have traveled back in time! In the stairwell landing between levels 2 and 3 of the library is an interesting two-sided desk that has a long history at Duke.

Before it came to Duke, it was the property of the Reverend Henry Montagu Butler, D.D., headmaster of Harrow School (1859-1885), dean of Gloucester (1885-1886); master of Trinity College, Cambridge (1886-1918); and vice chancellor of Cambridge University (1889-1890). He used this desk at Harrow and later in… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

Last fall we unveiled the exhibit, Faces of Duke Health, which celebrates the diverse roles that contribute to the Duke Health community.

We are happy to announce that digital version is now available online.

This ongoing exhibit series highlights the often-overlooked departments and variety of roles and expertise essential to the daily operations of a health system. Environmental Services is the first department featured in this exhibit, but we plan to continue highlighting different departments and expanding the exhibit.

Category: News

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 Kim Quang Đâu, RN, MS, CNM. Josephine McRobbie interviewed her on October 19, 2022 as part of the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham Maternal Health Oral History Project.  

Kim Đâu went to Duke University for undergrad and received her BS in Biology in 2001. She met Duke Midwifery Service's Amy MacDonald when she invited her to speak about midwifery to her student-taught House Course. Đâu then shadowed MacDonald during her undergraduate education, learning firsthand about midwifery. In 2007 Dau was recruited back to Duke Midwifery Service as a Staff… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Emma Eubank joined the Medical Center Archives as an Intern in August 2023. Emma left in March of this year to begin her career in libraries and archives. Before she left, we asked her a few questions about herself, her time at the Archives, and her career goals. Her answers are below.

School, degree, and expected graduation date? 
UNC at Chapel Hill SILS program; MSLS with Archives and Records Management concentration with the expected graduation date of  August 2025

What did you do during your internship? 
The Duke University Medical Center Archives (DUMCA) offers graduate interns the opportunity to do a little of everything. During my two years with DUMCA, I processed diverse accessions to the collections; developed… MORE

Category: News

March is Women’s History Month! Learn more about Duke history by checking out our online exhibit: Women in Duke Health.

This exhibit highlights women in multiple fields at Duke, many of which were pioneers or firsts in their disciplines. It looks at their stories and the context in which those stories took place through oral histories. We encourage you to listen to the recordings or read the transcripts of these women talking about their experiences.  
Further historical perspective is presented through individual profiles and interviews, a general timeline of events, and background interviews conducted with people who have a longtime view of Duke Medicine.

View the online… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

“There are now, people of color all over Duke Hospital and no one thinks anything of it. That would be his legacy... He said to me that when the Black medical students began to come to do, and no longer sought him out, he understood that the institution had changed. For a very long time, they always would look around the faculty and probably take a wild guess that the one African-American physician or one of a couple, probably had some say in their being there. Right, so they will go and introduce themselves. But there came a time where that changed. And that was not probably not as early as you would think. I'm sure that was well into the 80s. And, you know, a few more of them, and fewer will come by to, you know, to get advice or counsel, and that kind of thing. But to me, his legacy… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

Museum of Durham History Presents E is for ESP  
On Display 
February 18th- March 18th  
Duke University Medical Center Library, Level 3

The Medical Center Library & Archives is happy to host another traveling exhibit from the Museum of Durham History (MoDH). As part of continuing programming for their current exhibit, 100 Year of Duke: Names to Remember, the MoDH developed a traveling version of E is for ESP. Originally part of the Durham A-Z series, this exhibit explores the legacy of JB and Louisa Rhine, and the Duke Parapsychology Department in the 20th century. Keep an eye out for the next location! 

Category: News

“It was interesting. It was 1969 when I first got here, and the hospital had sort of desegregated. And I say “sort of.” It's not a very exact term. On paper, it was, but in point of fact, it was not because there were private diagnostic clinic patients, and there were “staff patients.” In order to be a private patient, you would have to have money or insurance. Most of the African Americans and some poor whites did not have [those things]. So, they were in staff clinics, and you’ve probably seen some pictures of the clinics. They typically had two appointment times: 8 and 1. People would come very early hoping to get in line first. Some people would obviously sit there for hours waiting to be seen. There was a way of getting care and specialty care, but it was also really, really… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

“As I said before, we only had maybe three or four faculty at Duke at the time, who were black. Dr. Moore was the only black attending an OB-GYN. There was Dr. Johnson who was in internal medicine, Dr. Jacquelyne Jackson, who was there in sociology, and one other black physician in psychiatry. So once he saw me and some of the other black medical students, he invited us over to his home to meet his family. And just to kind of give us some semblance of being with someone that we could understand where we were, and kind of what we're trying to do. And he certainly gave us a lot of encouragement, in terms of being able to survive in any kind of environment. And, you know, he would constantly tell us that excellence will always prevail. So it didn't matter whether you're black, white,… MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

“Every year we had registration, she would have a team of med students and doctors to give these kids physicals. [There] might be about 10 in the room, giving these kids physicals. She would ask for volunteers, but almost demand volunteers. They would be out there giving these kids free physicals, and that was done by her. And she kept a record on each kid, the whole thing. She kept and monitored that stuff, and tracked it all the way through the season, [making sure] that everything got better, even though they didn’t have real, real high blood pressure. But all that stuff got better as the season went along, and she kept a record of this. And then, if the kids had any kind of illness, or asthma, anything, she knew about it. [If] they needed medication, she would have medication.”  … MORE

Category: Collection Spotlight

The Duke University Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Robert L. Blake Papers have been reprocessed and are open for research. Bob Blake, as he was known to many, was a medical illustrator at Duke from 1943 to 1983 and served as Coordinator of the Department of Medical Illustration in the Duke University School of Medicine. The collection contains Blake’s professional papers and original artwork, including pen and ink drawings, pencil sketches, carbon dust drawings, scratchboard engravings, pen trials, watercolors, reprographic materials, photographs, negatives, scrapbooks, and commercially published works. Materials range in date from 1943 to 2005.

Category: Collection Spotlight

Take Two and Call Me in the Morning: The Story of Aspirin

Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 3

NLM Exhibit on Display until February 15, 2025

The Medical Center Library is hosting “Take Two and Call Me in the Morning: The Story of Aspirin,” a six-banner traveling exhibition. Developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, it chronicles the history of the ubiquitous wonder drug, from its ancient origins to the present day. For centuries, physicians and healers used willow bark to alleviate pain and… MORE

Category: News