Duke Medical Center Archive Blog

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Thomas Roberts Kinney earlier this week. Dr. Kinney was the Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Chair Emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Kinney had a long career here at Duke. You can see him pictured in the 1970 Intern composite from the July 1970 issue of the Intercom.

Category: Collection Spotlight, News

Do you miss meeting and studying in the Medical Center Library? We sure do! Instead we are all spending a lot of time on Zoom these days. Changing your background is a great feature to hide your messy house, block that roommate in profile in the background, or just to express your own creativity and personality. We have created several free background templates for you to download and use. They feature images from the Medical Center Library and surrounding campus from the very beginning of the hospital until now.  You can click on any of the images below to enlarge and save to your computer or you can download them directly from this Box folder. … MORE

Category: News

COVID-19 has changed and disrupted our lives, at Duke and around the world. On campus, most students have returned home, classes are online, and all events are cancelled. Many staff are working from home; others that are deemed essential continue to work on campus. The hospital is preparing for an influx of people infected with COVID-19. Duke researchers are trying to find ways to fight the disease, from identifying treatments to creating better protective equipment.

And we all live with the fear of the physical impact of the virus, both for ourselves and our families.

The Duke University Archives and the Duke University Medical Center Archives have been hard at work to document this unique time in history. We have been capturing all of the news alerts, email… MORE

Category: News

Balancing the responsibilities of parenthood and those of a medical career is challenging, and this was certainly also the case for those at Duke in the 1970s. During the twentieth century American conceptions and ideals parenthood shifted drastically as a response to medical advances, social movements, and more and more attending college and/or working outside the home. Tucked away in old issues of the Intercom, Duke Medicine’s primary news publication from 1953 to 1986, we can find clear evidence that Duke faculty and students were grappling with these shifting perceptions, expectation, and values surrounding parenthood throughout the 1970s.

Beginning in 1972, Professor Betty Harris, an… MORE

Category: Collection Highlights

The Duke University Medical Center Archives is happy to announce the recent addition to the Eleanor B. Easley Papers is processed and open for research. The addition includes Easley’s degrees, memberships, North Carolina medical license, and awards from her medical career. Materials date from 1928 to 2000.

The Easley Papers contains the professional papers of Eleanor Beamer Easley (1907-1998), a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology who practiced in Durham, North Carolina. Easley was the first female graduate of Duke's School of Medicine's first four-year class. In 1941, Easley helped co-found the… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

The Duke University Medical Center Archives is happy to announce the recent addition to the Eleanor B. Easley Papers is processed and open for research. The addition includes Easley’s degrees, memberships, North Carolina medical license, and awards from her medical career. Materials date from 1928 to 2000.

The Easley Papers contains the professional papers of Eleanor Beamer Easley (1907-1998), a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology who practiced in Durham, North Carolina. Easley was the first female graduate of Duke's School of Medicine's first four-year class. In 1941, Easley helped co-found the… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

The Duke Community was saddened to learn of the passing of MaryAnn E. Black yesterday. She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of leadership and service to the Durham and Duke communities. Across her various positions as social worker, Durham County Commissioner, and State Representative, MaryAnn Black continuously sought to promote the health and human service needs of all Durham residents.  Upon hearing the news of her passing, we returned to an oral history interview conducted with Ms. Black to hear her insights. Her remarkable dedication to public service and gifts of cultivating partnerships is apparent throughout the interview. When talking about breaking down barriers in healthcare, she noted the importance of diverse hiring practices and avenues for progress:   “Breaking those… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

The Duke Community was saddened to learn of the passing of MaryAnn E. Black yesterday. She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of leadership and service to the Durham and Duke communities. Across her various positions as social worker, Durham County Commissioner, and State Representative, MaryAnn Black continuously sought to promote the health and human service needs of all Durham residents.  Upon hearing the news of her passing, we returned to an oral history interview conducted with Ms. Black to hear her insights. Her remarkable dedication to public service and gifts of cultivating partnerships is apparent throughout the interview. When talking about breaking down barriers in healthcare, she noted the importance of diverse hiring practices and avenues for progress:   “Breaking those… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

As of Friday, March 13, 2020 at 5pm, the Duke University Medical Center Archives is closed to the public until further notice due to COVID-19. Staff are working remotely and are available for consultation via our online request form or via email. We cannot access our physical collections, but we are happy to answer general questions and assist you in locating digital materials for your research if possible.

Below are some available online resources:

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… MORE

Category: News

We are excited to announce the installation of a new exhibit on Level 3 of the Medical Center Library. “A Medical Student’s Life at Duke in 1930” explores the lives of Duke’s first medical students, 52 first-year and 18 third-year medical students who were admitted to the new medical school in the fall of 1930.  According to the 1930-1931 School of Medicine Bulletin, the estimated yearly cost of attendance for students was between $295 and $315. Each year the school offered four terms of eleven weeks, commencing October 1st with one-week vacations in December, March, and June and a one-month vacation in September. Students were required to complete three terms… MORE

Category: News

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that new additions to the George L. Maddox Papers are open for research. This collection contains the personal and professional papers of George L. Maddox, a former director of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

Over the course of his career, Maddox was a major figure in the push to improve health care and the quality of life for older adults in the United States. While at Duke, he was not only the director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, but also the program director for the Center’s Long Term Care Resources Program (LTRCP). This program was focused on providing… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that new additions to the George L. Maddox Papers are open for research. This collection contains the personal and professional papers of George L. Maddox, a former director of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

Over the course of his career, Maddox was a major figure in the push to improve health care and the quality of life for older adults in the United States. While at Duke, he was not only the director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, but also the program director for the Center’s Long Term Care Resources Program (LTRCP). This program was focused on providing… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

RESCHEDULED:
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
4:30pm - 6:00pm
The Chappell Family Gallery (Perkins Library)
West CampusRemarks at 5:00 p.m. in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein Library 153, next door to the Chappell Family Gallery).  Help us celebrate the opening of the new exhibit in the Chappell Family Gallery. Seeing the Invisible explores the history of protein visualization by following the contributions of Duke biochemistry professors Dave and Jane Richardson, who have spent over five decades researching these molecular building blocks of life and finding ways to help both scientists and other people better understand and appreciate their structures. Through drawings,… MORE

Category: News

The Duke University Medical Center Archives (DUMCA) is excited to announce the acquisition of the Onyekwere E. Akwari Papers, a collection that documents the personal life and professional career of Dr. Onyekwere E. Akwari, a Nigerian-American and the first African-American surgeon at Duke University. Dr. Akwari was the son of Theophilus Akwari, an export-import business owner, and Ngarasi Christiana Ukegbu, the owner and operator of numerous local shops. He was raised in Abia State, Nigeria as the oldest of eight children. In 1962, shortly after Nigeria declared its independence from British rule, Akwari made the decision to leave his home country and travel to the… MORE

Category: News

“Archives—it’s where technology comes to die” is a phrase I frequently use when discussing obsolete audiovisual formats in archives. Think about it, when is the last time you shoved a VHS tape into your VCR, a Betamax into your Betamax player, or a U-Matic into its player? Have you fired up your wire recorder recently? Threaded a film into your 16mm or 8mm projector? How about a DVD? Do you watch those anymore? Listened to any audiocassette tapes or CDs recently? What about a reel-to-reel audio tape? Even if you haven’t, these formats still exist. Often the only copy of a recording is on an obsolete format, which is why archival repositories that collect these obsolete formats, also need to collect obsolete format players.  … MORE

Category: News, Ask The Archives