Duke Medical Center Archive Blog

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Charles and Peggy Hammond Papers are processed and open for research. Interested researchers should contact the Medical Center Archivist before use. The collection is organized into the following series: Conference Materials, 1976-2007; Correspondence, 1956-2006; Personal, 1985-2005; Photographic Materials, 1978-2005; Printed Materials, 1978-2008. 

Charles Bessellieu Hammond was born on July 24, 1936 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He graduated from Duke with a BS in 1960 and a MD in 1961. Hammond joined the Duke faculty in 1968 and served… MORE

Category: News

As Archives Month comes to a close, we bring you the second part of our two part blog series answering questions asked by our two interns. Read part 1 here. 

Caroline Waller: "I would like to know more about the history of the [Duke University Medical Center] archives, like when/why/where was it founded.”

The Archives was formally established in 1977 through the efforts of Elon H. Clark, Barnes Woodhall and G.S.T. Cavanagh, with support from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; however informal efforts to collect materials documenting the history of Duke Medicine existed well before this time. An October 1965 article published in the Intercom, the… MORE

Category: Ask The Archives

Location: Medical Center Library & Archives, Level 2, Room 212E

Date: Wednesday, October 31, 11am – 2pm

In honor of Archives Month in October, the Duke University Medical Center Archives is hosting its fifth annual Halloween event at the Medical Center Library & Archives featuring a selection of eerie, fascinating, and rarely seen materials from their collections. Brave souls are invited to gaze upon spine-chilling artwork, stare into the faces of frightening death masks, behold macabre medical artifacts and… MORE

Category: News

Today is #AskAnArchivistDay! While the Duke University Medical Center Archives (DUMCA) doesn’t have a Twitter account, we do have a blog and two very curious archivists-in-training (interns). For this two part blog series, we asked each of our interns for a question.

McKenzie Long: This is super general, but when I first started in archives I wanted to know how we decide what to keep when we're looking at a new accession. Like how do we decide what's historically relevant/in the scope of the archives enough for us to add it to the archives? 

It depends. 

There are a lot of factors that are part of deciding whether items should be accepted or not at an archives, and, while most of this decision making is done before the materials are… MORE

Category: Ask The Archives

McKenzie Long joined the Archives staff as an intern in July. She received degrees in English and History from the College of William and Mary. Currently, she is working towards a Masters of Library and Information Science from UNC-Chapel Hill and expects to be finished in 2020. After graduation, she hopes to continue working in Archives. 

McKenzie developed an interest in archives as an undergraduate when she worked in Special Collections at the College of William and Mary. McKenzie is passionate about history, and working with materials from the past like photographs, maps, and letters allows her to constantly discover, explore, and learn. As the Archives Intern, working in an archives also gives her the opportunity to help preserve and make archival materials accessible to… MORE

Category: News

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

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

The Medical Center Archives is pleased to announce that the Durham-Orange County Medical Society Auxiliary Scrapbooks are open for research. The Durham-Orange County Medical Society Auxiliary was initially organized in 1930 to oversee the entertainment of the wives of the doctors attending that year’s North Carolina Medical Society meeting in Durham. After the meeting, the auxiliary was inactive until 1944, when 26 doctors’ wives from Durham and Orange Counties formally organized the group and expanded its mission. The objectives of the Auxiliary was to assist the Durham-Orange County… MORE

Category: News

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce we are able to make digital files accessible in our reading room through AXAEM, our content management system (CMS). An archival CMS is necessary for archives to run efficiently. This software is created specifically for the management, organization, and control of archival collections from one central point. AXAEM makes it possible for the Archives to track our collections’ accessions, containers, container lists, description, finding aids, preservation concerns and actions, donor information, and research inquires and use. The ability to easily collate all of this data in one place makes the effective administration of our archival collections possible. Now we can add tracking, describing, and giving access to digital files to the list… MORE

Category: News

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Galen S. Wagner Papers are processed and open for research. The collection documents Wagner’s career as a cardiologist at DUMC. Wagner was the director of the Duke Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) from 1968 to 1981 and was involved with the Myocardial Infarction Research Unit, Duke Cardiology Fellows Program, and Duke University Cardiovascular Society. Materials in the collection date from 1964 to 2008. 

During his career at Duke Wagner was instrumental in developing the Duke Cardiovascular Databank. Wagner’s mentor, Dr. Eugene Stead (pictured to the right), began the project in the mid-1960s when he saw the great potential computers offered the medical… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Galen S. Wagner Papers are processed and open for research. The collection documents Wagner’s career as a cardiologist at DUMC. Wagner was the director of the Duke Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) from 1968 to 1981 and was involved with the Myocardial Infarction Research Unit, Duke Cardiology Fellows Program, and Duke University Cardiovascular Society. Materials in the collection date from 1964 to 2008. 

During his career at Duke Wagner was instrumental in developing the Duke Cardiovascular Databank. Wagner’s mentor, Dr. Eugene Stead (pictured to the right), began the project in the mid-1960s when he saw the great potential computers offered the medical… MORE

Category: News, Collection Spotlight

Come Enjoy Popcorn and a Movie With Us! Viewing: Young Frankenstein 

Medical Center Library & Archives

Level 2R, Room 212E

Movie: Young Frankenstein

Friday, June 1, 2018

2 – 4pm

FREE and open to all!

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankenstein.” In celebration and to coincide with our Frankenstein exhibitions, we will be hosting a viewing of the Mel Brooks movie, Young Frankenstein.

Please come and join us for this fun way to relieve stress at the end of a long week. Feel free to pop in for just a couple quick laughs or stay for the entire movie. We will have drinks, candy, and popcorn!

For more information,… MORE

Category: News

Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature

Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 3 (NLM) & Level 1 (MCL&A) 

NLM Exhibit on Display until June 16, 2018 

The Medical Center Library is hosting “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature,” a six-banner traveling exhibition. Developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, it displays the abiding relevance of the Frankenstein story to contemporary questions about science and technology. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel explores individual and societal responsibility through its discussion of scientific advancement and medical ethics. 

Category: News, Collection Highlights

Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature

Medical Center Library & Archives - Level 3 (NLM) & Level 1 (MCL&A) 

NLM Exhibit on Display until June 16, 2018 

The Medical Center Library is hosting “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature,” a six-banner traveling exhibition. Developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, it displays the abiding relevance of the Frankenstein story to contemporary questions about science and technology. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel explores individual and societal responsibility through its discussion of scientific advancement and medical ethics. 

Category: News, Collection Highlights

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