Duke University Graduate School has released The Education of Ida Owens: Science, Civil Rights, and the Integration of Duke University, a documentary about the life and work of Ida Stephens Owens, the first African American woman to receive a doctorate from Duke University. Owens was recruited to the graduate school in 1962 by Dr. Daniel C. Tosteson, then chair of the Department of Physiology, and under the mentorship of Dr. Jacob J. Blum, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology, received her PhD in physiology in 1967. Owens went on to establish a well respected research lab at the National Institutes of Health.
The DUMC Archives contributed many images of the School of Medicine and Medical Center that appear in the documentary, and we are excited to have helped with this wonderful project. To view the full film online, please visit: https://gradschool.duke.edu/about/news/graduate-school-honors-owens-documentary-about-her-experience/. To see some of the historic images used in the movie, visit MEDSpace.