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 each year, receiving instruction in medicine, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and one of the following specialties: dermatology and syphilis; neurology and psychiatry; urology; orthopedics and physiotherapy; or ophthalmology, otolaryngology and dentistry. Students lived, studied, ate, and slept in the new hospital.
The exhibit displays the recollections of former students and staff about student life in 1930. Not only was the city of Durham a much smaller place in 1930, so was Duke Hospital. The new hospital had five floors that held patient wards, operating rooms, a pharmacy, student and staff dormitories, classrooms, a library, and a private faculty and staff dining room. To learn more about student’s poker games, dormitories, classes, extracurricular activities, and other general shenanigans, stop by the library and see the full exhibit.
This blog post was contributed by Archives Intern and exhibit curator Caroline Waller.
