The Archives is happy to announce that the Elbert L. Persons Papers, 1923-1970, are processed and open to researchers. The collection is organized into the following series: Personal Papers, 1951-1969; Correspondence, 1946-1970; Duke Medicine, 1931-1970; Professional Papers, 1923-1970; United States Armed Forces, 1934-1970; American College of Physicians (ACP), 1943-1970; Diets, circa 1940-1949; and Audiovisual, 1964, undated. The papers contain professional and personal correspondence, grant materials, records pertaining to Persons’ time with the 65th General...
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This summer, during a seemingly innocuous project to add more description to our finding aids, an intern pulled a box from the Arthur A. Morris Papers, a Duke alumni who helped found the Neurosurgical Society of America, and was confronted with one of the worst four letter words in archives: mold. This fungus grows on the surface of its host and feeds on living organisms and dead organic matter. Once these fungal spores are present, along with sufficient moisture and nutrients, they will germinate. Elevated temperatures, poor air circulation, dim or no light, and accumulated dirt all accelerate the...
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The Duke Community was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. H. Keith H. Brodie earlier this month. As both chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and president of Duke, he had a profound impact on Duke University and Duke Health.
There have been several well-written tributes to Dr. Brodie and his legacy in the past couple of weeks, so rather than attempt to write another, we thought that we would share some of his own words. We conducted an oral history interview with Dr. Brodie in 2004 that hopefully provides a glimpse of the type of leader that he was.
When asked about his continued dedication to psychiatry, Dr. Brodie shared the following:
“It’s been fun. You know, I’ve always felt...
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When looking for items for our recent Halloween event, we made an interesting and unexpected find that we wanted to share. In a folder titled “The Effect of Radiation on the World's Most Precious Material” in the Charles W. Shilling Papers, we not only found Dr. Shilling’s speech notes with
the aforementioned title, but also an informational pamphlet about Professor Heckler’s Trained Flea Circus at Hubert’s Museum in New York City, shown on the left. We are not exactly sure why Dr. Shilling had this brochure in his...
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On November 8, 1973, the Duke Eye Center (now called the Wadsworth Eye Center) was opened and dedicated. The $3.7 million project was the result of more than eight years of planning. Prior to its construction, patients with serious or unusual eye diseases often had to be referred to eye centers in distant places like New York, Baltimore, or Miami.
The three-story structure built in 1973 contained a 43-bed inpatient unit, operating rooms, a 22,000-square-foot outpatient clinic and one complete floor of research laboratories. It was built from funds received from individuals, foundations, and other private sources. The fact that no government funds or tax money was used on the project was a big source...
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Next Monday is our annual Halloween event and we are so excited about sharing all the spooky (and silly) things that we have in our collections. In anticipation of next week’s event, we are highlighting one group of materials that will be on display at the event—fallout shelter plans and pamphlets.
One thing that scared many Americas during the 1960s was the prospect of nuclear war. Consequently, many plans were made across the country for the building or preparation of fallout shelters. These were sites “intended to give some protection against fallout radiation and other effects of a nuclear explosion, either an existing area such as a basement or tunnel, or a structure specially constructed for this purpose” (Dictionary of Energy, p. 218). In the...
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October is a month of cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and Halloween candy, but also Archives Month! This annual celebration promotes archives, the materials they preserve, and people who work in them. All month events have been held across the country to celebrate. For example, on October 5th, archivists responded to questions on Twitter with the hashtag #AskAnArchivist. Upcoming on October 26th & 27th, the National Archives will host a live, two-day, virtual Genealogy Fair via webcast on Youtube. And this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of events!
On a state level, the Society of North Carolina Archivists sponsors Archives Month events every year. In fact, Gov. McCrory...
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It Came from the Archives! Halloween Highlights from the Duke Medical Center Archives
Location: Medical Center Library & Archives, Level 2, Room 212E
Date: Monday, October 31, 11am – 2pm
In honor of Archives Month in October, the Duke University Medical Center Archives is hosting its third 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 instruments, and much more! Halloween candy will be available…for those who haven’t lost their appetite.
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This summer, the Archives received an addition to the Department of Arts & Health at Duke Records collection that individuals familiar with the Morris Clinic Building at Duke South will recognize: the Gathering in the Stories installation. It was curated by Linda Belans and the Health Arts Network at Duke (HAND) with photographs by Jim Lee and Leah Sobsey. This exhibit, installed from 2006 to 2016, displayed 12 large portraits of Duke University Hospital employees and 35 smaller transparencies comprised of both text and images in which the Duke University Hospital employees discussed the impact Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement had on their lives. Because of...
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In the spring of 2016, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (NCDHC), a statewide digitization and digital publishing program that promotes and increases access to North Carolina’s cultural heritage, put out a call for submissions of audiovisual materials repositories wanted digitized and shared online in the Sights and Sounds Collection...
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This is the third blog post in a three part series about Dr. Jay M. Arena. (To see the previous posts ...
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The Medical Center Archives Spring/Summer 2016 newsletter is now available. To read it, visit: /newsletters or click on the image below.
In this issue:
To subscribe to our newsletter, email us at: dumc.archives@mc.duke.edu
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This is the second blog post in a three part series about Dr. Jay M. Arena. (To see the previous post, click here.)
In 1974, Duke Professor of Pediatrics, Jay M. Arena, traveled to the People’s Republic of China as part of the American Medical Association (AMA) delegation. As a pediatrician, Arena’s interest lay in the health and nutritional status of children in China.
During the trip, Arena met with local Chinese medical delegations and toured hospitals, medical schools, and clinics, paying special attention to children’s wards and pediatric care. The photograph above...
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The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that we have added more historic photographs to MEDSpace. Over 30 images from the 1930’s to the 1990’s have been uploaded to the digital repository. Included are portraits of Chairs and Division Chiefs, photos of nursing students, images and artwork of campus buildings, and candids of hospital staff at work. The new additions can be viewed by scrolling down to the bottom of MEDSpace’s homepage and clicking the “Recent Additions” tab on the far right.
To view all of our digitized historic images, please visit the Foundations of Excellence digital collection, which is...
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The Medical Center Library & Archives is happy to announce that our new exhibit, “Early Duke Notables,” is now on display. Featuring artifacts, photographs, and documents from the Archives, the exhibit highlights some of the key individuals who helped found Duke Health. Visitors will learn about Dr. Wilburt C. Davison (pictured right), the first hospital director and School of Medicine Dean, who did everything from recruit faculty to help design the hospital; Bessie Baker, the first School of Nursing Dean who also oversaw nursing at the hospital; Dr. J. Deryl Hart, Chair of Surgery who pioneered the use of ultraviolet light in operating rooms to eliminate infectious organisms that cause post-operative Staph infections; and Dr. Frederic M. Hanes, Chair of Medicine, who started the...
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