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This is Duke University
This excerpt from a 1954 promotional video provides an overview of a Duke student’s life. Although Duke has changed a lot in the seventy years since this was made, much remains the same, including active student groups, excellent research, rigorous academics, well-equipped libraries, and the high-performing athletic teams. Note the distinctly Duke homecoming performances! -
Brown House Joe College Display
When Trinity College moved to Durham from Randolph County in 1892, seeking connection to an urban environment, it landed in what is now known as Duke’s East Campus. After Trinity College became Duke University, East Campus was redesigned by the Horace Trumbauer architectural firm, gaining its signature Georgian-style red brick buildings. In 1930, East Campus became the Woman’s College under Dean Alice M. Baldwin, training women in academic and societal leadership before merging with Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences in 1972. East Campus began housing first-year undergraduates in 1995, and that tradition continues today. East Campus is also home to multiple academic departments, including Music, History, and Cultural Anthropology. -
Group label: Freshman traditions
Stringent dress codes characterized student life from the 1920s to the 1950s. This bow from 1954 was a staple of outfits for first-year students in the Woman's College. Freshmen boys were required to wear "dinks" until Duke beat UNC at football. These garments accompanied a host of freshmen-oriented traditions, where upperclassmen could quiz freshmen on Duke history or harangue them into singing the fight song or reciting cheers. -
Group Label: bow
Stringent dress codes characterized student life from the 1920s to the 1950s. This bow from 1954 was a staple of outfits for first-year students in the Woman's College. Freshmen boys were required to wear "dinks" until Duke beat UNC at football. These garments accompanied a host of freshmen-oriented traditions, where upperclassmen could quiz freshmen on Duke history or harangue them into singing the fight song or reciting cheers. -
Group Label: Freshman dink
Stringent dress codes characterized student life from the 1920s to the 1950s. This bow from 1954 was a staple of outfits for first-year students in the Woman's College. Freshmen boys were required to wear "dinks" until Duke beat UNC at football. These garments accompanied a host of freshmen-oriented traditions, where upperclassmen could quiz freshmen on Duke history or harangue them into singing the fight song or reciting cheers. -
Staff Christmas Dinner
This photograph from the Ted Minah collection captures a celebratory Christmas dinner for the staff of Duke University Food Services. Minah was the director of dining services from 1946 to 1974. As the second largest private employer in North Carolina, Duke has always hired much of its service workforce from the Durham area’s working class, many of whom were and are people of color. Dining staff have always been an important part of the functioning of Duke. -
Safety Cap invention flyer
Duke University’s impact on medical research included mitigating pediatric poisonings across the country. Duke pediatrician Jay Arena led the push for drug companies to develop childproof safety caps for children’s “candy” aspirin. In a letter to fellow physicians, he wrote, “The adoption of such a closure could mean a saving of many small children's lives from the accidental ingestion of drugs.” With nationwide design testing and the first advertisements in 1958, St. Joseph's aspirin was the first pharmaceutical sold with a safety cap. -
Law School Application
This undated admissions application provides insight into what a typical law school application looked like. This greatly differs from the robust application system that current Duke law students undergo prior to matriculating. -
Charley's Final Peal
“Charley,” the bell that now hangs in the Kilgo belfry, was brought to Duke by the Red Friars, Duke’s first and best-known “secret society.” The Red Friars were founded in 1913 for the purpose of producing “better feeling between the different collegiate societies,” according to The Chronicle. Usually composed of leaders of fraternities and student organizations, they engaged in a number of campus improvement projects, including an attempt to reform residential life. The bell was hoisted into the Kilgo belfry in 1951, where the Friars would ring it for ceremonies. The Red Friars chose to disband in 1971. -
Kilgo Clapper
“Charley,” the bell that now hangs in the Kilgo belfry, was brought to Duke by the Red Friars, Duke’s first and best-known “secret society.” The Red Friars were founded in 1913 for the purpose of producing “better feeling between the different collegiate societies,” according to The Chronicle. Usually composed of leaders of fraternities and student organizations, they engaged in a number of campus improvement projects, including an attempt to reform residential life. The bell was hoisted into the Kilgo belfry in 1951, where the Friars would ring it for ceremonies. The Red Friars chose to disband in 1971. -
DUMB Drum Cover
Founded in 1906 at Trinity College, the organization now called the Duke University Marching Band (DUMB) has played an important role in the Duke athletic experience, particularly basketball and football. This drum head was used in the 1958 Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, between Duke and the University of Oklahoma. It was ruptured during practice and signed by drum corps members. In recent years, the Duke Band has added a pre-season band camp and continues to gain recognition throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference. -
Woman's College Student Government Gavel
The Duke Woman’s College, founded in 1930, served as one of the most rigorous academic institutions for women until its 1972 merger with Trinity College. The Woman’s College offered professional and academic guidance for students, welcoming students from thirty-three states and multiple foreign countries. As early as 1935, Duke women were encouraged to create community and participate in student organizations, including the Women’s Athletic Association, the Women’s Orchestra, the student-edited publication Distaff, and the Woman’s College Student Government. This gavel highlights the names of the Woman’s College Student Government Presidents from 1938 to 1954. -
DukEngineer, vol. 21, no. 1 (October 1958)
This 1958 edition of DukEngineer magazine includes articles about engineering advancements at Duke and recruitment advertisements for Duke engineering students in the workforce. Many of the recruitment ads and campus interviews during this time pertained to the looming Space Race against the USSR, as Sputnik launched just a year prior. DukEngineer has been issued periodically since 1940 and became an annual publication in 2002. The Duke University School of Engineering was named the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering in 1999, after Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. (E’47). -
Law Bulletin
This 1955 bulletin provides details about the study of law at Duke University, entrance and graduation requirements, expenses, and employment opportunities. Tuition for law school in 1955 would be the equivalent of about $5,000 in 2024. Duke’s Law department was established as an academic department in Trinity College in 1865, but did not move to the current School of Law building until 1963.
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