Duke University

Duke University is a private university in Durham, North Carolina.

History

Beginnings

What is known today as Duke University started as Brown's Schoolhouse, a private subscription school founded in 1838 in Randolph County, North Carolina. This school was organized by the Union Institute Society, a group of Methodists and Quakers under the leadership of Reverend York, and in 1841, North Carolina issued a charter for Union Institute Academy. The state legislature granted a rechartering of the academy as Normal College in 1851, and the privilege of granting degrees in 1853. To keep the school operating, the trustees agreed to provide free education for Methodist preachers in return for financial support by the church, and in 1859 the transformation was formalized with a name change to Trinity College.

Related Topics:
1838 - Randolph County, North Carolina - Methodists - Quakers - 1841 - 1851 - 1853 - Methodist - 1859

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This era was a time of important firsts. In 1871, Chi Phi was organized as the school's first student social organization. In 1878, Mary, Persis, and Theresa Giles became the first women to be awarded degrees. In 1881, Yao-ju (Charlie) Soong from Weichau, China enrolled, becoming the school's first international student.

Related Topics:
1871 - Social organization - 1878 - 1881 - China

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The move to Durham

In 1887, the Yale-educated economist John F. Crowell became president of Trinity College, and in fact, Yale blue was adopted as the school color in honor of Crowell's alma mater. Committed to the German university model which emphasized research over recitation, Crowell directed a major revision in the curriculum and convinced the trustees to move to a more urban location. In 1892, Trinity opened in Durham, largely because of the generosity and pursuasion of Washington Duke, his son Benjamin Newton Duke, and Julian S. Carr, influential and respected Methodists who had grown prosperous through the tobacco industry (see American Tobacco Company and Duke Power). Carr donated the site, which today is Duke's East Campus.

Related Topics:
1887 - Yale - John F. Crowell - German - 1892 - Washington Duke - Benjamin Newton Duke - Julian S. Carr - Tobacco - American Tobacco Company - Duke Power

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John C. Kilgo became president in 1894 and he greatly increased the interest of the Duke family in Trinity. Washington Duke offered three gifts of $100,000 each for endowment. By World War I, Trinity College had developed into one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the South. In 1900, Trinity became the first white institution of higher education in the South to invite Booker T. Washington to speak, and in the same year Trinity graduated its first Native American student.

Related Topics:
World War I - 1900 - Booker T. Washington - Native American

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In 1903, in what is known as the "Bassett Affair," popular professor, John Spencer Bassett, inserted a sentence praising the life of Booker T. Washington and ranking him second in comparison to Robert E. Lee of Southerners born in a hundred years. Democratic party leaders in the area demanded that Bassett be fired. When Bassett offered his resignation, the Trinity College Board of Trustees voted 18-7 to not accept the resignation. In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt commended Trinity and Bassett's courageous stand for academic freedom while speaking in Durham. http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/j_s_bassett.html

Related Topics:
Booker T. Washington - Robert E. Lee - 1904 - Theodore Roosevelt - Academic freedom

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In 1922 Chronicle editors began to use "Blue Devils" as a nickname for the athletic teams. "Les Diables Bleus" was the name of a well-known regiment of French alpine troops widely known for their exploits in World War I. The name was initially unpopular, but eventually caught on as no opposition rose. http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/why_blue_devil.html

Related Topics:
1922 - Chronicle - Blue Devils - French - World War I

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The birth of Duke University

On December 11 1924, James B. Duke established The Duke Endowment, a forty million dollar trust fund, the annual income of which was to be distributed in the Carolinas among hospitals, orphanages, the Methodist Church, three colleges, and a university built around Trinity College. The president at the time, William P. Few, insisted that the university be named Duke University, and James B. Duke agreed on the condition that it be a memorial to his father and family.

Related Topics:
December 11 - 1924 - James B. Duke - The Duke Endowment

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The university grew up quickly. The School of Religion and Graduate School opened in 1926, the Medical School and hospital in 1930, the School of Nursing in 1931, and the School of Forestry in 1938. The Law School, founded in 1904, was reorganized in 1930, and engineering, which had been taught since 1903, became a separate school in 1939. In 1930, the original Durham site became a separate Woman's College which was merged back into Trinity as the liberal arts college for both men and women in 1972. In 1938, Duke University became the thirty-fourth member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The Fuqua School of Business was founded in 1969.

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http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/

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