History of Duke University

The history of Duke University began when Brown's Schoolhouse, a private subscription school in Randolph County, North Carolina (in the present-day town of Trinity), was founded in 1838. [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/chronology.html A Chronology of Significant Events in Duke University's History.] "Duke University Archives." URL accessed 19 July 2005.] The school was renamed to Union Institute Academy in 1841, Normal College in 1851, and to Trinity College in 1859. Finally moving to Durham in 1887, the school grew rapidly, primarily due to the generosity of Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr, powerful and respected Methodists who had grown wealthy through the tobacco industry. In 1924, Washington Duke's son, James B. Duke, established The Duke Endowment, a $40 million (about $430 million in 2005 dollars) trust fund, some of which was to go to Trinity College. The president thus renamed the school Duke University, as a memorial to Washington Duke and his family. [ [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/narrativehistory.html A Brief Narrative History.] "Duke University Archives. " URL accessed 22 June 2006.]

Beginnings: 1841-1886

The school was organized by the Union Institute Society, a group of Methodists and Quakers under the leadership of Reverend Brantley York, and in 1841, North Carolina issued a charter for Union Institute Academy from the original Brown's Schoolhouse. 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 and the adoption of the motto "Eruditio et Religio," meaning "Knowledge and Religion."

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.cite web |url= http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/111206/depret.html|title= Retrospective|accessdate=2007-07-30 |publisher= "Duke Magazine"|date= 2006-11] At that time, women were allowed only as day students. In 1881, Yao-ju "Charlie" Soong from Weichau, China, enrolled, becoming the school's first international student.

Move to Durham: 1887-1900

In 1887, Yale-educated economist John Franklin Crowell became President of Trinity College. 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 due to the generosity of Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr, powerful 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, while Washington Duke contributed $100,000 for the endowment and construction of a female dormitory named after his daughter Mary, with the stipulation of placing women on an "equal footing with men".

John F. Kilgo became president in 1894 and greatly increased the interest of the Duke family in Trinity. Washington Duke offered three gifts of $100,000 (about $2,200,000 in 2005 dollars) each for endowment. Trinity was the first white institution of higher education in the South to invite Booker T. Washington to speak (in 1900). That same year, the first Native American student graduated from Trinity.

Bassett Affair: 1903

In 1903, a controversy arose that would eventually lead to a significant event in the evolution of academic freedom in U.S. higher education. This series of events is known as the "Bassett Affair." Popular professor John Spencer Bassett published an article in the "South Atlantic Quarterly" entitled "Stirring Up the Fires of Race Antipathy" in October of 1903. In the article, he spoke about improving race relations and gave praise to numerous African Americans. Near the end of the article, he wrote "...Booker T. Washington [is] the greatest man, save General Lee, born in the South in a hundred years..."King, William E. [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/exhibits/AcademicFreedom/bassettaffair.htm The Bassett Affair] . "Duke University Historical Notes." URL accesses 24 July 2005.] This led to an outpouring of anger from powerful Democratic party leaders as well as the media and public. Many demanded that Bassett be fired and encouraged parents to take their children out of the university. Resulting from immense public pressure, Bassett offered his resignation if the Board of Trustees requested that he do so. The Board of Trustees then held a meeting to decide the fate of Bassett. In the end, they voted 18-7 not to accept the resignation citing academic freedom. In their decision, they wrote, "We are particularly unwilling to lend ourselves to any tendency to destroy or limit academic liberty, a tendency which has, within recent years, manifested itself in some conspicuous instances, and which has created a feeling of uneasiness for the welfare of American colleges [...] We cannot lend countenance to the degrading notion that professors in American colleges have not an equal liberty of thought and speech with all other Americans."King, William E. [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/exhibits/AcademicFreedom/bassettaffair.htm The Bassett Affair] . "Duke University Historical Notes." URL accesses 24 July 2005.] In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt commended Trinity and Bassett's courageous stand for academic freedom while speaking to the university. He told the school, "You stand for Academic Freedom, for the right of private judgment, for a duty more incumbent upon the scholar than upon any other man, to tell the truth as he sees it, to claim for himself and to give to others the largest liberty in seeking after the truth."King, William E. [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/exhibits/AcademicFreedom/bassettaffair.htm The Bassett Affair] . "Duke University Historical Notes." URL accesses 24 July 2005.]

Blue Devils: 1922

The mascot for Duke's athletic teams, the Blue Devil, has an interesting history. As World War I ended, Duke's Board of Trustees, then called the "Trinity College Board of Trustees," lifted their quarter century ban of football on campus leading to an interest in naming the athletic teams. [King, William E. [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/why_blue_devil.html Why a Blue Devil?] . "The Duke Dialogue." 28 Feb 1992.] The team was then known as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White, or the Methodists (as opposed to the Baptists of nearby rival Wake Forest University). Because of the ambiguity, the student newspaper, the "Trinity Chronicle" (now called "The Chronicle") launched a campaign to create a new mascot. Nominations for a new team name included Catamounts, Grizzlies, Badgers, Dreadnaughts, and Captains. The Trinity Chronicle editor narrowed the many nominations down to those that utilized the school colors of dark blue and white. The narrowed list consisted of Blue Titans, Blue Eagles, Polar Bears, Blue Devils, Royal Blazes, and Blue Warriors. None of the nominations proved to be a clear favorite, but the name Blue Devils elicited criticism that could potentially engender opposition on campus. That year, the football season passed with no official selection.

During the 1922-1923 academic year, campus student leaders and the editors of the two other student publications, "The Archive" and "The Chanticleer", decided that the newspaper staff should decide the name on their own because the nomination process had proved inconclusive. Editor-in-Chief William H. Lander and Managing Editor Mike Bradshaw began referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils. Though the name was not officially used that year, no opposition to the name arose (surprising many). "The Chronicle"'s staff continued to use the name and eventually, “Blue Devils” caught on.

Birth of Duke University: 1924-1938

On December 11, 1924, James B. Duke established The Duke Endowment, a $40 million (about $430 million in 2005 dollars) 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. President William Preston 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.

The university grew up quickly. Duke's original campus (now East Campus) was rebuilt from 1925 to 1927 with Georgian-style buildings. The School of Religion and Graduate School opened in 1926. By 1930, the majority of the Gothic style buildings on the campus one mile west were completed in order to accommodate the Undergraduate Trinity College for men as well as the professional schools. The Women's College on East Campus opened in 1930, at the same time as the men's Trinity College, the Medical School, and the Hospital opened on West Campus. The Law School, founded in 1904, was reorganized in 1930. The School of Nursing was founded in 1931, and the construction of Duke Chapel was complete in 1935. In 1938, the School of Forestry (later becoming the School of the Environment opened. That same year, Duke’s football team, deemed the “Iron Dukes,” went unscored upon the entire regular season, finally giving up a touchdown to USC in the final minute of the 1938 Rose Bowl loss. Shortly thereafter, Duke University became the thirty-fourth member of the Association of American Universities.

Expansion and Growth: 1939-1992

Timeline

Notes

External links

* [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/ Duke History]
* [http://www.architect.duke.edu/ Office of the University Architect homepage]
* [http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/julian_abele.html Julian Abele] (Duke University Architect)