Duke-Durham Relations

These reference collections are prepared by Duke University Archives staff to provide brief overviews of popular topics in Duke University's history. You may want to begin your research by studying the materials in these collections as a way of orienting yourself to this topic.

The links below will take you to the collection guide for each collection. In the collection guide, the documents and other items that make up the collection are described topically and by their location in a particular box or folder. The date range that appears after the collection's title indicates the chronological span of the materials in the collection.

• Associations Reference Collection, 1927-ongoing: This collection documents several Durham organizations (such as the Durham Savoyards or the Trinity Park Association) or developments (such as the American Tobacco Complex) that Duke University or Duke University figures have partnered with.

• Student Activism Reference Collection, 1934-ongoing: Student actions such as the 1949 Shoe Leather Day (protesting rate increases for the Duke Power-owned Durham and campus bus system), the 1960s picketing of segregated Durham businesses, and the late 1970s opposition to the construction of the East-West Expressway are documented here.

• Student Organizations Reference Collection, 1913-ongoing: This collection contains files on relevant Duke student organizations, including Blue Jeans (an all-women service organization in the 1970s); Breaking Down the Walls (a 1990s community service organization); and files on the campus coffeehouses, which frequently draw clientele from the Durham community.

• Town and Gown Reference Collection, 1894-ongoing: This collection contains files of clippings, reports, publications, flyers, and other material concerning the University's relations with the city and county of Durham and the Research Triangle region.

The links below will take you to the collection guide for each collection. In the collection guide, the documents and other items that make up the collection are described topically and by their location in a particular box or folder. The date range that appears after the collection's title indicates the chronological span of the materials in the collection.

Please note that administrative office records are restricted for a period of twenty-five years from the origin of the material. To use these materials, permission must be obtained from the office of origin and the University Archivist.

• Alexander Memorial Fund Records, 1970-1979: Named after Jay Lynn Alexander, a long-time Duke employee, the Fund supported the Walltown Charitable Community Center.

• Katherine M. Banham Papers, 1910-1995: Dr. Banham, a Duke psychologist, was active in Durham activities such as the Child Guidance Clinic and the Altrusa Club.

• John S. Bradway Papers, 1922-1949: Bradway's primary interest and work was in the field of legal aid. He served as Secretary of the National Association of Legal Aid Organizations (NALAO) from 1922-1940, and as its President from 1940-1942. While at Duke University, Bradway founded and directed the Duke Legal Aid Clinic from 1931 until 1959.

• Isabelle Budd Papers, 1951-1999: This collection contains reports, correspondence, and other materials concerning the development of Durham, especially the East-West Freeway, its opposition, and the development of downtown.

• Canterbury Club, 1896-1898: One of Durham's early literary and intellectual clubs, this group contributed to the establishment of Durham's first public library. The club counted among its members Duke figures like English professor Edwin Mims and future president William Preston Few.

• College Organization for General Service (C.O.G.S.) Records, 1940-1949: During World War II, C.O.G.S. organized service activities for Duke University women. Faculty and students partnered with Durham organizations on fund drives and other supplies-raising drives to benefit the war effort.

• Community Service Center Records, 1990-2002: The Community Service Center (CSC) was established in 1990 to promote community service on campus and to coordinate activities between campus service groups and similar organizations in Durham, NC.
• The Duke Community Reporter, 1993-1998 (catalog record): The Duke Community Reporter was a newspaper that was intended to bring the University's Durham neighbors news of Duke and some of the services Duke faculty, students and staff offer to the community.
• Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership records, 2000-2012: The Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership (DDNP) collaborates with the twelve communities surrounding the Duke Campus on a wide range of neighborhood support and revitalization projects.Note: This collection requires permission from the office of origin, so it may take longer to gain access to these records. 

• Durham Bicentennial Commission Records, 1974-1977: The Durham Bicentennial Commission, officially registered as the Durham-County American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, was a Durham County, N.C. organization responsible for coordinating and planning events to celebrate the American Bicentennial in 1976.

• ECOS Records, 1969-2001: ECOS (Environmentally Conscious Organization of Students) is a Duke University and Durham, N.C. environmental activist group founded in 1969. ECOS is also known as the Environmental Alliance.

• Edgemont Community Center records, 1955-1973: The Edgemont Community Center was incorporated in 1941 in Durham, NC, as an autonomous, service oriented center located in a low-income white neighborhood beset by numerous social problems. The center came to serve a more racially mixed population in later years.

• Robert Lee Flowers Records, 1891-1968: Of particular interest in President Flowers's Durham-related activities is his tenure as a trustee for the North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University). A long-time Durham resident (he moved to Durham with Trinity College in 1892), he was also a director of both the Durham and Southern Railway Company and the Fidelity Bank of Durham and married the daughter of prominent tobacco entrepreneur and former chair of the Trinity College Board of Trustees E. J. Parrish.

• Lillian Baker Griggs Papers, 1930-1949: Before Griggs came to Duke as the librarian of the Woman's College, she served from 1911-1923 as Librarian of the Durham County Public Library. Her memoirs, in box 3, include an account of this period of her life. Although Griggs's papers held by the University Archives focus mostly on her time at Duke, additional documentation about her work with the Durham County Library may be found at the North Carolina Collection of the Durham County Library.
• Office of Durham and Community Affairs records, 1988-2022: The Office of Durham and Community Affairs (DCA) was established to build partnerships and develop programs that support affordable housing and health, community development, food security, and public education in Durham, North Carolina. DCA connects Durham and community members to resources at Duke University and Duke Health. Note: This collection requires permission from the office of origin, so it may take longer to gain access to these records. 

• Ron Grunwald Papers, 1973-1980: The papers of Duke student/alum Ron Grunwald document his involvement with several progressive Duke, Durham, or North Carolina-based organizations, including the Kudzu Alliance (anti-nuclear), the Triangle Vigil Committee, and the opposition to the construction of Durham's East-West Expressway.

• David Martin Henderson Papers, 1964-1989: (Note that the correspondence of this series is restricted, and Mr. Henderson's written permission must be obtained before it can be accessed. Contact the Duke University Archives for assistance.)

• Ellen Huckabee Papers, 1924-1979: Woman's College administrator Ellen Huckabee's papers contain documentation about her strong opposition to the construction of Durham's East-West Expressway. There is also a small amount of documentation about the Town and Campus Club, 1962-1965.

• Douglas M. Knight Records, 1949-1970: Of particular interest here are the controversies related to the sale of Duke's married student housing near Durham's Damar Court Apartments and the purchase of the Erwin Cotton Mill houses from Burlington Industries, most of which were demolished in order to build Central Campus housing. These controversies are the subject of Eric Moyen's Ph.D. dissertation, "Carolina's Campus and Community: The Historical Development of Town and Gown Relations in Twentieth-Century North Carolina," cited on the "Secondary Sources" tab.

• Legal Aid Clinic Reports, 1932-1939: Documents pro bono publico work by Law School students. Located in box 3 of the School of Law Reference collection. 

• Men's Student Government Association Records, 1931-1967: Includes records of joint efforts by the MSGA and NCCU on Durham projects

• Program in Education Records, 1985-1990: The collection contains documentation about the Duke/Durham Fellows Seminars, which were started to forge closer relations between Duke faculty and Durham educators.

• Dorothy Newsom Rankin Papers, 1894-1997: Daughter of Duke, and later Durham, official D. W. Newsom, Duke alum, and wife of Department of Political Science Chair Robert S. Rankin, Dorothy Newsom Rankin was heavily involved in Duke and Durham cultural activities. She attended many musical and theatrical performances on the Duke campus, was active in several town-and-gown women's clubs, and was a long-time member of the Choral Society of Durham. She also led the restoration of the "Marse Jack" bell in the 1980s. Additional documentation about her Durham community activities may be found at the North Carolina Collection of the Durham County Library.

• Religious Council Records, 1937-1971: The annual reports in Box 1 include information about community service projects. Box 1 also contains documentation about the Edgemont Community Center.

• Terry Sanford Records and Papers, 1945-1998: President Sanford's papers include documentation of Durham-related projects that he and/or Duke University was involved in, including the Durham Progress Group, an informal gathering of town leaders interested in the revitalization of downtown Durham. The "Speeches" subseries also contains the texts of speeches given to local organizations, often on the Durham Progress Group or the relationship between Duke and Durham.
• Woman's College records, 1928-1974: This collection contains information about the Edgemont Community Center, located in boxes 30 and 35. The Learning-Living Experiments in box 35 may also be of some interest. 
• Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) at Duke University records, 1920-1969:  These records were produced by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) at Duke Universityin the course of their activities as a student religious organization. Some projects include the Edgemont Community Center, Wright's Refuge, Freshman Orientation Week, publication of the student handbook, Religious Emphasis Week, Dads' Day, discussion groups, vespers services, Bible study, and student ushers for Duke Chapel. 

• Young Women's Christian Association, Duke University Chapter. Records, 1930-1970: This collection includes records concerning the Edgemont Community Center, Wright's Refuge, and other community service projects.
• Young Men's--Young Women's Christian Association at Duke University records, 1968-1979: Collection contains material pertaining to the activities and organization of the YM-YWCA, a social activist religious group, including annual reports, flyers, handbooks, directories, and materials documenting the joint efforts of the YMCA and YWCA around the same period. The handbooks include essays on race relations, sexuality, civil rights and social change, and the experiences of foreign and minority students, as well as University history and administrative information.

In addition to the collections mentioned here, it may be worthwhile to browse the collection guides for those presidents whose tenure followed Trinity College's move to Durham (some of whom are mentioned above). Like President Terry Sanford's records and papers, mentioned above, they are likely to contain documentation on formal Duke partnerships with the Durham community, as well as the texts of speeches and presentations given to local Durham organizations. Links to the collection guides for each president's records and papers may be found in our "Duke's Presidents" online exhibit.