Centennial teams collage.

In 1924, a gift from James B. Duke turned Trinity College into a fully-fledged research university — but certainly not the Duke we know today. One hundred years ago, Duke's places were different: the university had no lush gardens, no hospital, no towering chapel. What’s more, its people were different: Duke was segregated for almost 40 years, with its first Black undergraduates enrolling in 1963.

Today, Duke is an internationally recognized university and health system, attracting some of the world’s brightest minds. But what did it take to get here? How did time and place shape the trajectory of the institution? What accomplishments should we celebrate? What historic injustices threaten equity today? These were some of the many questions to ask as we mark the university’s centennial.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, four Bass Connections project teams explored the nuances of Duke’s 100-year history. Their research touched on various defining features of Duke’s first century, such as medicine, education, athletics and the Bull City itself.

By the Numbers

Centennial-by-the-numbers-image

Team Summaries

Agents of Change: Portraits of Activism in the History of Duke Health

Team leaders: School of Medicine: Pediatrics (Jeffrey Baker), Medical Center Library: Archives (Rebecca Williams) 

Student participation: 6 undergraduate students, 5 graduate students

Community partners: North Carolina State University

This oral history project set out to document the work of activists and “change agents” throughout the history of Duke Health. 

After exploring existing scholarship on the history of Duke Health, team members identified a variety of individuals who had an impact on the trajectory of Duke Health and the Schools of Medicine and Nursing during the second half of the twentieth century. Team members interviewed 20 individuals and created a video gallery and oral history digital exhibit to showcase the activists, organizing their work around themes such as racial justice, community health, educational equality, reproductive justice, LGBTQIA+ and sexual health, and labor rights. 

Agents of Change team members with recording equipment
Agents of Change team members with recording equipment

Duke and the Evolution of Higher Education

Team leaders: Arts & Sciences: History (Edward Balleisen), Student Affairs (Mary Pat McMahon), Office of Undergraduate Education (Jenette Wood Crowley) 

Student participation: 12 undergraduate students, 1 graduate student

In the past half-century, Duke University has transformed from a well-regarded regional institution to a leading global university. But what has taken place over the last five decades to shape Duke into the institution it is today? 

This project team generated a set of oral history interviews that provide perspectives on the trends that have remade Duke over the past half-century. Team members evaluated and chose a diverse set of informants, with a focus on administrators, faculty and staff members who could speak to Duke’s evolution over time.

Race and Sports: C.B. Claiborne and Duke Men’s Black Basketball History

Team leaders: Arts & Sciences: Education (Martin Smith), Arts & Sciences: African and African American Studies (Javier Wallace) 

Student participation: 2 undergraduate students, 2 graduate students

Community Partners: Art is Cool

Duke University men’s basketball is one of the most storied programs in basketball history; however, the program has a complicated history and relationship with Black America.

This team set out to explore this history through the story of Claudius B. (“C.B.”) Claiborne, Duke’s first Black student-athlete and a member of the Duke men’s basketball team. By focusing on C.B.’s story, which includes active participation in the struggle for Black liberation on campus and the Allen Building Takeover, the team examined both the individual experience of the first Black student-athlete on campus as well as the institutional and national histories of Black activism and sports. 

Drawing on work begun by a 2022 Story+ team, team members produced a documentary short film on C.B.’s story and legacy – C.B. Power to the Player – which centers the role of sports, specifically the Duke men’s basketball program, and race in the life of the university.

Team leader Javier Wallace (white hat) speaks with attendees at the 2024 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase.
Team leader Javier Wallace (white hat) speaks with attendees at the 2024 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase. 

World Building at Duke in an Emerging Durham: 1924-1932

Team leaders: Arts & Sciences: Information Science and Information Studies (Robert Buerglener), Arts & Sciences: Art, Art History and Visual Studies (Hannah Jacobs, Victoria Szabo, Edward Triplett)

Student participation: 25 undergraduate students, 7 graduate students

The establishment of the Duke Endowment in 1924 enabled the massive building campaign that gave us the Duke University we know today. That building history has been researched in its essential parts, but two aspects remain under-investigated: how the building process itself developed from a series of plans that included competing concepts of landscape, social organization and place; and how that building process intersected with and impacted local individuals, communities and institutions.

This team examined how Durham and Duke's built and natural environments were shaped by and contributed to the development of social, economic and political conditions during Duke’s planning and construction. The team combined historical research, geospatial analysis and 3D modeling to explore several topics, including Duke's natural and built environments; relationships between Duke and Durham; Durham's cultural and physical expansions; and the projection of the university and the city's images nationally and globally. The team’s work culminated in digital and physical exhibits in Duke Libraries: “A Worth Place”: Durham, Duke and the World of the 1920s-1930s.

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