Manuscripts and other materials at UNC and Duke

Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have materials with a connection to Durham history.

Duke University Libraries

Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s Durham-related collections include:

• University Archives
• Student Action With Farmworkers Records
• North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Archives (administered jointly with North Carolina Central University)
• Wyatt T. Dixon Papers
• Several manuscript, oral history, and photography collections of African Americans in Durham as part of the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
• Tobacco Advertising in the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
• The Duke Family Papers
• and many more.

Duke University Medical Center Archives

Separate from the university library system, the Medical Center Archives house the legal, administrative and historical records of Duke Medical Center and Health System, as well as personal manuscripts, departmental records, photographs, and other materials related to the center.

Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, includes:

• Julian Shakespeare Carr Papers
• John Sprunt Hill Papers, George Watts Hill Papers and George Watts Hill, Jr. Papers
• Durham Kennel Club, Inc. Papers
• Debutante Ball Society of Durham, Inc. Records (see also Durham County’s Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball Collection)
• Kemp Plummer Lewis Papers
• and many more.

North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library
The North Carolina Collection attempts to acquire every published regional, county, and town history for North Carolina. The NCC also collects family histories, architectural guides, photographs, maps, city directories and phone books, and some published government records and has many other items of interest to local historians and genealogists.