The press dubbed Doris Duke “the richest girl in the world” when she inherited a fortune from her father, Duke University founder James B. Duke, in 1925 at the age of twelve. Upon her death in 1993, Duke left the majority of her estate to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Foundation recently gave its historical archives to the RBMSCL. The Foundation’s historical archives, 800 linear feet of materials (an amount that, stacked vertically, would be four times taller than the Duke Chapel), includes photographs, architectural drawings, and motion picture footage of Doris Duke and the Duke family.
Artist’s rendering of a proposed Duke mansion.
Records of Duke’s Foundation for Southeast Asian Art and Culture, the Newport Restoration Foundation, and the Duke Gardens Foundation are in the archives as are documents related to the operation of her properties: Duke Farms, a 2,700-acre estate in Hillsborough, New Jersey, that her father created at the turn of the 20th century; Rough Point, the Duke family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island; and Shangri La, her home in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she exhibited her extensive collection of Islamic art.
All of the materials in the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation historical archives will be open for research in about two years when processing of the materials has been completed.
More information about the collection may be found here. Or, contact the RBMSCL at special-collections(at)duke.edu.
Post contributed by Tim Pyatt, University Archivist and Associate Director of the RBMSCL.
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Welcome to the blog of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University.
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New Books and Other Publications at the Rubenstein Library- Scraps
- Letters
- Paul Derval, a le plaisir de vous presenter Une vraie folie : superspectacle en 2 actes et 40 tableaux de Michel Gyarmathy.
- Casino de Paris : Tout Paris, revue en 2 actes et 45 tableaux de M.M. Albert Willemetz, Saint Granier et Jean Le Seyeux, présentée par Léon Volterra.
- Premier album descriptif de Montmartre en 1927
- New Rubenstein Library Materials Added to the Internet Archive
- Novellen und Erzählungen (Volume c.1) May 21, 2013
- Der Roman der XII; (Volume c.1) May 21, 2013
- Im Hafen : lyrische und epische Dichtungen (Volume c.1) May 21, 2013
- Die Pietisten : Roman aus dem Leben der neuesten Zeit May 21, 2013
- Die Pietisten : Roman aus dem Leben der neuesten Zeit (Volume Bd.2 c.1) May 20, 2013
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