Duke University

Duke University, private, coeducational institution in Durham, North Carolina, affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded as a secondary school in 1838, it was reincorporated in 1851 as Normal College. It was renamed Trinity College in 1859. In 1924, through the endowment of the American industrialist James Buchanan Duke, the facilities were expanded and the institution gained university status. Although the university took the name Duke, Trinity College remains the undergraduate college of arts and sciences. The university also has schools of business, divinity, engineering, environment, law, medicine, and nursing, and a graduate school of arts and sciences. Degrees are awarded at all university levels.

The university press publishes a number of periodicals, including Duke Mathematical Journal, Ecology, History of Political Economy, and Journal of Personality. The law school publishes Law and Contemporary Problems. Duke University Medical Center is internationally known. Included in the university library are special collections on the history of the Commonwealth of Nations, on American literature and art, and on the history of medicine. The university also maintains the Duke University Primate Center, which houses endangered species of primates. Other research facilities at Duke University include the Center for International Studies, the Marine Laboratory, the Institute of the Arts, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy.