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Department Spotlight: Medical Center Archives

Collecting and preserving a record of Duke's medical enterprise

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Matthew Shangler, Rusty Koonts and Jolie Braun, left to right,are the archivists who manage more than 10,000 linear feet of materials documenting the history of Duke University Medical Center. Photo by Marsha A. Green.

 

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Department: Medical Center Archives

Years at Duke: The Medical Center Archives department was established in 1977, although the Medical Center began actively collecting materials in 1965.

Employees: Three archivists

Who they are: Medical Center Archives is the department within the Medical Center Library & Archives that collects, preserves, and provides access to records that tell the history of Duke University Medical Center. The collection includes more than 10,000 linear feet of materials documenting the past 80 years, including papers of W. C. Davison, the first dean of the School of Medicine, and oral histories of people such as Dr. Keith Brodie, chair of the Psychiatry Department and president of Duke University from 1985 to 1993. The Archives also has many artifacts used in medical work, including a doctor's bag of a first-year medical student from 1941. The Medical Center Archives works closely with Duke University Archives.

What they are known for: Working closely with administrative staff, particularly in senior positions, to ensure that documents are archived consistently and appropriately. "We collect the documents, photographs, correspondence and other artifacts that illustrate how Duke University Medical Center has grown and what it has achieved," said Jolie Braun, one of the archivists.

Significant achievement:  Making approximately 6,800 items available from the Archives available electronically on MEDSpace. These items include the Foundations of Excellence collection, which consists of more than 600 digitized photographs that document the first few decades of Duke Medicine's academic, clinical and research activities.

What they can do for you: For departments that are part of Duke Medicine, the Archives staff can help determine which administrative papers should be archived and provide storage for permanently valuable records in a climate controlled, secure environment at no charge.  For anyone researching events or people, buildings or topics associated with the Medical Center, Archives staff can assist in finding and delivering documents. 

"People come to us for all sorts of reasons," said Rusty Koonts, director of the Medical Center Archives. "We've recently helped create a departmental timeline, complete with photos, and dug deep into the records to help the School of Medicine's Curriculum Revision Committee understand what went into the curriculum revision of 1963 that introduced Duke's unique research year for third year students."

How they make a difference: On an institutional level, the Medical Center Archives protects Duke University Medical Center by ensuring that appropriate records are kept in a secure, well-organized manner. For individual researchers, the staff strive to make research involving the medical center's staff less onerous. "We are trying to make ourselves more visible and more welcoming so that more people will realize the wealth of information that we have available," Braun said.

A doctor's bag owned by medical student Bernard Fetter in the 1940s is one of many items in the Medical Center Archives.

Big Goals: Being more proactive so that more people understand the value of archiving materials, and how to access materials already archived for research purposes.

Hidden department fact: For many years, staff at the Medical Center Archives were responsible for maintaining the university's only columbarium - a repository for ashes for people who have been cremated. The columbarium is in the Searle Center hallway, one floor below the Medical Center Library.

"The previous archivist was also an ordained minister," Koonts said. "He would receive the ashes, put them in an urn, have the plaque made, and work with facilities management and the pastoral care to have a small memorial service when the ashes were interred in the wall behind the plaques. I'm happy to say that that responsibility now resides with Pastoral Services."