The Duke Chapel is the central focus of Duke University's West Campus, a Gothic-style church completed in 1935. The book Duke Chapel Illuminated, consisting of numerous photographs of the Chapel including the stained glass windows, carvings and statues, and other details, was published in 2001. The collection includes photographs taken for the creation of the book, especially of the stained glass windows, statues, and carvings in, and views of, the chapel, as well as some material about the production of the book.

The collection includes photographs taken for the creation of the book Duke Chapel Illuminated as well as some materials related to the production of the book. The majority of the photographs are of the stained glass windows, statues, and carvings in, and views of the chapel; also included are photographs of events in and around the chapel, as well as images from the Duke University Archives of people, events, and scenes from the history of the Chapel. A small amount of material related to the layout and production of the book Duke Chapel Illuminated is also included.

The book The Architecture of Duke University by William Blackburn, 1939, was used to number and identify the stained glass windows, as well as provide information on the location of statues and carvings. A digital copy of this book is available via HathiTrust.

The majority of images in the collection are faculty and staff portraits taken by Duke Photography staff; a few pictures of students or of other individuals not affiliated with Duke are included. The collection contains photographic prints, negatives, slides, and CDs of digital files. Most of the items are undated but appear to be from the 1980s through around 2000. Most items include a job number assigned by Duke Photography. Duke Photography is a department of the Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations. Chris Hildreth is the current director; the department also includes assistant director Les Todd and six other staff photographers.

The majority of images in the collection are faculty and staff portraits taken by Duke Photography staff; a few pictures of students or of other individuals not affiliated with Duke are included. The collection contains photographic prints of various sizes, both black-and-white and color; contact sheets; negatives, including black-and-white 35mm negatives, positive 35mm color slides, and other sizes; and seven CDs of digital files. Most of the items are undated but appear to be from the 1980s through around 2000. Most items include a job number assigned by Duke Photography, either on the back of photographs or on the plastic sheets housing the negatives.

Duke Photography, formerly called Duke University Photography, was the official photographic service of Duke University. The Duke Photography Records include many of the original photographs taken by the service from the 1960s through the 2010s.

The collection includes many of the photographs taken by Duke Photography in the course of its work as the official photographic service of Duke University. Photographs include images of administrators, students, faculty, staff, visiting speakers, artists, and celebrities, campus and classroom scenes, athletic events, buildings and construction on campus, theatrical and other performances, members of the Board of Trustees, parties and events, and many other subjects.

Photographs include both analog and digital formats; the majority of the analog photographs are on 35-mm, 120-mm, and 4x5 film, although other photographic mediums may be present. Most jobs include all or most of the original images and may or may not indicate which images were selected for use. Some indication of which images were selected for use were written on the original storage envelopes, which have not been kept as part of the collection. These notes may be indicated in the scope and contents note for that job number. Also included are notes when it is known there are missing items, instances of mislabeled photographs, and any additional materials included with the job number.

Job numbers may contain images from multiple events. Multiple job numbers are listed in the finding aid but only the first listing of each job contains a physical description of what is included in the folder. Some folders may contain multiple job numbers. It may not be indicated which images are from which event.

The description for images included in this finding aid was provided by Duke Photography in the course of their record-keeping and is incomplete. Broad subject categories divised by Duke Photography were often applied to jobs, but this categorization was not always applied or consistent. The vast majority of job numbers have some description indicating the topic, event, or individuals featured, but does not include identification of every individual, event, or date. Some job numbers do not have any description provided.