James H. Semans papers, 1878-1955, bulk 1936-1953

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This collection is currently being reprocessed to incorporate additional material before it becomes fully open to researchers in January 2027. This work is being funded by a grant from The Duke Endowment. For more information, please contact the Rubenstein Library.

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Restrictions:
Access to this material will be consistent with the 1991 agreement between Duke University Library, James H. Semans, and Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. Access to any correspondence, legal papers,...
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Summary

Creator:
Semans, James H.
Abstract:
James Hustead Semans (1910-2005) was an American urologist and the second husband of Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. This collection documents the history of the Semans family of Uniontown, PA and his medical training and career, which involved stateside military service during World War II, private practice in Atlanta, GA, and teaching at Duke University. His clinical interests included medical rehabilitation and marriage counseling, and he was the creator of polylingual lecturing.
Extent:
3.5 Linear Feet (Five document boxes, one flat box, and one oversize folder.)
Language:
Material in English.
Collection ID:
RL.13055

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains correspondence, financial and legal records, writings and speeches, scrapbooks and photographs, audio and video recordings, appointment books, and genealogical records related to the Semans family of Uniontown, PA, particularly James Hustead Semans. It documents his life prior to his 1953 marriage, as well as his medical training and career.

Biographical / historical:

James Hustead Semans (1910-2005) was born on 30 May 1910 in Uniontown, PA to Virginia Belle Smith Semans (1866-1944) and Thomas Breckenridge Semans (1861-1941). He graduated from Lawrenceville School (NJ) in 1928, where he played violin in the orchestra and studied French, German, and Latin. He went on to earn an AB in pre-medical sciences from Princeton University in 1932 and an MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1936. He spent the summer of 1935 as a ward clerk at Notre Dame Bay Memorial Hospital in Newfoundland before becoming a medical resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1936-1943 under Hugh H. Young in urology. His residency also took him to St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre, SD from 1938-1939, where he was under Theodore Riggs in general medicine and surgery, and Ancker Hospital in St. Paul, MN from 1941-1942, where he was under F. E. B. Foley in transurethral surgery. After his voluntary military service, he operated a private medical practice in Atlanta, GA from 1947-1953 and became involved in professional medical organizations. As a medical lecturer (which is how he met his wife in May 1953), he was the creator of polylingual lecturing.

Semans commitment to medical and vocational rehabilitation began while he was in the US Army Medical Corps from 1944-1946 at McGuire General Hospital in Richmond, VA then Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX. This developed into an interest in local, state, and national programs, especially after he came to Duke University as an Assistant Professor of Urology in 1953 and directed the hospital's rehabilitation program from 1957-1963 (he rose to Professor in 1960 and retired in 1980). He served in leadership roles with the United Medical Research Foundation of North Carolina (Founding President, 1955-1958), North Carolina Rehabilitation Association Executive Board (1955-1958), National Paraplegia Foundation (Vice President, 1955-1972), Operation Breakthrough Board of Directors (1965-1967), and the Governor's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped (1962-1971). These activities brought him into contact with Mary Switzer and Howard Rusk, and he was named Mary Switzer Scholar at New York University in 1984.

Semans also supported the arts, with his primary institutional focus being the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA), where he was the first Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1964-1981 and Co-President of the Summer Sessions beginning in 1967 (which became the International Music Program that ran for over 30 years). One of his main duties was the promotion of the institution and arts education, and he later sat on the North Carolina Arts Council (1982-?). He was a trustee of Louisburg (1969-?) and Warren Wilson (1977-?) colleges and a founding trustee of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation (1960-2004; Chair, 1983-2004?), and he started the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Foundation in 1982.

Semans awards include the National Conference of Christians and Jews National Brotherhood Award (1969), North Carolina Award for significant contributions to the arts (1972), and North Carolina Society Award (1986), all of which he received jointly with his wife Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (1920-2012). Together, they had four children: Jenny Lillian Semans (1954-2016), an unnamed child (1956-1956), James Duke Biddle Trent Semans (1957-2018), and Elizabeth Gotham Semans (born 1962).

Semans died on 21 April 2005 in Durham, and he is buried in Maplewood Cemetary next to his wife and three of his children.

Acquisition information:
The James H. Semans papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as a transfer from the Semans family papers in 2024. They were originally gifts from James H. and Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans between 1969-1990.
Processing information:

This collection was originally a series in the former Semans family papers, which were processed by Madeleine Bagwell Perez and Donna Longo DiMichele, April 1991; encoded by Alvin Pollock; and updated by staff, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2017, Paula Jeannet, 2018, and Leah Tams, December 2021.

The Semans family papers were separated by series into four collections by Zachary Tumlin, February 2024, as part of a project funded by The Duke Endowment.

Material described in the Semans family papers collection guide came from almost two dozen accessions from 1969-1990. Almost three dozen additional accessions to the Semans family papers were received between 1992-2021. This collection guide could describe material from any of those accessions.

Arrangement:

The James H. Semans papers are arranged into eight series: Correspondence, Financial, Legal, Subject Files, Writings and Speeches, Visual Material, Audio and Video Recordings, and Personal.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Access to this material will be consistent with the 1991 agreement between Duke University Library, James H. Semans, and Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans. Access to any correspondence, legal papers, and financial papers is restricted and will be permitted only with prior written permission, which should be sought from the chair of the board of the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. This restriction shall be in place until 1 January 2027, after which all material shall be considered open for research.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile audiovisual/photographic formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

This collection is currently being reprocessed to incorporate additional material before it becomes fully open to researchers in January 2027. This work is being funded by a grant from The Duke Endowment. For more information, please contact the Rubenstein Library.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], James H. Semans papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1ct80