The Doris Duke Papers on the Rough Point Residence (formerly RP.4) are part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Historical Archives which were donated to the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The collection is arranged into two series: Administrative Records and Architectural Records. It spans the years 1922 to 1997, beginning with invoices and vouchers of furnishings, paintings, and rugs purchased for Rough Point by James Buchanan (J.B.) and Nanaline Duke, and ending with maintenance and general upkeep of the estate after Doris Duke's death in 1993. The collection primarily documents the expenses and daily operations of running, renovating, and maintaining the Rough Point estate, and includes invoices and receipts for repairs and renovations to the residence, correspondence and memoranda relating to routine matters of the residence, expenses, inventories of furniture, fixtures, and other household items, and several appraisals of the residence and its household effects. A majority of the architectural records detail alterations and additions to the Rough Point residence as designed by the Horace Trumbauer firm. The materials in this collection are arranged loosely in chronological order.
Originally built for Frederick W. Vanderbilt in 1887 in Newport, R.I., Rough Point was purchased by James Buchanan (J.B.) Duke in 1922. Soon thereafter, J.B. turned his efforts to both furnishing and renovating the estate. He hired the Horace Trumbauer firm to assist in renovating the house which was completed in 1924. When Duke passed away a year later, he left the home to his 12-year-old daughter Doris, subject to Mrs. (Nanaline) Duke's life interest. At the time, the housed was appraised for $212,000 without its contents and was considered one of the most fashionable Gilded Age mansions in Newport. Although Nanaline Duke continued to spend her summers at Rough Point, in the early 1950s she took up permanent residence in New York City and emptied Rough Point of all its furnishings. It was around this time that Doris Duke once again became a frequent visitor to Newport and turned her attention to renovating and refurnishing the family estate. Over the years, she purchased arts and antiques for the house and combined them with family treasures. Upon her death in 1993, Miss Duke bequeathed the estate to the Newport Restoration Foundation with the directive that it be opened to the public as a museum.
