The Duke Family papers on the Duke Farms residence (formerly DF.3) is part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Historical Archives which were donated to the Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The collection is arranged into four series: Administrative Records, Duke Business Office Records, Duke Farms Main Residence Records, and Architectural Records. It spans the years 1859 to 2004, beginning with the early vision and evolution of the estate by James Buchanan (J.B.) Duke, the enhancement and management of the estate by Doris Duke after she inherited control of it upon her father's death, and ending with the general upkeep of the estate after Doris Duke's death in 1993. The collection primarily documents the daily operations of running, renovating, and maintaining the Duke Farms estate, and includes deeds, mortgages, and agreements relating to the formation of J.B. Duke's Hillsborough property, daily activity reports, correspondence, notes, and specifications for various architectural projects at Duke Farms, invoices and vouchers for repairs at different buildings on the estate including the Main Residence, cattle inventories and cow registrations, financial ledgers and cashbooks, and security ledgers and reports. The architectural records are further arranged into seven sub series and contain a wide assortment of records, including blueprints, diazo prints, site plans, schedules, and maps. The materials document a variety of design, construction, and farm-related activities at Duke Farms. The arrangement of the collection varies with each series.
Duke Farms, a 2,700 acre estate located in Hillsborough, New Jersey, was developed by James Buchanan (J.B.) Duke beginning in 1893 when he purchased 327 acres of the John V. Veghte farm. Over the next 12 years J.B. Duke purchased 40 additional parcels of farmland to create a 2,000 acre estate which would eventually be named Duke Farms. Duke's plan was to create seemingly natural vistas out of the flat farmland and include lakes, fountains, roads, and statuary throughout the estate. The majority of the landscaping of Duke Farms took place between 1899 and 1911, with the primary focus being the creation of a park open and free to the public at all times of the year. During this time, he also focused on the construction of agricultural buildings rather than his personal residence, and retained the architectural firm Kendall, Taylor & Stevens to design infrastructure and buildings such as the Coach Barn devoted to agriculture and horticultural production. In 1915, Duke Farms was officially closed to the public and the estate was transformed from a park to farm land to help the war effort.
After J.B. Duke's death in 1925, Doris Duke inherited the property. Over the course of nearly seven decades she worked to continue the legacy of Duke Farms by cultivating the land to produce food crops, raising Jersey cattle, sheep, and pigs, and growing a variety of flowers serving both household needs and the commercial market. She also introduced environmentally-friendly and innovative farming methods into the operations of Duke Farms and purchased and restored farms and farmstead structures in order to forestall the rapid loss of farmland to urban development. When she died she left the majority of her estate to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with her expressed wish that Duke Farms be used to drive positive change on a number of key issues regarding the stewardship of the natural environment.
