Mary Lillian Duke Biddle (1887-1960) was the only daughter of Sarah P. and Benjamin N. Duke and one of the heirs of the Duke family fortune. This collection documents her personal and family life in New York, NY and Durham, NC as a wealthy socialite and philanthropist in the first half of the 20th century. Her philanthropy included notable contributions to Duke University related to the Duke Homestead, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, and Duke University Libraries, and she established the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation to carry on this work after her death.
Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (1920-2012) was the only daughter of Mary Duke and Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr. This collection documents her childhood in New York, NY, enrollment at Duke University, and marriages to Josiah C. Trent and James H. Semans. She continued her family's legacy of philanthropy, with a focus on the arts, education, and rehabilitation, and became civically and politically active beginning in the 1950s, espeically in Durham and NC.