The Gardens were a gift from Mary Duke Biddle in honor of her mother, Sarah P. Duke (Mrs. Benjamin N.). Construction began in 1932 and the site was open to the public in 1934. Ellen Shipman (1869-1950) designed the plans for both the construction and the plantings for the new gardens. Collection contains materials pertaining to the origins and activities of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens including planting plans, calendars, correspondence, feasibility studies, annual reports, a card catalog of plantings, and publicity. Materials in the collection date from 1926-2012.

General files contains materials pertaining to the origins and activities of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens including planting plans, calendars, correspondence, feasibility studies, annual reports, a planting card catalog, and publicity. Also in the collection is a VHS videocassette from 1996 "A Capital Campaign for the Center for the Duke Gardens," featuring Ted Koppel, and a DVD from 2004, "Crown Jewel of Duke University." The William Louis Culberson papers series contains administrative records pertaining to his directorship of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens from 1978-1998. Culberson was also Hugo L. Blomquist Professor of Botany and Chairman of the Department of Botany at Duke University. Also included are the records of Richard Fillmore, Assistant Director of the Gardens and "Horticulturalist in Charge." A further series of Garden Director Larry T. Daniels' papers is also part of the collection. These materials range in date from 1926-2012 and include correspondence, reports, donor material, personnel files, newspaper and magazine clippings, plans and drawings, and material relating to the creation of the Doris Duke Center.