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The Falcon Lair residence was purchased by Doris Duke in April, 1953 primarily for use on her occasional visits to California and for use while she was in transit to or from her residence in Honolulu. Compared to her other estates, the residence was not large, however, being located in the hills above Benedict Canyon overlooking Beverly Hills, it served as a retreat from public life. Soon after the home was purchased, Doris Duke hired Tony Duquette to supervise the entire redecoration and remodeling of Falcon Lair. The home was renovated again in the mid-1970s. Miss Duke lived at Falcon Lair until her death in 1993, and in 1998 the property was sold by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The collection is arranged into two series: Administrative Records and Architectural Records. It spans the years 1937 to 1999, beginning with the purchase and interior renovation of the home and ending with maintenance and general upkeep of the home after Doris Duke's death in 1993. The collection primarily documents the expenses and daily operations of renovating, running, and maintaining the Falcon Lair residence, and includes invoices and receipts for services and repairs, correspondence, memoranda, and telegrams relating to routine matters of the residence, expenses, and photo inventories of furniture, fixtures, and other household items. A majority of the architectural records detail alterations and additions to the Falcon Lair residence.

On October 15, 1958 the Duke Gardens Foundation was incorporated with the purpose of "developing thereon agricultural, botanical & horticultural exhibits for the purpose of scientific experiments and of public inspection, instruction, education & enjoyment." Over the period of six years, Doris Duke was personally involved in the physical design of the Indoor Display Gardens, in which various gardens were carefully designed, planned, and developed from the point of view of authenticity. The gardens were opened to the public in 1964, and included 11 unique gardens for visitors to enjoy. Doris Duke continued her involvement with her gardens throughout her life, bringing designers with her to modify them during the summer season when they were closed to tourists. The Duke Gardens Foundation was officially dissolved November 13, 2001 and the gardens closed to the public in 2008. The collection documents the lifecycle of the Duke Gardens Foundation, beginning with the inception of the Duke Gardens Foundation and the design and creation of the various indoor display gardens that comprised Duke Gardens, including the associated purchases of plants and bulbs. The materials follow the daily operations of Duke Gardens, including modifications and general upkeep of the gardens, visitor and tour information, and operations of the Foundation itself. The materials end with the general management of Duke Gardens after Doris Duke's death in 1993 and the final dissolution of the Foundation in 2001. Materials include correspondence, inventories, specifications for various architectural projects at Duke Gardens, invoices and vouchers for repairs and reconstruction to the greenhouses, surveys and reports, financial ledgers, and a multitude of both black and white and color photographs and slides of the different gardens.

Frank Clyde Brown (1870-1943) served as Professor of English at Trinity College and Duke University, and as Comptroller and University Marshall of Duke University. He oversaw the initial construction of Duke University's West Campus and the renovation of East Campus. Brown also founded the North Carolina Folklore Society. The Frank C. Brown Papers contain correspondence, logs, diaries, reports, lantern slides, notebooks, clippings, a scrapbook, and other materials. While some papers relate to teaching and English department activities, the bulk of the collection concerns the construction of Duke University, including correspondence with the Horace Trumbauer architectural firm, builder and manufacturer information, construction progress reports, travel diaries of visits to other campuses, and records of James B. Duke's views on architecture and involvement in campus planning. English.

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University teaches, engages in, and presents documentary work grounded in collaborative partnerships and extended fieldwork that uses photography, film/video, audio, and narrative writing to capture and convey contemporary memory, life, and culture. The collection includes work created by students enrolled in documentary studies courses at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), sponsored by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

The Stone Circles records contain materials documenting the history of the organization. These include press clippings, board meeting minutes. staff and financial information, program files, newsletters, event information, and correspondence.

The Tobacco Collection contains material assembled by library staff related to the manufacturing, sale, and use of tobacco in the United States, particularly in North Carolina and Virginia. There are also items referring to tobacco cultivation and processing. Printed advertising predominates, but the contents also include items that are not paper products. Typical paper-based items include cigarette and cigar advertising trade cards of W. Duke, Sons & Co., Lorillard, Liggett and Myers, John Player and Sons, and various other American and British companies; tobacco advertisements by Krueger and Brown of N.Y.; and souvenir tobacco albums published by Allen & Ginter. Other forms of advertising in the collection include broadsides, pamphlets, books, leaflets, letters, envelopes, cigar and cigarette boxes and labels, cans, a plate, wrappers, labels, and catalogs. Images include birds, animals, battle scenes, and persons, including a series on "African Types."

Advertising copy writer and artist who managed his own agency, Jean W. Yeager, Inc. based in Dallas, Tex. Later taught at several Waldorf Method institutions; director of the Anthroposophical Society in America. Collection spans the years 1959-2012 and includes correspondence, direct marketing printed materials, print advertisements and recordings of radio and television broadcast commercials and public service messages that document Yeager's career producing advertising primarily for companies based in Texas. Examples of Yeager's original art are also included. Formats include audio- and videocassettes, audio reels and 16mm films. Companies represented include 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, Radio Shack, Republic Health Corporation, Schenley, Southland Corporation, and Sterling Optical. The collection also touches on Yeager's involvement with the Anthroposophical Society and related enterprises, including Waldorf Method schools such as the Kimberton Waldorf School in Detroit. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Youth Document Durham and Durham Works were programs sponsored by Duke University and the Center for Documentary Studies that brought together young people ages 12–16 from diverse Durham communities to document their lives, local history, and contemporary social issues through photography, oral history, and narrative writing. The Youth Document Durham and Durham Works project records span the years 1995-2008 and document the process of training young people in Durham, North Carolina schools to use photography and other arts, oral histories, and writing to record the history and members of their communities and the local issues affecting the students' lives. Many of the students are African American or Hispanic and their topics often highlight social conditions and race relations in African American and Hispanic communities in Durham neighborhoods and in a few other locations, including South Carolina. Topics explored by participants, both interviewers and interviewees, include crime, food cultures, jobs and education, music, racism, technology, teen violence, work cultures, and tobacco cultivation and its social context. The bulk of the collection is made up of hundreds of oral interviews conducted by junior high and high school students with community members, documented through audiocassette recordings, photographs, writings, and some transcripts, but there are also many program publications, project curricula, and administrative records for the program from its beginnings through 2008. There is also a database created by Center for Documentary Studies staff that records the complete information for each interview, including descriptive notes on certain interviews. This data also contains restricted information. For access to this database, please consult with a reference archivist. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

As of 2005, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University offers two master's degree programs: Master of Environmental Management (MEM) and Master of Forestry (MF). Both degree programs require students complete a master's project that presents an in-depth or quantitative analysis of a problem related to the students' particular focus area. Collection contains printed, bound master's projects. Materials range in date 1933-2005. Master's Projects for 2005 are held in the Nicholas School office. English.

The Methodist Student Center was constructed in 1957 to serve the spiritual and social life of the then 1,250 Methodist students attending Duke. The materials in the collection include two serials The Crusader and Methodist Student Movement, as well as, clippings, programs, brochures, reports and other printed material. The collection ranges in date from 1947-2000 with the bulk items dating 1954-1966.