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In 1968, Doris Duke established the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) with the express purpose of preserving, interpreting, and maintaining landscape and objects reflecting the 18th- and 19th-century architectural culture of Aquidneck Island (Newport, R.I.). In creating the foundation, Doris Duke had a simple plan: to purchase dilapidated 18th century homes and meticulously restore them so that every detail was as historically accurate as possible. During the next three decades, preservation remained a major focus among her many charitable endeavors. Saving eighty-three properties was an undertaking on a scale and scope that has never been repeated. Doris Duke gave $21.9 million to the Newport Restoration Foundation, the largest philanthropic gift she made to a single organization during her lifetime. The collection documents the daily business activities of the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF), including purchases, renovations, and renting of various NRF homes, photo inventories of the furniture and other household items at each restored NRF home, weekly progress reports, and other routine matters. The architectural records in this collection are related to the renovation of several of the NRF homes. The materials in this collection are arranged chronologically and alphabetically thereunder.

United in Praise (UP), formerly the Modern Black Mass Choir, is a student-run faith-based choir at Duke University. This collection contains materials related to United in Praise and some records of Duke Chapel's Black Campus Ministries (BCM). Materials consist of correspondence, meeting agendas and minutes for various committees, drafts of constitutions, member lists, and materials related to programming and outreach.

John E. Browning (1915-2000) was a commercial artist, designer, and naval architect who worked in the outdoor advertising and maritime industries in New Jersey. This collection spans the years 1930-1999 and includes billboard designs, photographs and digitized negatives, sketches, correspondence, and printed materials relating to commercial art and typography. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

George Henry Hood (1835-1913) was a resident of Chelsea, Essex County, Mass., and a rubber goods salesman and businessman during the latter half of the 19th century. Collection consists primarily of correspondence between Hood and his wife, Etta (Frances Henrietta) Hood, written while he was traveling on business selling rubber goods for a variety of firms. The correspondence is primarily of a personal nature, dealing with family matters and the mutual concerns of a husband and wife about being separated during his business trips. The bulk of the material dates from 1861 to 1863.