“A Worthy Place”: Durham, Duke, and the World of the 1920s-1930s

The city of Durham saw great changes leading up to, during, and after the construction of Duke University a century ago. This exhibit explores how the project of building the new university intervened in the life of the city and its inhabitants.

The Scientific Vision of Women

This exhibit presents the critical role of women in science across centuries, geographical regions, and disciplines, including anatomy, chemistry, physics, natural history, astronomy, geology, aeronautics, and statistics.

Rift/Fault: Photographs by Marion Belanger

Documentary photographer Marion Belanger captures the cultural landscape where geology and the built environment intersect along the volcanically active Mid-Atlantic Rift in Iceland the earthquake-prone San Andreas Fault in California.

Joseph Conrad’s Polish-Ukrainian “Graveyard”

This exhibit commemorates both the centenary of author Joseph Conrad’s death (1924) and the tenth anniversary of the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine (2014), the place of his birth.

Whatever Happened to Radicalism?

This exhibit offers a glimpse of the world seen by George Vickers (1943-2018), a lifelong social activist, sociologist, and human rights advocate, whose papers are part of our Human Rights Archive.

Palliative Care with Compassion

This exhibit offers a small selection of the papers of Dr. Richard Payne (1951-2019), an internationally recognized palliative care expert at Duke whose work focused on medicine, spirituality, and end of life care for African Americans.

Previous Library Exhibits

Check out some of our past library exhibits online.