Duke University
, private coeducational institution of
higher learning
in
Durham
,
North Carolina
, U.S.,
affiliated
with but not controlled by the
United Methodist Church
. In 1838 a regular program of education was initiated at a schoolhouse in Randolph county, to the west of Durham, and a year later the Union Institute Society was established to support and govern the school. The institution was initially incorporated as an
academy
; it reorganized as Normal College in 1851, changed its name to
Trinity College
in 1859, and moved to Durham in 1892. When a new charter was issued in 1924, the college became, under an endowment from the
tobacco
magnate
James Buchanan Duke
, Duke University; it was named for his father,
Washington Duke
, who had funded Trinity College and had persuaded its board of trustees to move the school to Durham. Total enrollment is approximately 14,000.
Duke maintained separate campuses for
undergraduate
men and women, Trinity College and Woman’s College, until they were merged in 1972 into Trinity College. Besides Trinity (
liberal arts
), the
university
includes schools of
engineering
, law, business, divinity, medicine, nursing, public policy, and the
environment
, and the graduate school offers a variety of
master’s
and
doctoral
degree programs. The university’s medical centre is one of the most highly regarded institutions of its kind in the country. Notable campus facilities include Duke University Chapel, with its Gothic-style 210-foot (64-metre) tower; the Duke Lemur Center, focusing on prosimian research; the Nasher Museum of Art, containing displays of Greek and Roman antiquities,
medieval
sculpture, and American and European paintings; and Sarah P. Duke Gardens, which includes a large section devoted to East Asian flora. Prominent Duke alumni include heads of state
Richard M. Nixon
and
Ricardo Lagos
, politicians
Ron Paul
and
Elizabeth Hanford
Dole, writer
Anne Tyler
, physicist
Charles Hard Townes
, and philanthropist
Melinda Gates
.