Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment, prompting the institution to change its name in honor of his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The University is organized into two undergraduate and eight graduate schools. The undergraduate student body comes from all 50 U.S. states and 106 countries. In its 2009 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university's undergraduate program eighth among national universities,America's Best Colleges 2008. U.S. News & World Report, 2007. Retrieved on September 3, 2007. while ranking the medical, law, and business schools among the top 12 in the country.America's Best Graduate Schools 2009. U.S. News & World Report, 2009. Retrieved on April 23, 2009. Duke University was ranked as the thirteenth best university in the world in the 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings of universities worldwide.

Duke's research expenditures are among the largest 20 in the U.S. and its athletic program is one of the nation's elite. Competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the athletic teams have won nine national championships, including three by the men's basketball team.

Besides academics, research, and athletics, Duke is also well known for its sizable campus and Gothic architecture, especially the Duke Chapel. The forests surrounding parts of the campus belie the University's proximity to downtown Durham. Duke's 8,610 acres (35 km²) contain three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Construction projects have updated both the freshmen-populated Georgian-style East Campus and the main Gothic-style West Campus, as well as the adjacent Medical Center over the past five years.

History

main: History of Duke University

Beginnings

In 1924, Washington Duke's son, James B. Duke, established The Duke Endowment with a $40 million ($434 million in 2005 dollars) trust fund. The annual income of the fund was to be distributed to hospitals, orphanages, the Methodist Church, three colleges, and Trinity College. William Preston Few, the president of Trinity College, insisted that the university be named Duke University, and James B. Duke agreed that it would be a memorial to his father. Money from the endowment allowed the University to grow quickly. Duke's original campus (East Campus) was rebuilt from 1925 to 1927 with Georgian-style buildings. By 1930, the majority of the Gothic style buildings on the campus one mile (1.6 km) west were completed, and construction on West Campus culminated with the completion of Duke Chapel in 1935.