History (Founded in 1838)
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences connects present-day Duke University with its ancestor institution, which was founded in 1838 in Randolph County, NC, and which was known successively as Brown’s Schoolhouse, Union Institute Academy, Normal College, and finally Trinity College.
Trinity College moved to Durham, NC, in 1892, attracted by financial support from tobacco entrepreneurs Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr. In 1924, Washington Duke’s son, James B. Duke, endowed a university built around Trinity College and named in memory of his father and his family.
East Campus was created in 1925, on what had been the Durham fairgrounds. West Campus was built in 1930. That same year, the Woman’s College, a coordinate college for women, was founded, and made its home on East Campus. Trinity College, the men’s undergraduate college, moved to West Campus. In 1972, Trinity College and the Woman’s College merged into the coeducational Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
For more information about the history of Trinity College and Duke University, please visit:
