Duke traces its origins to Union Institute in Randolph County, North Carolina. The legislature granted a rechartering of the academy as
Normal College in 1851, and the privilege of granting degrees in 1853. To keep the school operating, the trustees agreed to
provide free education for Methodist preachers in return for financial support by
the church, and in 1859 the transformation was formalized with a name change to Trinity College.In 1887, the Yale-educated John F. Crowell became president of
Trinity College. Committed to the German university model which emphasized research over recitation, Crowell directed a major
revision in the curriculum and convinced the trustees to move to a more urban location. In 1892, Trinity opened in Durham,
largely because of the generosity of Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr, influential and respected Methodists who had grown
prosperous through the tobacco industry.John C. Kilgo became president in 1894 and he greatly increased the interest of the Duke family in Trinity. Washington Duke
offered three gifts of $100,000 each for endowment, one of which was contingent upon the college admitting women "on equal
footing with men." By World War I, Trinity College had developed into one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the South.In December 1924, James B. Duke established The Duke Endowment, a
forty million dollar trust fund, the annual income of which was to be distributed in the Carolinas among hospitals, orphanages,
the Methodist Church, three colleges, and a university built around Trinity College. The president at the time, William P. Few,
insisted that the university be named Duke University, and James B. Duke agreed on the condition that it be a memorial to his
father and family.The university grew up quickly. The School of Religion and Graduate School opened in 1926, the Medical School and hospital in
1930, the School of Nursing in 1931, and the School of Forestry in 1938. The Law School, founded in 1904, was reorganized in
1930, and engineering, which had been taught since 1903, became a separate school in 1939. In 1930, the original Durham site
became the coordinate Woman's College which was merged back into Trinity as the liberal arts college for both men and women in
1972. In 1938 Duke University became the thirty-fourth member of the prestigious Association of American
Universities. The Fuqua School of Business was founded in 1969.