The
abridged history of our chapter, presented below, is taken from Carl
L. Anderson's history of Phi Beta Kappa at Duke. This work was written
in 1977 and revised in 1978, 1980, and 1988.
"The Duke chapter, Beta of North Carolina, was formed in 1920
at Trinity College, Durham, on the application of eight faculty members
who has been inducted into membership while they were students at
other institutions. The statement prepared in support of Trinity's
application was pleased to point out that the college had no fewer
than eleven buildings, including a library of 54,000 volumes staffed
by six librarians..
"To meet the requirement that alumni of the College included
persons who had attained great distinction, the charter application
named United States Senators and Congressmen, college presidents,
and others, including John Spencer Bassett, Professor of History in
Trinity College. Basset had been the center of a celebrated controversy
at Trinity in 1903 that led to one of the earliest affirmations of
academic freedom by the trustees of an American institution of learning..." |
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