May 1, 2024 – May 30, 2024
Location: Hubbard Case
Duke (and Trinity College before) celebrated May Day and the crowning of a May Queen from 1921 to the late 1960s. A grand event, often hosted on East Campus by the Woman’s Student Government Association, May Day served as a way to close out the year and to celebrate the May Queens, who were voted by their peers. Respected leaders in the Woman’s College and throughout their lives, many May Queens also served as Trustees at Duke, including Nancy Hanks (W’49) and Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke (W’67).
Biographical Info: Duke Alumni Association, Duke University Archives
Big thanks to Theodore Segal (T’77) for his blog post about Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke’s time as a May Queen: https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2020/10/01/may-queen/.
