Yet at a major research university there are many legitimate claims to being number one. Selections from the ever changing file demonstrate the complexity of institutional history.
Claims can often be difficult to confirm.
The school has had five name changes. Like all institutions of higher education, Duke dates its origin from the earliest possible time. We know a one room log school named Brown's Schoolhouse met intermittently during the 1830s. And we know it became Union Institute in February of 1839. The school, however, dates its origin to 1838, despite its name change to Duke University in 1924, since it is clear it has had an unbroken history from the academic year 1838-39 to the present.