The Duke Divinity Dames, student spouses from the divinity school and graduate school of religion, met monthly during the academic year, usually in the homes of faculty members. An annual event was the February Family Night Supper, pictured above in the 1955 edition of The Duke Circuit Rider, a yearbook of student life.

According to the yearbook, which was edited that year by Reginald J. Cooke of Maiden, N.C., the monthly meetings featured “spirited and fruitful exchange of thought and opinion” on topics that included church music, entertainment in the home, the work of community agencies and the duties and privileges of being a clergyman’s wife.

Although the student body has included women from the school’s beginning in 1926, no mention was made of comparable benefits for the husbands of clergywomen. Student spouses today are welcomed to Divinity Spouses, which aims to support and sustain them within the community.