Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

Robert Donaldson Jr.

Robert Donaldson Jr. (1800–1872), a Fayetteville native, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1818 and moved to New York, where he became a banker and a patron of the arts. When the trustees asked President David L. Swain in 1843 to seek his advice on new society halls and the grounds, Donaldson recommended his friend Alexander Jackson Davis and arranged his 1844 visit, which began Davis's work at Chapel Hill.

Source: NCpedia: Donaldson, Robert, Jr.

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Robert Donaldson Jr. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Robert Donaldson Jr.’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Robert Donaldson has A. J. Davis design a campus hall for the Philanthropic Society that is never built In the 1830s alumnus Robert Donaldson, by then living in New York, hired Alexander Jackson Davis to design a hall for the Philanthropic Society on the campus. It was not built, but Donaldson kept up a correspondence with President Swain about gardens, architects and furnishings that led to Davis's later work at Chapel Hill. People: Robert Donaldson Jr.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 21
  2. Trustees tell Swain to ask Robert Donaldson about plans for society halls and a landscape gardener In October 1843 the board directed President Swain to write to Robert Donaldson in New York about how best to get plans for new literary society halls and to find someone skilled in laying out the grounds, and at what price. People: Robert Donaldson Jr.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 20
  3. Swain authorizes Donaldson to bring architect A. J. Davis to the university In a letter from Raleigh dated November 28, 1843, Swain told Donaldson he might invite Alexander Jackson Davis to Chapel Hill to make working drawings and specifications, with $100 for travel. The letter opened Davis's service as the university's architect and planner of its grounds. People: Alexander Jackson Davis, Robert Donaldson Jr.Search the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 21

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Robert Donaldson Jr., those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Robert Donaldson Jr. Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

Search further

Ready-made searches in other catalogs and collections. Results are not checked against this person.

Books about Robert Donaldson Jr.

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched by name. The catalogs give no dates for this person, so results may include other people with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026