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Local figure

William Lanier Hunt

William Lanier Hunt studied botany under W. C. Coker at UNC, graduating in 1931, and helped develop the Coker Arboretum and the university's grounds. He led the creation of the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, acquiring land around Coker's gift, designing the garden, and serving as first president of the Botanical Garden Foundation.

Source: UNC Libraries: William Lanier Hunt Papers, 1880s-1996 (finding aid)

4 indexed works are connected with this person.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Conservation project : the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum and Gray Bluff Garden

White, P. S. · 1991

Conservation assessment of the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum and Gray Bluff Garden prepared by P. S. White in January 1991, treating the two Chapel Hill sites as natural areas connected with the North Carolina Botanical Garden. It pairs with the plant checklist compiled for the same ground that year.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Recording with William Lanier Hunt, 1978 (Chapel Hill Historical Society cassette)

1978

William Lanier Hunt, recorded on cassette in 1978 for the Chapel Hill Historical Society. Part of the society's CHHS.012 Audiovisual Materials Collection.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

William Lanier Hunt papers, 1880s-1996.

Hunt, William Lanier · 1884

Papers of the horticulturist William Lanier Hunt, dated from the 1880s to 1996, about 40,000 items in 130 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5286. Topics include southern gardens and garden design, horticultural societies and teaching, the North Carolina Botanical Garden and its foundation, photographs of flowers, and the botanist William Chambers Coker at Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

UNC

Hunt, William Lanier (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Promotional materials on William Lanier Hunt, the Chapel Hill horticulturist and garden writer. Undated folder from box 5 of the Individuals and Families series, CHHS.001 Vertical File Collection.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Morgan Creek Hills subdivision begins beside the new 15-501 Bypass Work on Morgan Creek Hills, on the south side of the 15-501 Bypass, started while the bypass itself was being built between 1952 and 1954. The land had several owners, among them William Chambers Coker and Bill Hunt, and the neighborhood filled in over many years with large houses on rough, hilly lots. People: William Chambers Coker, William Lanier HuntSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 80
  2. William Lanier Hunt gives 103 acres of the Morgan Creek gorge to UNC Hunt gave UNC and the state about 103 acres of creek gorge and Catawba rhododendron bluffs along Morgan Creek, which became the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum, part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden lands.Search the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: A Conservation Garden: The North Carolina Botanical Garden at 50 (1966-2016), Vol. I
  3. The Botanical Garden Foundation is incorporated, with William Lanier Hunt as its founder Hunt, a member of the garden's advisory board, led the effort to form a private foundation to raise money, hold land and speak for the North Carolina Botanical Garden. At its first annual meeting in 1967 he was elected its first president, and 291 people and 18 organizations joined as charter members.Search the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: NCBGF Foundation History
  4. Azalea Hill, designed by William Lanier Hunt, is planted at the Botanical Garden The garden's first specific planting project, sponsored by the Men's Garden Club of Chapel Hill and designed by Hunt, neared completion as work-study students under Ken Moore set native azaleas along a new trail.Search the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: A Conservation Garden: The North Carolina Botanical Garden at 50 (1966-2016), Vol. I
  5. The Botanical Garden gives William Lanier Hunt its Flora Caroliniana Award The North Carolina Botanical Garden presented Hunt with its Flora Caroliniana Award as founder of the Botanical Garden Foundation, land donor and supporter of the garden, the day before he died.Search the index · North Carolina Botanical Garden: A Conservation Garden: The North Carolina Botanical Garden at 50 (1966-2016), Vol. I

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as William Lanier Hunt, 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.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for William Lanier Hunt 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

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Historical records and collections

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