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Local figure

James K. Polk

James K. Polk graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1818. As president he bought a cotton plantation in Mississippi worked by enslaved people, used enslaved workers at the White House, and secretly bought thirteen enslaved children through an agent.

Source: White House Historical Association: James K. Polk

Also found in catalogs as James K. (James Knox) Polk.

1795–1849 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

9 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes one work by James K. Polk.

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
James K. Polk, 1846
James K. Polk, 1846

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.

By James K. Polk

James K. Polk, Washington, April 29, 1846, to D. S. L. Swain, President of the University of North Carolina

Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849 · 1846

President James K. Polk, a Mecklenburg County native and 1818 graduate of the University of North Carolina, writes from Washington on 29 April 1846 to the university's president, Swain. Polk turns down an offer to lodge at Swain's Chapel Hill home during the coming commencement, where he was to speak, and says he would rather stay at a public house.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

About James K. Polk

James K. Polk

1861 · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies of the University of North Carolina

James Knox Polk, the eleventh president of the United States and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, is the subject of this unsigned piece from the North Carolina University Magazine of February 1861. The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies printed it at Chapel Hill.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

UNC

John D. Hawkins Paper

Hawkins, John D. (John Davis), 1781-1858 · 1847

Photocopy of an 1847 letter from John D. Hawkins of Granville County to Navy Secretary John Y. Mason, arranging a visit by President James K. Polk to Raleigh, Gaston and Chapel Hill for commencement at the university. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.570.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

State Archives of NC

Polk Honorary Degree: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

1847

Photographic reproduction of the honorary degree the University of North Carolina conferred on James K. Polk in 1847, when Polk, a UNC graduate, was president of the United States. From the Historic Documents series of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's photograph collection.

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

CH Historical Society

Webb Collection

Webb family · 1835

Papers of the Webb family of Granville and Orange counties, 1835 to 1881 and 1919 to 1940. Letters from relatives in Tennessee, New York and North Carolina mention President Polk's visit to the university, Methodist preaching and the poorhouse in Guilford County, and preaching to enslaved people in 1861. Confederate regiments, the Bingham School and family genealogy also appear. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.165.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

State Archives of NC

Crabtree Jones Papers

Jones family · 1771

Papers of the Jones family of Crabtree in Wake County, 1771 to 1940: planter and legislator Nathaniel Jones (died 1828), his son Kimbrough Jones (died 1866), Mary Warren Jones, and Kimbrough Jones Jr. and his wife Mary Green Jones. Topics include plantations and enslaved people, cotton, politics and the Civil War. Chapel Hill also comes up. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.105.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

State Archives of NC

Miscellaneous Collection

State Archives of North Carolina. Private Manuscripts Archivists · 1689

The State Archives' Miscellaneous Collection: letters, deeds, land grants, surveys, wills, leases and other single items dating from 1689 to 2017, some as photocopies or transcripts from other repositories. Writers and subjects vary widely, governors and generals among them, and Orange County figures among the many places touched.

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

State Archives of NC
Show 2 more about James K. Polk

The presidents come to Chapel Hill : anniversary lecture on the bicentennial of the University of North Carolina

Leuchtenburg, William E. (William Edward), 1922-2025 · 1993

William E. Leuchtenburg's anniversary lecture for the bicentennial of the University of North Carolina, delivered on 12 October 1993. The address takes up the presidents who came to Chapel Hill, including James K. Polk. Issued as a typescript of 24 leaves, it belongs to the run of University Day and bicentennial addresses kept in the campus record.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

UNC

Jim Polk goes to Chapel Hill

Sellers, Charles, 1923-2021 · 1952

Charles Sellers on the undergraduate years James K. Polk spent at the University of North Carolina, printed in 1952 as pages 189 to 203 of a journal. Polk, who lived from 1795 to 1849 and later became president of the United States, was a student at Chapel Hill in the early nineteenth century.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Students James K. Polk and William Horn Battle board at the Tenney farmhouse The one-story frame house at 381 Tenney Circle, a dwelling on John B. Tenney's farm northeast of the campus, was probably standing by 1818 and keeps much of its early interior. James K. Polk of the class of 1818 and William Horn Battle of the class of 1820 took room and board there and walked two miles to classes. People: William Horn BattleSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 16
  2. Alumni start a fund for a marble monument to Caldwell Troubled by the crumbling sandstone monument, the alumni at the 1847 commencement voted on John Y. Mason's motion, supported by President Polk, to raise a marble memorial by gifts of three dollars each, and $210 was subscribed at once. By 1849 only $600 of an estimated $1,000 was in hand and the limit on gifts was dropped. People: James K. PolkSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 506
  3. President James K. Polk returns to Chapel Hill for the university commencement Polk came from Raleigh by carriage with Sarah Polk and a large party, lodged in an annex Nancy Hilliard built onto the Eagle Hotel for his stay, visited his old room in South Building and met Elisha Mitchell, and stayed through commencement on June 3. People: Elisha Mitchell, Nancy HilliardSearch the index · Open Orange: James K. Polk
  4. A bronze statue of James K. Polk is dedicated on University Day A bronze statue by the Marshville sculptor Stephen H. Smith, showing Polk as a young man speaking to a crowd and standing on a carved outline of the United States, was dedicated on University Day 1997.Search the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes: James K. Polk, UNC (Chapel Hill)

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. The map shows them all.

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.

  • South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as James K. Polk, 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.

Search further

The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about James K. Polk, search these catalogs.

Books about James K. Polk

Books by James K. Polk

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849, so the results are about this person and not others with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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Research sources

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Picture: James K. Polk, 1846. Public domain. Photograph by George Peter Alexander Healy; National Portrait Gallery; via Wikimedia Commons

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