Storyline · 1927–1948
From 1927 J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton built what became the Southern Historical Collection, a leading repository of manuscripts on the American South. He announced plans that year for what he first called the National Southern Collection, and in 1929 he gave up the headship of the history department to be free of administrative work; the Weekly reported that he had spent weeks travelling the South gathering old books, letters and diaries. After Sarah Graham Kenan gave $25,000 in 1930, the collection became the Southern Historical Collection, with Hamilton as its first director. From 1932 Elizabeth Henderson Cotten worked as his assistant and became its first curator. Hamilton retired by July 1948, after 42 years with the University.
In 1927 J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton announced plans for what he first called the National Southern Collection of manuscripts at the university. On June 10, 1929 the trustees made R. D. W. Connor head of the department of history and government in place of Hamilton, who resigned the post to be free of administrative work. The Weekly reported that Hamilton had spent several weeks travelling the South gathering old books, letters, diaries and periodicals on Southern history. In 1930 Sarah Graham Kenan of Wilmington gave the university $25,000 to buy books, letters and diaries for the collection, which after her gift became the Southern Historical Collection, with Hamilton as its first director. It was kept in the new library and grew into a leading repository of manuscripts on the American South. In 1932 Elizabeth Henderson Cotten, who had moved to Chapel Hill as a widow six years before, began work as Hamilton's assistant in building the collection, and she became its first curator. By July 29, 1948 Hamilton had resigned as director of the Southern Historical Collection, retiring after 42 years with the University of North Carolina.
Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.
People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Louis Round Wilson's 40-page review of the University of North Carolina library, subtitled on the cover a review of its past and a look at its future. Wilson had directed the library for three decades before leaving for Chicago, and the university's main library carries his name. Published by the University of North Carolina Library in Chapel Hill in 1960, with illustrations.
Judith M. Panitch's illustrated account of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library between 1992 and 2004, published by the library in 2004. It is a history of the academic library, and the notes point out its references to the Aldo P. Magi collection of Thomas Wolfe material. 50 pages with color illustrations in an oblong format.
Edward G. Holley's twelfth Hanes Lecture, given in Wilson Library on 11 April 1995, on how the library, philanthropy and publishing helped the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill become a major American university. Printed by the Hanes Foundation, 28 pages.
Exhibition booklet from the Rare Book Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published in 1996, recording the benefactors whose gifts built the collection and the items they gave. The cover reads Selections from the Rare Book Collection, and Henry Pearson, 1914 to 2006, is among the people it covers. 32 pages with illustrations.
Alexander Heard's remarks at the rededication of the Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on April 29, 1988, printed in 1990. The address also concerns J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, founder of the Southern Historical Collection housed there. Issued together with pieces by Roberta Engleman on the Rare Book Collection, H. G. Jones on the North Carolina Collection and Michael R. McVaugh on Elisha Mitchell's books.
A history of the Southern Historical Collection's first fifty years, 1930 to 1980, published in 1981 with the subtitle the pursuit of history. It concerns the collection at the university library in Chapel Hill, southern historiography and historian Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, 1878 to 1961.
John Herbert Roper's study of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, the University of North Carolina historian who built the Southern Historical Collection in Chapel Hill by gathering manuscripts across the South. The piece concerns the historiography of Reconstruction in North Carolina between 1865 and 1877 and in the Dunning school's handling of race and Jim Crow. Dated 2013.
Manuscripts Department records from the library at Chapel Hill, 1926 to 2014 with the bulk dated 1926 to 1996, approximately 25,200 items in 36 linear feet, University Archives 40052. Topics include archives and archival resources in North Carolina, audiovisual archives, and the Southern Historical Collection and Southern Folklife Collection. People represented include Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, James Welch Patton, and Carolyn Andrews Wallace.
Daniel W. Barefoot arranges first-hand recollections of the University of North Carolina by decade, from the 'infant university' of the 1790s through the Civil War years when promise turned to despair, the rebuilding of the 1870s, the 'frosh' life of the 1880s, wartime fame in the 1940s, the controversies of the 1960s and the bicentennial of the 1990s. Thomas Wolfe's student years appear among the voices. Published by John F. Blair of Winston-Salem in 2008, 257 pages.
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
Collected first-hand and second-hand stories from the Eno River valley as told from the standpoint of African Americans and Native people who have lived along the river in Orange and Durham counties, from prehistory to the present day. Issued by the Eno River Association in Durham as volume 10, number 2 of the Eno Journal, 2021, 106 pages with illustrations.
Jean Bolduc's collection of oral history interviews with Black residents of Durham and Orange counties, published by The History Press in 2016, 125 pages with photographs and portraits. The narrators are the poet Jaki Shelton Green, civil rights lawyer Floyd McKissick, Walter Jackson, Nate Davis, Brenda Stephens, Diane Wright, Jackie Wagstaff and Michelle Johnson, and a closing chapter deals with the Ku Klux Klan. The interviews document Black life and race relations in the two counties across the twentieth century.
A handbook to the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, published by the museum in 1983 for its twenty-fifth anniversary. It combines a catalog of the collection with a history of the museum, which opened in 1958. Includes a bibliography on pages xviii to xx. 170 pages with illustrations, 22 cm.
History of the first 75 years of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, produced by the school in 2007. Includes a chronology of the school, biographical sketches of its deans and a register of alumni. Printed by PhotoBook Press of Minneapolis, 119 pages with illustrations, some in color.
The papers of Willie Person Mangum, 1792 to 1861, a lawyer, judge and United States senator from the part of Orange County that later became Durham County. Five volumes of correspondence published by the State Department of Archives and History beginning in 1950, arranged by date from 1807 to 1894, with illustrations, portraits and folding maps. A source for antebellum North Carolina and national politics, the Whig Party and the Mangum family.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1951), Journal of American History (1951), The Journal of Southern History (1953), Journal of American History (1953), The Journal of Southern History (1954), The Journal of Southern History (1955), The Journal of Southern History (1957), Journal of American History (1957), The American Historical Review (1957).
Willis P. Whichard's biography of David Lowry Swain, governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 until his death in 1868. The subtitle ties Swain, nineteenth-century North Carolina and the university together, and the book belongs with the lives of college presidents and governors. Published in 2022.
Jean Bolduc's 2016 collection of interviews with African American residents of Durham and Orange counties, presented as short biographies. The subjects are Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), the first African American admitted to UNC's law school, Walter Jackson, Brenda Stephens, Nate Davis, poet Jaki Shelton Green, Jackie Wagstaff, Diane Wright and Michelle Johnson, with a closing chapter on the Ku Klux Klan. 125 pages with illustrations.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Hamilton and the Southern Historical Collection, 1927–1948.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/hamilton-shc-storyline-1927/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
