Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Robert W. Winston Papers #2369, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Robert W. Winston of Chapel Hill before 1941 and in 1944 and Mr. and Mrs. Watts Carr of Durham, N.C., in May 1987 (Acc. 87034).

Additional Descriptive Resources

Original finding aid is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Agriculture--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Bertie County (N.C.)--History.
• Bird, Joseph R., fl. 1854-1861.
• College students--United States--History--19th century.
• Confederate States of America. Army--Military life.
• Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889.
• Democratic Party (N.C.)
• Diaries (Blank-books)
• Durham County (N.C.)--Politics and government.
• Families--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Granville County (N.C.)--Politics and government.
• Johns Hopkins University.
• Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875.
• Lawyers--United States--History.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.
• Legislators--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Railroads--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Correspondence.
• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence.
• United States--Politics and government--1901-1953.
• United States. Navy--Officers--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--Social life and customs.
• Virginia--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
• Whig Party (N.C.)
• Williams, Henry Horace, 1858-1940.
• Winston family.
• Winston, Robert W. (Robert Watson), 1860-1944.
• World politics--1900-1945.

Robert W. Winston was a lawyer, North Carolina state legislator, judge, historian, and biographer.

The collection comprises family, political, and professional correspondence. Papers up to 1881 are correspondence of Winston's father, Patrick Henry Winston (1820-1886), of Bertie County, N.C., concerning Whig politics, planting, and other matters. Included in this section are letters, 1854-1861, from R.W. Winston's uncle, Joseph R. Bird, United States Navy officer in California, Hawaii, China, and Japan. Also included are letters from another Bird uncle serving in the Confederate Army in Virginia, and letters from R.W. Winston's brother, George Tayloe Winston (1852-1932), while a student at the University of North Carolina, the United States Naval Academy, and Cornell University in the 1870s. The correspondence, 1881-1895, of R.W. Winston reflects his activities as a lawyer in Granville and Durham counties, N.C., railroad officer, Democratic candidate for public offices, and member of the North Carolina legislature in 1885. Correspondence, 1896-1944, is with nationally prominent persons about his biographies, autobiography, and other writings, and about public affairs. Family correspondence, 1881-1944, includes letters from R.W. Winston's brothers, G.T.; Patrick Henry Jr. (1847-1904), lawyer of Spokane, Wash.; and Francis Donnell Winston (1857-1941), judge of Bertie County; and of his sons, R.W. Winston Jr., a lawyer, including letters written while he was a soldier during World War I; and James Horner Winston (b. 1884), lawyer of Chicago, Ill. Also included are notes and source materials for various books, particularly biographies of Robert E. Lee, Andrew Johnson, and Professor Horace Williams; manuscript articles on historical, political, sectional, racial, religious, educational, and economic subjects; many clippings; and R.D. Winston's diary, 1932-1944, recording his reactions to and analysis of public events from World War I to World War II. The addition of 1987 contains letters to and items accumulated by Robert W. Winston, chiefly concerning legal and financial matters. Also included are letters related to the fundraising efforts associated with the establishment of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and six volumes, one of which is a ledger-like record of Winston's legal practice and five of which are his research notes for his biographies of Robert E. Lee, Andrew Johnson, and Jefferson Davis.

• Photographs (PF-2369/1-7)
• Oversize volume (SV-2369/1)
• Tintype (SF-P-2369/1)