These family papers were drawn together by Louis Round Wilson when he was compiling a genealogical study of his family. They contain an 1833 letter from Wilson's paternal grandfather, Jethro Starbuck Wilson, which lists the names of his children and gives information about his brothers, Joseph and William Jesse Wilson. There are notes by Louis Round Wilson about the descendants of the people mentioned in the letter. There are also manuscript autobiographical sketches of Jethro Reuben Wilson and Louisa Jane Round Wilson, Wilson's parents. Louisa Jane Wilson's sketch contains descriptions of life in Lenoir, North Carolina, during the Civil War, and an account of her father's trip across Confederate and Union lines when he went back to New York state to claim land belonging to the Round Family. Jethro Reuben Wilson's sketch describes his life as an apprentice in Lenoir, North Carolina. There is one 1836 letter from Wilbur Fisk, president of Wesleyan University, to George Hopkins Round, Wilson's maternal grandfather, and a genealogical record of the Round family of Otsego County, New York, compiled by George Hopkins Round, who had settled in Lenoir, North Carolina.

There is also correspondence about the Hoyle family of Shelby and Lincolnton, North Carolina, the McCants family of South Carolina (Mary Louisa McCants married George Hopkins Round) and the Puette family of Lenoir. There is some correspondence with members of the Puette family who had settled in Glen Flora and Wharton, Texas. There are also some letters which indicate Wilson's kinship with the Worth, Wood, Mendenhall, and Folger families of North Carolina.

These papers also contain information about the Wright family of Coharie, Sampson County, North Carolina, and the Herring family of Duplin County, North Carolina. Mrs. Louis Round Wilson was Penelope Wright and she was descended from the Herring family.

This series also contains Dr. Wilson's personal correspondence with his three brothers and one sister. There are letters from Edwin Mood Wilson, for many years headmaster of the Haverford School; Robert North Wilson, professor of chemistry at Duke University from 1910 until 1948; and George Wood Wilson, an attorney of Gastonia, North Carolina. Alice Wilson, a 1900 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught science at East Carolina's Teacher's College for twenty one years and her letters contain some references to that institution. There is some additional correspondence in this series between Wilson and the children of his brothers.

The volumes in this series include the diary of William Capers Round, Louis Round Wilson's uncle, which he kept when he was a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and during his brief service in the Civil War. There are descriptions of camp life at Camp Pickins in the diary. William Capers Round was killed in the battle of Cold Harbor on June 27, 1862.

Series 1 also includes William Capers Round's autograph book as well as a souvenir album kept by Louisa Jane Round which contains commonplace entries and autographs. There is another autograph album which belonged to Bettie Vaiden Herring Wright, the mother of Mrs. Louis Round Wilson.

Wilson's own small diary and account book for the years 1895-1900 is in this series. There are not many personal entries; the book is largely a running record of expenditures and the payments of a debt owed to his brother Edwin.

Wilson's unpublished volume, "The Jethro Reubens Wilson Family", a very complete narrative genealogical study, is also in this series.

There are a number of photographs of Wilson in this series, taken over a period of years, beginning in 1886.

The first component in this series is Wilson's personal correspondence, arranged chronologically, with friends and professional associates, especially those who were members of the faculties of the University of North Carolina and the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. There is correspondence about Wilson's decisions not to accept appointments at the University of Georgia in 1904 and the University of Texas in 1911. There are letters from Wilson to Edward Kidder Graham, written by Wilson when he was a patient at the Trudeau Sanatorium, Saranac, New York, in 1916.

In 1926 Wilson was offered the deanship of the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. He corresponded with Max Mason, president of the University of Chicago, and consulted friends in the University of North Carolina and librarians around the United States before declining the offer. In 1932 he was offered the position again, and accepted it. A few months after Wilson moved to Chicago in 1932, a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina recommended him for the position of vice president of the newly consolidated University of North Carolina, with administrative responsibilities for the campus at Chapel Hill. The position never materialized.

Wilson's correspondence for this period, 1931-1933, is extensive. Wilson corresponded with friends in the University of North Carolina and librarians around the United States before he accepted the appointment in Chicago. The letters from friends in Chapel Hill, written to Wilson when it was thought he might return to the University in 1933, are especially significant for the insight they provide into the condition of the University during the depression and the attitude of the faculty to consolidation.

There is little general correspondence for the period 1932-1942. Most of it relates to Wilson's 1935 trip to Europe to attend an international conference of librarians and the several consulting jobs he had at academic libraries during the period.

Wilson returned to Chapel Hill in 1942. The correspondence from then until his death in 1979 deals principally with personal matters, and with Wilson's many and varied interests at the University of North Carolina and in the state.

The second component in Series 2 is a subject file of personal material, including autobiographical notes, memoranda and notes for Maurice F. Tauber, Wilson's autobiographer; letters of appreciation for his various books and articles; birthday letters; and congratulatory letters when the University library was named for Wilson. Much of this material comprised Wilson's self-designated "ego file."

This section of Wilson's papers contains typed copies and reprints of Wilson's articles, reports, essays, book reviews, and speeches, arranged chronologically, under the heading "Papers." Many of these may also be found in the bound volumes of Wilson's papers in Series 6. Series 2 does not contain all of the material found in Series 6, but it does include a few items not in the bound volumes, especially short articles Wilson wrote for the Alumni Review, 1912-1924, and some book reviews he wrote for the Greensboro Daily News in the 1920's.

A third component of Series 2 is a clipping file of newspaper articles either about Wilson or written by him. They are arranged alphabetically by subject.

The correspondents in Series 2 include: William S. Bernard; Kemp D. Battle; William Warner Bishop; Eugene Cunningham Branson; Pierce Butler; Lenoir Chambers; Harry Woodburn Chase; Donald Coney; Robert Diggs Wimberly Connor; Jackson Davis; Frank Porter Graham; Edwin Greenlaw; J.G. deRouhlac Hamilton; Luther Hodges; Robert Burton House; Robert Maynard Hutchins; Gerald Johnson; Federick Keppel; Edgar Knight; August Frederick Kuhlman; William DeBerniere MacNider; Carl Milam; Edwin Mims; Howard W. Odum; M.L. Raney; Maurice F. Tauber; Maurice Van Hecke; Henry M. Wagstaff; Douglas Waples; Carl White; Edwin Mood Wilson; Robert North Wilson.

Arrangement: alphabetical by subject

These are subject files, alphabetically arranged, which contain correspondence, reports, notes, memoranda, and clippings about the University of North Carolina, 1901-1932, and 1942 to 1979. The files reflect Wilson's activities in a number of different University enterprises, especially the Alumni Association and the Alumni Review, the Extension Division, the University Press, the Development Council, the Plans and Projects Committee of the Faculty Council, the Faculty Retirement Supplementation Fund, the Sesquicentennial Celebration and subsequent study made of the needs of the University (this was essentially an effort at long-range post-war planning), the sequicentennial publications of which Wilson was general editor, and the building of Graham Memorial. There are also files on the many faculty and special University committees on which Wilson served. These files contain correspondence, notes, memoranda, and minutes of committee meetings. See alphabetical list below.

Wilson's files on the University library, the School of Library Science, and the Friends of the Library are also in Series 3.

There are a number of folders in this series labeled "University of North Carolina," which include Wilson's files on the Commission on University Consolidation, 1931-1932, of which he was a member, as well as his files on the Faculty Committee on University Government, 1945-1952. There are other folders with this heading which contain miscellaneous correspondence, memoranda, and notes about University people, buildings and events. This material was brought together by Wilson when he was working on his articles and books about the University of North Carolina.

Series 3 also contains notes, memoranda, and correspondence about Wilson's two histories of the University. The notes for The University of North Carolina, 1900-1930 are alphabetically and topically arranged. Those for The University of North Carolina Under Consolidation, 1931-1963 are arranged by chapter. There are similar files for Wilson's study The University Plans for the Future (the "needs" book) and The Selected Letters of Cornelia Phillips Spencer, which he edited. There are letters, notes, and various drafts of chapters of Wilson's book, Louis Round Wilson's Historical Sketches, filed under the original title of the book, Men and Movements.

While on the staff of the University and a resident of the town of Chapel Hill, Wilson was active in the Methodist Church. He served as chairman of the Board of Stewards for a number of years and helped in the building program of the present University Methodist Church. He helped to start the School of Religion in 1926, which was housed in the Methodist Church, and which was a forerunner of the University Department of Religion. Wilson was one of the founders of the Wesley Foundation in Chapel Hill and served on the Board of Directors for a number of years, retiring in 1965. Wilson's files on the church are located in Series 3.

The final section in Series 3 is a newspaper clippings file of material relating to the University of North Carolina which Wilson kept while he was working on The University of North Carolina Under Consolidation and Louis Round Wilson's Historical Sketches.

University Committees on which Wilson served, with inclusive dates indicating the years of Wilson's appointment to the committees:

Arrangement: alphabetical by name.

This series contains Wilson's incoming and outgoing correspondence with faculty members and professional colleagues at the University of North Carolina, librarians from all over the United States, prominent public figures and friends. The material is arranged alphabetically by name. There are some files of general correspondence, identified only by letter, which are interfiled with the name file. See list below.

This series begins in 1942, with only a few exceptions, notably the correspondence with Harry Woodburn Chase and Howard W. Odum.

It is important to note that prior to 1942 Wilson maintained very few correspondence files. All of his papers, except those mentioned above, were filed by subject. After 1942, however, much of Wilson's correspondence was filed under the name of the correspondent, regardless of the subject of the correspondence. Consequently these correspondence files contain a great deal of material that relates to both the University of North Carolina and professional librarianship.