Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 William Hayes Ackland Papers, #3547, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Bequest 1957

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, May 2021

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.

• Ackland family.
• Ackland, William Hayes, 1855-1940.
• Autographs--Collectors and collecting--United States.
• Children--Tennessee--Social life and customs.
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882.
• England--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Florida--Social life and customs.
• Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894.
• Lanier, Sidney, 1842-1881.
• London (England)--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882.
• Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891.
• Nashville (Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
• Scrapbooks.
• United States--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Upper class--England--Social life and customs--20th century.
• Upper class--United States--Social life and customs.
• Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892.

Native of Tennessee; author, art collector, and Washington, D.C., lawyer. After his death Ackland's art collection and an endowment for a museum was given to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ackland's name was originally Acklen.

Ackland travelled widely, spending part of each year in London and Florida, and moved in society in England and America. His papers, mostly dating from 1890, consist of extensive social correspondence; manuscripts of short stories, novels, and plays written by him; notebooks and scrapbooks on many subjects, especially reflecting social conditions during the Victorian age and into the early 20th century; personal diaries, 1894-1900 and 1927-1928; autograph letters and autographs of many British and American notables; reminiscences of his childhood near Nashville, Tenn., his education, and his legal practice and social life; and other items. Letters to Ackland include two, 1878 and 1879, from Henry W. Longfellow, and an eight-page letter, 1880, from Sidney Lanier about what he thought was involved in being a poet. Collected items incude single letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1847, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1884, and James Russell Lowell, 1886, and two letters from John Greenleaf Whittier.

Oversize volumes (SV-3547/64, 76)

Images (PF-3547/1-2, OP-PF-3547/1)

Oversize papers (OPF-3547/1b, XOPF-3547/1)