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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 36.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 25200 items) |
| Abstract | The Manuscripts Department had its origin in the establishment of the Southern Historical Collection in 1930. A collection of mostly private manuscripts from the states of the former Confederacy, the Southern Historical Collection was assembled by Dr. J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, a white historian who became its first director. Though housed in the University Library, the Southern Historical Collection was supported through its early years by grants and donations. In the 1940s, however, it began to receive partial support from the Library, and gradually it was integrated into the Library's administrative structure. In 1958, the Library created a more comprehensive unit called the Manuscripts Department, and made the Southern Historical Collection part of it. From 1958 to 2008, the Manuscripts Department administered not only the Southern Historical Collection, but also the Southern Folklife Collection, General Manuscripts, and the University Archives and Records Service. A reorganization of the Library's Special Collections, effective 1 July 2008, eliminated the Manuscripts Department from the administrative structure. Records includes correspondence and other files relating to the establishment of the Southern Historical Collection and, later, to the development and administration of the Library's Manuscripts Department, including General Manuscripts, the Southern Folklife Collection, and University Archives and Records Service. Heads of the department who figure in these records include J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, James Welch Patton, J. Isaac Copeland, Carolyn A. Wallace, and David Moltke-Hansen. Also included is a series of audiotapes from the Southern Sources Symposium, 18-19 March 2005, held to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Southern Historical Collection. |
| Creator | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Manuscripts Dept. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
Processed by: University Archives Staff, 1983, 1986, 1992, 1999, 2005, 2006; Jennifer Coggins, June 2016; Nancy Kaiser, March 2020
Encoded by: Lynn Holdzkom, April 2005; Gergana Abernathy, June 2016
Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, October 2020
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
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Subject Headings
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.
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Related Collections
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Historical Information
The Manuscripts Department of the University Library had its origin in the establishment of the Southern Historical Collection by the university's Board of Trustees on 14 January 1930 and the appointment of Dr. J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, a white historian and Kenan Professor of History and Government, as its first director. During the early years of the collection, Hamilton traveled extensively throughout the Southeast gathering manuscript materials, frequently rescuing them from attics and barns. His mission was to save southern history from obscurity and to make its primary sources available for research in a single great collection. A charismatic man, he was the object of both sympathy and antipathy; his supporters applauded his efforts to preserve southern manuscripts, while his detractors resented the intrusion of "Ransack" Hamilton into their locales.
The Southern Historical Collection was housed in the University's Louis Round Wilson Library, completed in 1929. Its early growth was supported by private donations, chiefly an endowment provided by Sarah Graham Kenan and by grants from the Carnegie Foundation. In the early 1940s the salaries of the support staff were incorporated into the Library budget, and in 1948 the director's salary was included as well. Collecting trips and professional travel, however, continued to be supported mainly by the collection's endowment funds. Dr. Hamilton retired as director in 1948 but continued to travel and acquire materials for the collection until 1951. By that time the collection held an estimated 2,140,00 items documenting many aspects of southern history, particularly the social system of the Old South, plantations, slavery, and the Civil War.
As the collection came to function more as a unit of the Library, it was called upon to handle manuscript materials received through bequest to the university. In November 1958, as a result of this expanded responsibility, it was included in a newly created and broader administrative unit, the Manuscripts Department. The department developed three main areas of collecting: (1) private papers and institutional records relating to southern regional development (the Southern Historical Collection), (2) manuscript writings and other papers of regional, national and international literary figures (General and Literary Manuscripts), and (3) the official manuscript records of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and of the General Administration of the University of North Carolina System (University Archives). The Southern Folklife Collection was established as a fourth collecting area in 1985, its purpose being to document the South's expressive traditions, especially in music.
In 1975 the Library revised its administrative structure and placed the Manuscripts Department under the supervision of the associate librarian for public services. The structure was further refined in October 1981, when the Manuscripts Department, the North Carolina Collection, and the Rare Book Collection were placed under a new associate librarian for special collections. The Library eliminated the position of associate librarian for special collections in 2002 but re-established it in 2006.
Manuscripts Department administrators, along with their titles and tenures are listed below:
| 1930-1948 | Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1948-1967 | James Welch Patton, Chief of the Manuscripts Department and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1967-1975 | James Isaac Copeland, Chief of the Manuscripts Department and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1975-1987 | Carolyn Andrews Wallace, Curator of the Manuscripts Department and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1987-1988 | Richard A. Shrader, Acting Curator of Manuscripts and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1989-1997 | David O. Moltke Hansen, Curator of Manuscripts and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1997-1999 | David O. Moltke Hansen, Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 1999 | Timothy D. Pyatt, Curator of Manuscripts |
| 1999-2003 | Timothy D. Pyatt, Curator of Manuscripts and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
| 2003 | Roslyn P. Holdzkom, Acting Curator of Manuscripts |
| 2003- | Walter C. (Tim) West, Curator of Manuscripts and Director of the Southern Historical Collection |
For a more detailed history of the Southern Historical Collection, see J. Carlyle Sitterson's "The Southern Historical Collection, 1930-1980: The Pursuit of History," in Volume 50 of The Bookmark (Friends of the Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1981) and Gay G. Moore's "The Southern Historical Collection in the Louis Round Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina, from the Beginning of the Collection through 1948" (unpublished University of North Carolina thesis, 1958).
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Scope and Content
The records of the Manuscripts Department of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill include correspondence and other files relating to the establishment of the Southern Historical Collection and, later, to the development and administration of the Library's Manuscripts Department, including General Manuscripts, the Southern Folklife Collection, and University Archives and Records Service. Heads of the department who figure in these records include J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, James Welch Patton, J. Isaac Copeland, Carolyn A. Wallace, and David Moltke-Hansen. Also included is a series of audiotapes from the Southern Sources Symposium, 18-19 March 2005, held to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Southern Historical Collection.
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Records, 1926-2014 (bulk 1926-1996)
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Items Separated